Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

In Asthall Manor Kitchen Garden we are growing healthy, wildlife-friendly and people-friendly food using Organic methods and Permaculture principles. We grow a wide variety of salad leaves, annual and perennial vegetables and a variety of soft fruit and top fruits for a fledgling but growing mini-box scheme (Crop Share), for the occasional Potting Shed Café, for local chefs and for the Manor kitchen. We do this while encouraging community engagement with the site and promoting biodiversity by providing as much wild habitat as possible - such as ponds, log piles, flowering weeds, seed heads and uncut margins for beneficial creatures to feed, hunt, sleep, bask, breed and hibernate in.

The summer traineeship is a chance to develop your food-growing, people and organisational skills while learning all about the wildlife that support our crops, bring balance to a healthy soil and create a thriving local ecosystem.

The traineeship will suit someone looking to develop their skills as a market gardener in a community setting, working with and helping volunteers to engage with varied food production tasks and other members of the community to engage with the site more generally. You will learn the skills required to manage the food production at Asthall Manor, to integrate that with the needs of volunteers and take on responsibilities for propagating, maintaining and harvesting crops over the growing season.

Details of the role

• This is a voluntary unpaid role (but see below).
• Minimum age for applications: 18 years old.
• Time commitment: 30 hours per week with flex, to be arranged and agreed on a rolling basis.
• Some weekend commitments as part of the flexible days, to support weekend workshops.
• Dates: 16 weeks, May – September 2026 with some flex over start date.
• Based in the Kitchen Garden.

Supported by

• Free accommodation in the Manor house (vegetarian household).
• £75 per week stipend.
• £100 of store cupboard dry goods / essentials bought at beginning of season.
• A weekly Crop Share from the Kitchen Garden.
• Weekly horticultural learning check-ins with the Lead Grower.
• Free place on some kitchen garden workshops.
• Lunch with Lead and / or Assistant Grower Fiona and volunteers on volunteer days.
• Next steps career guidance, contacts and signposting, subject to completing the Traineeship Curriculum to a satisfactory level.

To apply: Please send a CV or a description of your employment (and volunteering) history and a covering letter detailing your reasons for applying and what qualities you will bring to the team, to asthallmanorkitchengarden@gmail.com.

For any questions or more information about this role, please contact Tim at the email address above.

Deadline for applications: 8am Monday 9th March 2026.

Interviews (via Zoom): Week commencing 16th March 2026.

Main objectives of the traineeship

• To learn about and assist with all aspects of propagation for glasshouse, polytunnels and outdoor beds.
• To learn about and assist with all aspects of maintaining the vegetable growing and surrounding areas within the kitchen garden.
• To assist with harvesting and preparing produce for the Crop Share and other outlets.
• To support the above practical learning with successful completion of weekly 1.5hr tutorials, using our adapted Landworkers Alliance Traineeship Curriculum as a structure, along with Tim’s teaching resources.
• To provide support for volunteers and other visitors on site.

Main Activities Growing

• Preparing propagation media.
• Raising plants from seed.
• Irrigation.
• Planting and maintaining covered crops, field vegetables, salad leaves, green manures and companion plants.
• Organic weed, pest and disease management.
• Managing perennial vegetables, soft fruit bushes and tree crops.

Harvesting

• Cutting/picking produce to the agreed methods and quantities, ensuring quality control.
• Weighing, packaging, sealing, labelling and organising dispatch of produce.

Working with volunteers

• Work to ensure all volunteers on site are safe, welcomed, valued and supported.
• Work to ensure all other visitors on site are safe, welcomed, valued and supported.
• Lead tasks with volunteers.

Weekend work

• Be available to be on-site two weekends per month for minimal caretaking duties (opening / closing tunnels, watering) and / or to support growers during workshops and open days, during the traineeship.
• Dates for the above will be agreed at the beginning of the traineeship, as far as possible.

Person Specification Essential

• Interest in sustainable food production and the desire to put that interest into practice.
• Enthusiasm and willingness to learn as part of a practical, hard-working team.
• Some experience of growing food.
• Ability to supervise and explain tasks to other volunteers.
• Ability to carry out practical work outdoors in all weather.
• Ability to carry out shared tasks and work within a team.
• Ability to work on own initiative, self-manage, work alone on occasions, prioritise tasks and work to deadlines.
• Commitment to dedicating an additional estimated 1 day per week (or equivalent) for self-led research, reading and note-taking, to make the most of the weekly tutorials and Trainee Curriculum.
• Commitment to and understanding of the Aims of Asthall Wild CIC
• Compassion for the diverse needs of people, other animals and plants.

Desirable

• Level 1 or Level 2 Organic food growing qualification.
• Experience of working with volunteers in Organic food production.
• Good weed identification skills.
• An ability to use social media platforms and administrative software

We welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and we would especially encourage local applicants.

And you don’t have to come alone……. If you have a partner or friend you are prepared to share a double or twin bedroom with, and who:

1. Would also like to do the traineeship or

2. Has maintenance, administrative, cooking, events management or any other skills that would be useful at this busy Manor house with lots going on, and would like some paid work, during the traineeship period…

…then we would like to hear from you about this. Please add their bio and CV to your application.

Application information

For further detail and application process see here: https://www.asthallmanor.com/summer-2025-kitchen-garden-trainee-volunteer-role/

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs