The apprentice opportunity

These 6 different posts offer opportunities to build basic and technical skills linked to organic food production for enterprise, community development through urban agriculture, volunteer programme coordination and permaculture tuition with design implementation.

We are seeking volunteer apprentices that want to develop their skills so they can make their living through community food growing and urban agriculture. Through this innovative and development volunteer training opportunity you will gain specific skills, experience and confidence growing food for urban markets and supporting communities to grow food.

We are asking for commitment and dedication. Your fellow travellers will be the team of growers, organisers and mechanics at the Hawkwood site; and the gardeners, grocers, community workers and citizens who form the ‘Organiclea family’.

The opportunities are based in two Organiclea projects:

* At the Hawkwood food growing and training site (4 posts)
* With our community-based outreach gardening team ‘Common Sense Growers’ (2 posts)

Brief role descriptions

Summary of opportunities at Hawkwood (4 posts) and with Common Sense Growers (2 posts)
(Detailed role descriptions and person specification below)
There will be monthly learning tutorials for all apprentices on the first Thursday evening of every month starting on Thursday 3 May.

*** At the Hawkwood growing site – 4 posts ***
Based Northeast London, Hawkwood Crescent, Chingford. E4 7UH

4 apprentices who will assist and learn about all aspects of market garden food production and propagation of food plants in the glasshouses, provide support to the vibrant volunteer programme, be a core part of the Hawkwood worker team – with specific skills development around:

POST 1 (Hawkwood) Apprentice Grower – Food plants and production: This apprentice post will suit someone looking to develop their skills as a market gardener in a community setting, or a community gardener producing for a market. You will gain in depth knowledge of growing food at livelihood scale and core food plants and production skills. [Core hours: The post is 1 day per week in April/ May: Tuesday from 9.00am – 6.00pm; 1½ days per week June – Sept: Wednesday from 9.00am – 6.00 pm; plus 4 hours on a Tuesday (morning or afternoon, tbc)]
download full role description post 1

POST 2 (Hawkwood) Apprentice Grower – Fruit Production: This apprentice post will suit someone looking to develop skills in the organic growing of a range of soft and top fruit, including rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, apples, pears, pears, plums, and cherries, as well as “less usual” fruit crops. These are valuable crops in the community market garden and you will gain knowledge in the sustainable production of top and soft fruit in a community market garden environment. [Core hours: The post is 1 day per week: Friday from 9.00am – 6.00pm]

download full role description post 2

POST 3 (Hawkwood) Apprentice Grower – Volunteer support and community inclusion: This apprentice post will suit someone who is keen to develop skills in supporting volunteers with additional needs to carry out a wide range of horticultural tasks at our growing site in Chingford. You will gain experience of working with adults with learning disabilities, skills in many aspects of volunteer coordination and overall volunteer support. [Core hours: The post is initially for 1 day a week (Tuesdays) until week beginning 16 April 2012, where the post will increase to 1.5 days a week (Tuesdays 9am - 6pm and Friday mornings 9am -1pm - tbc). From June 2012, the full Tuesday working day will move to Wednesdays.]

download full role description post 3

POST 4 (Hawkwood) Apprentice permaculturalist – Training and project development: This apprentice post will suit someone looking to develop their skills as a permaculture course development worker and tutor. The skills it will provide include permaculture course development and tuition guidance; support, administration and participation in specialist land-based skills training; low impact building and urban food production. [Core hours: Friday from 9.00am – 6.00pm, The days of work will change in Sept and October in order to take part in the PDC course.]

download full role description post 4

*** With Common Sense Growers – 2 posts ***
Based at community sites in and around Waltham Forest

2 POSTS: Apprentice outreach gardens development worker
(with Organiclea’s Common Sense Growers project):

Common Sense Growers is an Organiclea initiative to develop food growing outreach projects and community gardening spaces in and around Waltham Forest, in partnership with community organisations such as children centres, housing associations, sheltered accommodation providers or a youth offending unit.

These posts will be an opportunity to develop project planning and practical horticultural skills as well as to gain experience of leading gardening workshops and working with hard-to-reach communities.

The core hours are variable and will be agreed at the start of the scheme, but not more than one day a week. There will be opportunity to start this training at the beginning of March – to be discussed during the selection process.

download full role description for post with Common Sense Growers

How to apply

Read the full role and project descriptions available on this page.

Closing date for applications: Thursday 23 February, 12 midday
Selection day with meeting and questions opportunity: Thursday 1 March
Starting the week beginning 26 March

To apply we invite you to send us:
a) A covering letter sharing why you are interested in this opportunity, how you fit the general requirements of the role(s) interested in (you can apply for more than one), and how it fits in with your future hopes.
b) A CV or list of recent relevant work and training experiences.

Applicants will be short-listed according to how well they meet the criteria in the person specifications (see website for this) and demonstrate commitment to putting interest in sustainable urban food production with people, into working practice.

If you have questions the first contact is Sophie Griffiths at the Hawkwood growing site on 020 8524 4994 – or email sophie@organiclea.org.uk

Applications should be sent to sophie@organiclea.org.uk OR posted to:
Sophie Griffiths
Organiclea – Hawkwood plant nursery
115 Hawkwood Crescent, London E4 7UH

For all the Organiclea apprenticeship posts we are particularly looking for enthusiastic people keen to put their interest in sustainable urban food production into practice, with some experience of growing, a willingness to work mainly outdoors throughout the year and the ability to supervise volunteers and enthuse those involved. The permaculturalist will suit someone keen to implement and teach permaculture and develop training administration and promotion skills.

Organiclea is a workers’ co-operative based in Waltham Forest. We grow food and food plants at the Hawkwood Community Plant Nursery, Chingford; we sell food, mainly through our market stall and vegebox scheme, which operate from the Hornbeam Centre, Walthamstow; and we support others to grow food, through training, information, events and Common Sense Growers, our gardening outreach and support Project.

Thank you for your interest in our work and vision!

Start your growing season in the best way with an order for good quality stock – a range of vegetable and herb seeds, seed potatoes, compost for sowing seeds and a green manure to help improve your soil and attract bees.  See the full range on offer below or download the order form here.
You can place your order between 3rd and 16th February at the Hornbeam stall or café, or the Leytonstone stall.  Please pay cash or cheque with your order – we’re sorry but we can’t take email or telephone orders. Download and print the order form or pick up a paper copy at the café and stalls.

Orders will be available for collection at the Hornbeam stall or café from Saturday 25 February, and at the Leytonstone stall on Saturday 25 February or Saturday 3 March. Box scheme customers can have their order included with their fruit and veg pickup.

Hornbeam café and Saturday market stall: 458 Hoe St, Walthamstow E17 9AH (near the Bakers Arms junction). Café open Wednesday to Saturday 10.30am-5pm. Stall on Saturday 10am-3pm.
Leytonstone market stall: St John’s Church, Church Lane, Leytonstone (between the church and Matalan, just off the High Road) Saturday 11am-3pm.

Basil (600 seeds), Sweet basil – culinary basil with fine flavour, £1.10
Bean – Climbing French (60 seeds), Neckarqueen – tasty stringless pods, on vigorous plants which can tolerate variable weather conditions, £1.50
Bean – Broad (35 seeds) , Hangdown Green – long pods with good performance and taste, £1.95
Beetroot (300 seeds), Detroit Globe –fine texture and flavour, £1.10
Chard (200 seeds), Rainbow – lovely mixture of coloured stems and leaves for salads or cooking, £1.30
Chilli pepper (30 seeds), Ring of Fire – the hot one! Matures from green to red, lots of fruits, £1.30
Coriander (500 seeds), Coriander filtro – slow bolting variety with great tasting leaves, £1.30
Courgette (15 seeds), Nero di Milano – dark green quality fruits, £1.10
Cucumber (20 seeds), Marketmore – dark green and prolific, can be grown outdoors and resistant to virus and diseases, £1.10
Florence fennel (150 seeds), Fino  – thick tasty round bulbs, resistant to bolting, £1.30
Flowers (herbal, insect friendly!), Calendula – pot marigold, a bee’s favourite £1.10
Chamomile – for tea and skin/hair rinse, £1.10
Green manure  75g, Phacelia – dense foliage to dig in just before flowering or leave some to flower for the bees, £1.95
Salad greens (400 seeds), Oriental mix – range of oriental varieties and rocket, ‘cut and come again’ for salads or stir-frying, £1.50
Seed potatoes
Pentland Javelin – first early -  3kg £5.50
Red Duke of York – first early – 1.5kg £4.40
Casablanca -  first early – 1.5kg £4.40
Charlotte  – second early – 3kg £5.50
Maris Peer – second early – 3 kg £5.50
Ambo  – maincrop – 1.5kg £4.40
Remarka – maincrop – 3kg £5.50
Desiree – maincrop – 3kg, £5.50
NB we may have to make substitutions subject to availability
Squash (10 seeds), Red Kuri – easy to grow, bright orange nutty flavour £1.30
Butternut – large fruits , dense flesh, stores well £1.30
Jack o Lantern – classic Hallowe’en variety, £1.30
Tomato (25 seeds), Gardener’s Delight – most popular small tomato! £1.10
Marmande – large, irregular fruits, late to mature but the taste is well worth waiting for, £1.10
Seed/cuttings compost, Growing medium for your seed sowing or cuttings, fine texture with good drainage and aeration. 20 litre bag , £5.00

Looking ahead: plant sales and free training
We will again be producing plants at Hawkwood nursery for sale to community growing groups, allotment holders and individual growers from April – and we are plotting some free training workshops run by our growers to accompany plant sale events at Hawkwood on every Sunday from 29 April to 27 May 2012. Encouragement for those with new locally-grown seedlings to get the most out the growing season ahead! Look out for more information in the early Spring.

We are excited to announce the extension of the new share offer providing the opportunity to invest in small-scale renewable energy – the offer is still open until 31 January.  £22,000 has already been invested but there is still time to join in this initiative if you wish to. Download the share offer document here.

The share offer is from GREEN (Growing Resilient Energy Efficient Neighbourhoods), the new cooperative society which Organiclea has helped set up (along with other local partner organisations (HEET home energy efficiency project, the Hornbeam and Forest Recycling Project) as a community fund for investing in projects which address social and environmental justice issues in East London. This offer relates to GREEN’s first project which is the installation of solar panels at Organiclea’s Hawkwood Plant Nursery.

The share offer document contains an invitation to people in East London and beyond to invest in the withdrawable share capital of GREEN. We are seeking to raise approximately £30,000 to invest in a community-owned renewable energy project in northeast London. This project will benefit from the UK Government’s feed-in tariff for solar photovoltaic installations and will provide a financial and social return on the investment.

All prospective investors should read the whole of the share offer document and should be aware of any risks they are taking in making an investment. They should also refer to the rules of the GREEN co-operative, which are available here.

Further information about community investment is available at www.communityshares.org.uk.

If you still have any questions after reading these documents, then please email Nicole on nicole[at]organiclea.org.uk

**Please note the new closing date of 31 January 2012 **

Background
Organiclea took over the lease of the 12 acre Hawkwood site in Northeast London in January 2010 to develop a community-based organic market garden and learning centre. One of our visions for the site – alongside the rows of sweetcorn and the buzz of many people working on the land – has been to have an array of solar panels on the big flat roof of the warehouse. If we could provide our own renewable energy source we would increase the environmental and economic sustainability of our community food growing work.

Thanks to the current feed-in tariff for solar power this vision could now become a reality – and one that you can play a part in if you wish to! We have linked up with local partner organisations (HEET home energy efficiency project, the Hornbeam and Forest Recycling Project) to launch a community fund for investing in small-scale renewable energy, with solar panels on the Chingford warehouse roof as its first project.

The government has just lost its appeal to bring forward the cut-off date for reducing the feed-in tariff, so this project (installed by 3rd March) will benefit from the full tariff rate and is an exciting community investment opportunity and a viable financial proposition. The way it works is that your money is an investment with a modest financial return, not a gift or donation, and you will be a shareholder and part-owner in the projects, giving you the opportunity to participate in democratic decision-making about how the money is spent.

Application deadline: Tuesday 10 January

Download full job description and application details here

Organiclea’s Common Sense Growers (CSG) outreach project exists to bring the benefits of local food growing projects to diverse and marginalised communities across Northeast London. We achieve this through working in partnership with a range of public and community sector organisations; offering a comprehensive service of training, project support and community garden creation. Past and current partners include social housing providers, the mental health sector, schools and children centres, homeless charities and sheltered accommodation providers.

Project income is a mix of grant funding and contract fees. After growing steadily over the last few years, our project is now at a key stage in its development and we are seeking to recruit someone to lead on the enterprise development aspect of our work at this crucial time. We are looking for a strategically minded community sector worker who, in addition to delivering small-scale food growing projects, will expand our outreach enterprise and increase its financial sustainability; establishing sound business practices and developing new partnerships. You will be joining a project team of 2 other food growing outreach workers, one with additional responsibility for skill development, training & volunteering, the other a trained garden design & support sessional worker.

We need someone who is committed to turning a small outreach enterprise into a working, financially viable model and who is passionate about the empowering role that food growing contributes to community life and resilience. Your fellow workers will be the growers, organisers, mechanics and citizens who form the workers’ cooperative and the ‘Organiclea family’.

Initially 14 hours/2 days per week based on £20,930 pro rata + variable hours sessional work.
The post holder will be actively involved in developing increased work opportunities. We are committed to making this a fixed 3 days/week post and will be working hard as a team to achieve this.
We are recruiting for a one year post. Extension is dependent on project financing and income generated.
Location: Office base at Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 9AH + onsite work in Waltham Forest and neighbouring boroughs.
Responsible to: Organiclea workers’ cooperative
Each appointment is subject to a 3 month probation period

To apply:

Please send us a letter of application outlining why you are interested in this post and how your experience meets the requirements of this post – see full job description here. Please relate this to each of the points set out in the person specification. Please also include a cv or a basic work experience history.

Please also let us know how you found out about this post and include the names of two referees which we will follow up if offered the post.

Recruitment timetable:
Closing date Tuesday 10 January by 5pm
Interviews at the Hornbeam Centre, Walthamstow: Wednesday 25 January
Start date: as soon as possible after appointment

You can email your application to:
anaelle[at]organiclea.org.uk  (replace [at] with @)

Or post/deliver to:
Anaelle Bouabdelli
Organiclea Community Growers
Hornbeam Centre
458 Hoe Street
London E17 9AH

(Unfortunately we cannot commit to contacting all applicants personally who have applied for a post. If you do not hear from us, please assume that you have not been short-listed.)

For additional information about the opportunity contact Anaelle at the Hornbeam centre office on 020 8558 6880.

Vouchers

…for the most local of vegetables in East London.

The best way to find out how great our box scheme and stall is – eat the produce!  Treat your neighbours and family to a unique fruit and veg experience: a voucher to redeem for a month on our midweek box or to spend on our stalls in Leytonstone and Baker’s Arms.

Solar Future

Let your gift support renewable energy and the long-term development of local food and other community projects… invest in a new opportunity to generate electricity through solar panels at Organiclea’s Hawkwood growing site.  A great combined family gift. Contact Nicole on nicole@organiclea.org.uk to find out more.

Adopt a Tree

Gift a tree to be part of the new orchard at the Hawkwood growing site. £20 pays for the planting and aftercare of one fruit or nut tree, helping to preserve traditional varieties and ensure access to local seasonal fruit for generations to come. The gift includes a planting certificate and invitation to a seasonal fruit celebration in the young tree’s early years! Contact the Hawkwood site on 020 8524 4994, email plants@organiclea.org.uk or see

From the Hornbeam Cafe

Main meals and attractive gifts of prepared food made by our Hornbeam Chefs… a range

of tasty treats and gifts, handmade to order and packed with organic and fairly-traded ingredients:

Nut Roast (serves 6-8) £15

Rum Truffles 6 for £6.50, or 12 for £12

Mince Pies 6 for £4.50

Last orders taken on Friday 16^th December, to pick up from the cafe during opening hours until Friday 23rd December. Email café@hornbeam.org.uk or pop into the café to place your order (Wednesday to Saturday 10.30am-5pm).

Vegetable and Fruit Production Worker

Download the full job description, person specification and application information here

Organiclea took over the lease of the 12 acre Hawkwood site in Northeast London in January 2010. With the support of a Big Lottery Food Fund grant we have been developing a community-based organic market garden which includes a core volunteering programme. Produce is distributed through our own box-scheme and market stalls and to several catering outlets in North London. Five part-time workers are based at the site, supported by around 30 volunteers each week.

With one year of the grant left, we are working to achieve project sustainability to support work at the site. We are seeking to recruit a new member of the five-person team. We are looking for a skilled food grower whose main task is to play a key role in vegetable production in the market garden (working with our main grower), and lead volunteers in horticultural activity. They will have additional responsibility for coordinating the fruit growing elements of the site’s design.

We need a passionate food grower to help us to shape the development of a cooperative, community-based, sustainable alternative to the current destructive food system. This is a unique, vital and urgent journey that will demand commitment and dedication. Your fellow travellers will be the team of growers, organisers and mechanics at the Hawkwood site; and the gardeners, grocers, community workers and citizens who form the ‘Organiclea family’.

Applicants must be able to clearly demonstrate organisational skills, volunteer supervision experience, horticulture experience and a commitment to the empowering role that food growing contributes to community life and resilience.

21 hours/3 days per week at £11.50 an hour, [currently Tues, Thurs and Fri], with occasional week-ends; plus additional unpaid coop responsibilities. [Site days are under review and may change by April 2012.]
We are recruiting for a one year post. Extension is dependent on project financing and income generated. We are working hard to achieve this.

Location: Hawkwood Community Plant Nursery, Chingford, London E4 7UH

To apply, please send us a letter of application outlining why you are interested in this post and how your experience meets the requirements of this post. Please relate this to each of the points set out in the person specification – available to download here.

Please also let us know how you found out about this post and include the names of two referees which we will follow up if offered the post.

You can email this to clare@organiclea.org.uk

Or post/deliver to:

Clare Joy
Organiclea Community Growers
Hawkwood Plant Nursery
115 Hawkwood Crescent
London E4 7UH

Closing date Thursday 24 November by midday
Interviews at the Hawkwood site: Friday 2 December
Handover week with departing member of team: 3 days, 14-16 December
Official start date Tuesday 31st January 2012

(Unfortunately we cannot commit to contacting all applicants personally who have applied for a post. If you do not hear from us, please assume that you have not been short-listed.)

For additional information about the opportunity contact Clare at the Hawkwood site on 020 8524 4994.

Please being food to share to add to our foraged lunch.

Fee: £60/£40 / £20 (includes materials). Ssee our course fee guide for details of how concessions apply.

Book your place now on our registration page!

Click here for directions to the Hawkwood community plant nursery where the course takes place.

Please bring a packed lunch.

Course fee: £60/ £40 / £20 [+small transportation cost]
(see our course fee guide for details of how concessions apply).

Book your place now on our registration page!

Click here for directions to the Hawkwood community plant nursery where the course takes place.