Olivia's Orchard
Parnell, IA
Mentor Farm
Agroforestry Systems:
Forest Farming
Farm Information
Olivia’s Orchard is a 40 acre farm in Southeast Iowa, 30 minutes West of Iowa City. The farm has 12 acres of chestnut trees planted between 2015 and 2024, along with 4 acres interplanted with pawpaw trees planted between 2015 and 2021.
There are also many other types of fruit and nut trees scattered among these plantings like persimmon, northern pecan, Asian pear, butternut and more. The rest of the farm is oak/hickory savannah and timber and some pasture and hay areas for a small herd of Dexter x beef cattle. Olivia’s Orchard also runs a 1000+ fruit and nut tree nursery focusing largely on chestnut and pawpaw trees but with many other types of trees as well.
Olivia’s Orchard is focused on food production and profitability as well as farmer education. It strives to be the working example of medium-scale production agroforestry. Small amounts of herbicide and pesticide are used on this farm for tree establishment. No routine vaccines or antibiotics are administered to the cattle but medicine is used to treat active infection. The cattle are moved almost daily through the savannah, timber and pasture using “sticks and string”- temporary single strand fencing. Other farm projects include invasive species management in the timbers, grafting and graft management on all types of fruit and nut trees, seed collection and storage for nursery use, hazelnut variety trial, fence removal and repair, miscellaneous small building projects, educational videos and the like.
About the Mentor
The farm is a one-woman (plus a toddler) operation. Elana Gingerich, the farm owner and operator, grew up on a conventional hog farm down the road and her farm is on family land where her great grandfather bred and trained draft animals. With many community connections, Elena can offer farm visits and introductions to many area farmers. Elana has 9+ years of experience growing chestnut and pawpaw trees, has worked at Red Fern Farm in Southeast Iowa, Scattergood Friends School Farm in Eastern Iowa, Badgersette in Minnesota, and on many other types of farms.
Farm Information
Established: 2016
Acres: 225
Located: Buchanan, MI
On-Farm Training Opportunities
As an Agroforestry Assistant, you will be involved in many different types of activities that will change with the season and occasionally be focused towards what you personally find most engaging (but not always). Most work days will start with a brief overview of goals for the day and start with an hour or more of hands-on training or working with Elana. You will be required to work independently after adequate training on many different activities.
Availability: Open
- Early spring, there is pruning, scion collection, nursery preparation, first round of fertilizing the field chestnuts, fence removal, setting up temporary fencing, plant out some bareroot trees, some direct seeding of chestnut trees.
- Late spring, bring seed trays out to the nursery, start potting up trees, grafting of apples, pears and plums, move the cows to pasture, observe calving.
- Early summer is grafting of chestnut and pawpaw, lots of potting trees in the nursery, preparing for the Japanese beetles, start mowing around field trees, moving cattle fence and cattle, second round of fertilizing chestnuts, spraying herbicide around field trees.
- Mid-summer will be graft management and labeling, lots of mowing, more potting up nursery trees, pruning and caring for nursery trees, moving fence and cattle, weeding tree tubes, planting out potted trees and reminding Elana not to make you work if it’s over 95 degrees.
- Late Summer, more mowing, moving cattle through fence that’s already up hopefully, invasive shrub management, nursery tree care, start to harvest pawpaw fruit
- In fall, pawpaw harvest, pulp pawpaw fruit for seed for the nursery, chestnut harvest and seed collection, mowing.
You might spend up to 2-5 hours a week mowing on a really nice 0-turn mower. You can use my blue-tooth noise canceling headphones to spend time listening to the Savannah Institutes podcast (or listen to whatever you want) and daydreaming about alternatives to mowing that you want to use on your farm.
You will also spend a fair amount of time potting nursery trees. If you’re interested in creating educational videos or social media content, that’s something this farm could use more of and we can discuss.
Timing
1 day a week on a regular day of the week to be determined with hours something like 8-5 with flexibility from trainer and trainee. Potential for an additional day or half day some weeks.
April- October available but stop and start dates negotiable.
Qualifications
- Good at driving (truck) and capable of being good at mowing and driving a 4-wheeler
- Attention to detail and able to work quickly and efficiently
- Be able to walk quickly over rough terrain while carrying or pulling something
- Able to scramble into and out of small creek ravines
- Body stamina for doing manual labor like pounding fence posts, digging holes or pitchforking mulch in all types of weather
- Good listening and communication skills, able to repeat or teach a new skill back, comfortable asking clarification questions.
- Be able to lift and carry 50 pounds
- Keep a working cell phone to communicate about hours and availability as well as for communicating during the work day. Be responsive to and utilize texts and calls for any questions during the work day if you are working independently
Benefits
- Pay: 15/hour
- Housing: Not Available
- Food: Occasional on farm lunch available (I’ll let you know the day before) Access to snacking on wild berries and fresh farm produce like persimmons and pawpaws A few pounds of chestnuts and pawpaw pulp for personal use if you work through the harvest season.
- Remoteness: 15-20 minutes from several small rural towns with gas stations and essentials. 30 minutes from Iowa City, a small diverse college city.
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