Quiet Creek Seeking Future Stewards A Northwestern Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization is seeking a couple to steward its farm school. Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living is dedicated to increasing the public awareness of conservation, ecological thinking and healthful sustainable living. Come and wander through our lush gardens of organic vegetables, herbs, fruits, and edible flowers. Explore our 30 acres of nature trails, red wiggler worm composting system, wind/solar energy system, geothermal & biomass heating, geothermal cooling, stained glass mosaics, spring-fed 1/2 acre pond, solar-powered gravitiy-fed irrigation system, yurt, stream, earthen oven, straw bale house, pavilion, and benches. We feature our own herbal teas, soaps, salves and mushrooms. We also carry whole foods, local art, essential oils, and literature to enhance healthy living. We provide education-based experiences to schools, churches, organizations and friend/family groups. We offer a wide variety of classes and intensive seminars for students of all ages and levels. Background Current stewards, Claire and Rusty Orner, will transition the farm school to the next generation in 2020-21. At that time the Orner Team will share their love of sustainable living to communities in developing countries. Up until that transition, the Orners will mentor the future stewards on site by offering their expertise in the existing learning community model which is based upon collaboration, support ownership and inquiry. Areas of mentoring will include sustainable living, curriculum development, Land & Liturgy, renewable energy, zero waste, organizational design, grant writing, nonprofit bookkeeping, farm maintenance, audience database building, value-added production, marketing structure, and more. The operating budget of the farm school is $100,000. Scope of Work Quiet Creek is looking for a hard-working, creative couple (partners) with skills in sustainable farming, education, artisan folk work, and/or business management to submit a proposal on how the new stewards will integrate their knowledge and skills and/or enrich the farm school model with new and exciting sustainable ideas and techniques (i.e. create a farm to table restaurant, growing food for CSA/restaurants/markets, offer pottery classes, developing coffee roasting, and more, while knowing “the sky is the limit.” This includes:
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