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

Are you passionate about regenerative food production and co-operative working? Do you have at least one year's experience working on a commercial food growing site? Want to come work for us? We have an exciting new post in the food growing team…

Overview of Terms

• Hours: 4 days (32 hours) per week
• Work days: Flexible and negotiable, some seasonal variation. Currently, Wednesday mornings for team meetings and Thursdays for core harvest are essential. Some flexibility required for other strategic meetings and weekend working
• Duration: Ongoing subject to income generation/ funding
• Location: Lauriston Farm
• Remuneration: £24,926 (£31,158 FTE). Statutory pension contribution and holiday allowance - 27 days pro rata (34 days FTE)
• Start date: Flexible, from January 2025 but no later than 1st March 2025
• Closing date for applications: Sunday 3rd November
• Interviews: Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st November
• Website: https://www.lauristonfarm.scot/news/we-are-recruiting-food-grower-wanted/

About Edinburgh Agroecology Cooperative

Edinburgh Agroecology Co-operative (EAC) is a Community Interest Company (CIC) run as a worker’s cooperative to manage Lauriston Farm.

There are currently 10 core staff members (working to 6.9 FTE). Between us we have expertise in food growing and farming, urban biodiversity and landscape ecology, woodland conservation, horticulture, food processing, community development and engagement, seed saving and project management.

EAC is a dynamic and vibrant organisation working at the exciting intersection of food, community and biodiversity. Our work is led by sociocratic practices and principles, and built on a model of collaborative, non-hierarchical ways of working. We are working to reimagine what this land can be and achieve for the communities that surround and inhabit it, and so are looking for someone to join our Food Production team to help scale up our food production and realise our vision for an abundant, resilient farm ecosystem.

About Lauriston Farm

Located in North-West Edinburgh between Lauriston Castle and the Cramond seashore, Lauriston Farm is a 100 acre farm run by a workers’ cooperative that is focused on growing food, biodiversity, and community.

Our vision is for a large-scale urban food growing project that is nature-rich, for the benefit of the communities that live in the local area, and also the wider city. We aim to address some of the issues around lack of access to local, affordable fresh produce, environmental degradation and lack of opportunities for people in cities to gain experience in food growing (and an understanding of the wider food system).

This project offers a unique opportunity to benefit the land, the people and the wider environment in the area, and to become a model that can be replicated elsewhere. The farm has the potential to deliver access to affordable locally grown food, increased biodiversity and enrichment of local wildlife habitats, improved soil health and stability, training and education around food growing and biodiversity, and enhanced community cohesion through celebrations, activities and events.

Job Description

Joining the current team of three growers, you will work to expand our Market Garden production and help develop our field-scale production. The role will involve working closely together running the Market Garden. Together, we make day-to-day decisions about food production as well as longer-term strategic ones, with the goals of increasing the amount, diversity and quality of food we produce on site, whilst creating beautifully abundant and biodiverse habitats for all beings across the farm.

Of the farm’s 100 acres we have around 6 acres for market garden production and 11 acres in alley cropping, with another 15 acres for future field-scale development. We are in our third year of growing on the land and second year of running a CSA membership, which currently has 87 (fortnightly) members and we run a weekly on-farm market. We aim to continue developing our systems and practices to ensure we can nourish even more of our community directly over time.

We have also been developing an alley cropping system and have started grain trials in collaboration with a local bakery. We would particularly welcome a new team member with experience in field scale, agroforestry, wholesale production and sales to help us grow into the new field.

The market garden is one part of the work done by EAC at Lauriston Farm. It sits within a wider working group that has been delegated responsibility for food production. The role will include participation in team operational meetings, working group meetings, strategic meetings and peer reviews. Your contribution to other working groups is also welcomed according to your interests and experience.

There will be an option to become a member of the EAC workers’ cooperative after an initial probationary period, with the right to be involved in decision making about the whole Lauriston Farm project. The position will be subject to an 8 week probationary period.

We are committed to our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy and we welcome and encourage applications from anyone interested in this role who feels they have the relevant experience and skills. We would like to particularly encourage those from under-represented and marginalised groups to consider applying for this role.

Specific responsibilities of the role will be (alongside the Market Garden team):

• Preparing ground for planting
• Planting, maintenance and monitoring of crops
• Managing pest and disease
• Propagation from seed, cuttings or division
• Harvesting, cleaning and packing
• Operating machinery (where required and if trained/certified to do so)
• Putting up infrastructure on site e.g. polytunnels
• Maintaining records, plans and schedules for sowing, planting and harvesting in pursuit of optimum productivity
• Help in developing income streams to support resilient operations, including CSA community, wholesale, market etc.
• Organising and coordinating activities for volunteers
• Managing the market garden and alleys using regenerative methods in line with organic certification standards and agroecological principles
• Farm in accordance with the wider principles of EAC and vision of Lauriston Farm

Potential Additional Roles:

• Managing weekly market stall
• Delivering produce
• As a member of the workers cooperative, participation in meetings and engaging with work across the wider farm as agreed

 

Person Specification

This is an exciting role that will play an instrumental part in scaling up the food production at Lauriston Farm. The appropriate candidate will have the following skills and experiences:

Essential:

• A passion for regenerative food production, and a desire to pursue a living in it
• Commitment to working within a co-operative, non-hierarchical team
• At least one year working on a commercial food growing site
• Experience of crop planning
• Happy to work mainly outdoors throughout the year
• Happy to work closely with the market garden team, wider EAC team and volunteers
• Ability to work on own initiative, prioritise tasks and work to deadlines
• Ability to maintain accurate records on planting, harvesting and expenditure
• Ability to adapt, problem solve and innovate in response to challenges
• Natural collaborator and good communicator
• Commitment to and understanding of the aims and principles of Edinburgh Agroecology Co-operative and Lauriston Farm

Desirable:

• Field-scale cropping experience (rotation planning, management etc.)
• Wholesale production planning, sales and distribution
• Knowledge or desire to learn about trees and agroforestry system management
• Knowledge or desire to learn about integrating livestock with agroforestry systems and market gardens
• Experience using horticultural machinery
• Experience supervising volunteers in a food growing or horticultural setting
• Valid driving licence

Application information

Please send (max) 1.5 page written response or (max) five minutes audio / video answering the following questions:

• What skills and experiences do you think qualify you for this role? (½ page)
• Which part of this role do you think you would find the most challenging? (½ page)
• Can you give us an example of your experience of job satisfaction in a previous role?  (½ page)

Please also attach a short CV (max two pages), this can be written, or an audio or video file, and the contact details of two people we can approach for references.

Please send your application to marketgarden@lauristonfarm.org with “New Grower” in the subject heading.   Equity and Representation - Recruitment Monitoring Form

When applying, please also click here to complete our online monitoring form

The information you provide will be kept completely separate from the recruitment process, but will enable us to review our recruitment and monitor whether we are meeting our commitments to improve equity and representation in our organisation.

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Questions and Requests

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss any aspect of this role in advance of applying please contact marketgarden@lauristonfarm.org and we will try our best to respond. Please email well in advance of the closing date.

Interviews will be held in-person on the farm, unless other arrangements need to be made. 

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