Here at Maui Bees Farm, we are looking for an experienced farmer to come live and work with us on our beautiful Kula farm.
More about us:
We are a diversified, organic 4-acre farm that produces fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey, and a wide variety of value-added food products such as homemade herbal remedies, Jun, raw ferments, and bakery items made here in our commercial kitchen and available for sale on our farm stand located in upcountry Kula, Maui, Hawaii. This is a woman owned small business focused on regenerative agriculture. Collaborating with us will expose you to facets of a small farm operations. A typical day may include grounds work, garden work, honey harvesting, extracting and jarring honey, dishwashing, tending to animals like milking our goats and brushing our cow, and even apiary work.
Our operation has sweeping bi-coastal views from the farm so whenever you are working, you can always look up and be amazed about where you are in the world. This is paradise, temperatures in the high '70's or low '80 during the day and dipping to around '60-ish at night and a little colder in the winter, but pretty much all year round. We currently grow vegetables such as kale, chard, lettuce, beets, kalo, eggplant, ginger, turmeric, carrots, radishes, edible and medicinal herbs, flowers, citrus, bananas, apples, lychee, guava, liliko'i, avocados, sugarcane, papayas, and figs. Chickens are mob-grazed for pasture-raised eggs, and we also host a stunning and playful cow named Ruby and her best friend Roxy (a goat), our milking goats, and bees for honey. Beyond our estate bees, we have 100 bee hives located throughout the pristine forested areas of Maui in order to preserve the pure integrity of our honey.
Work trade farmers on our farm have many opportunities to learn about caring for chickens, vegetable gardening, orchard work, beekeeping, compost making, milking goats, and harvesting fruit. There's also a lot of "grub" work, such as weeding garden beds and under trees and along fence lines and spreading mulch to protect the soil. There is so much hands-on learning to be had on our small farm for people that are really willing to put in the effort. We need people who are physically fit as preparing garden beds, moving feed, hefting banana racks and lifting 40 to 60 pound bee honey supers. This is hard work. Other jobs will include weed-eating, mowing, clearing weeds or manure from the pasture, weeding under trees and putting compost under trees and other general maintenance jobs around the farm. Work trade farmers also have the opportunity to learn all about value added item production, such as our ferments (Jun, sauerkraut, mustards, hot sauces, medicinal salves, etc.).
No drugs, cigarettes or alcohol allowed. Folks have said our living spaces are the nicest they have been in. Because we eat hot prepared lunches together during the work week, are not able to host vegetarians/vegans, or folks with dietary restrictions and due to our accommodations. We are also are not able to accommodate people with children and/or pets at this time. We are not writing this to scare people away from our farm but simply to find those people who have a real desire to practice smaller garden farming in their day-to-day. Shared kitchens and bathrooms are available to choose from. We have internet and lots of wonderful fresh organic food including our pastured eggs, local meat, heaps of veggies, fruit, and honey! We are interested in farmers who want to live a healthy lifestyle and eat healthy food.
We are located on the Maui Bus route, a short three minute walk from the farm, or a 20-minute drive from the ocean as we are at 2,500 ft elevation. We are also very close to the road up to Haleakala crater if you enjoy hiking and camping.
If this sounds like a good fit, please respond with some information about yourself, a resume, and references. We look forward to hearing from you!
With Aloha,
Leah & The Maui Bees Team
www.mauibees.com