Nightfall Farm
Crothersville, IN
Mentor Farm
Agroforestry Systems:
Silvopasture
Farm Information
Nightfall Farm is a pasture-based livestock farm in southeast Indiana. Farm owners Liz and Nate Brownlee believe that small farms can help rebuild rural places. For them, rebuilding means bringing Liz’s family land back to life, selling food in small communities, and connecting people through food. The Brownlees rotationally graze meat chickens, laying hens, pigs, turkeys, and sheep on about 50 acres of young silvopasture, which includes about 1,000 native and cultivar trees. Grazing is a way to build up the health of the soil, respect animals, and produce high-quality meat and eggs. The Brownlees sell the meat via its 50-family CSA, two local farmers markets, and to small restaurants and groceries. The farm added 400 native trees around 2014, and 300 more in 2020. Nightfall Farm also has a half-acre elderberry planting that is bearing fruit, as well as 1,700 feet of shrub willows. The willows are a major source of shade for the livestock and habitat for wildlife – plus the Brownlees sell willow cuttings to basket-makers and casket-makers. In their farm plan, the Brownlees hope to expand its market to include florists and also start selling propagation materials to area farmers and gardeners.
Owners: Liz and Nate Brownlee
Apprenticeship Opportunities
Spring Apprentice
Nightfall Farm is looking for an early-season apprentice to help with major expansion of its shrub willow hedgerows starting in mid to late February and running 10 weeks. Apprentices will learn coppicing and propagating. The spring apprentice will work and learn alongside the Brownlees as they expand this agroforestry aspect of the farm.
Availability: Open
Fall Apprentice
Apprentices help with all aspects of a pasture-based livestock operation. Nightfall Farm is built around the animals; each day starts and ends with caring for sheep, chickens, pigs, and turkeys. Apprentice tasks include feeding, watering, building fencing for rotational grazing, and observing animal well-being. This work is repetitive and joyful, and the Brownlees take great care in sharing knowledge and making sure apprentices leave the farm ready to manage their own herd.
Qualifications
- Able to work 32 hours per week for 10 consecutive weeks (8 hours/day between, 4-5 days/week)
- Excited by small-scale, diversified farming
- Mature, disciplined, and thoughtful
- Enjoys physical work
- Comfortable working in hot, cold, wet, dry, and everywhere in between
- Able to lift 50 pounds and do 8 hours of physical work per day
- Has the physical endurance to farm
- Experience with animals preferred but not required
- Comfortable getting dirty, being outside (which means beautiful sunsets as well as bugs, and meaningful work as well as sweat)
Benefits
- Pay: $12/hr plus room and board
- Housing: Access to a small cabin with a porch, electricity, lots of windows, and the basics (queen bed, shelves, chair, etc.) or a 13-foot canvas bell tent on a tent platform in our woods, outfitted with a queen air mattress on a cot, solar lights, shelves, chair, etc. Both options utilize composting toilets. The apprentice will have access to an outdoor kitchen (including a propane cooking range and running water) and outdoor heated shower. Neither housing option has access to the internet, but the apprentice can access W-Fi from our farmhouse deck (with table and shade) during daylight hours. Housing is first come, first served.
- Food: One omnivorous lunch provided on work days. Apprentices responsible for their own breakfasts, snacks, and dinners. Shared responsibilities for food prep and clean up. Access to the outdoor kitchen, which is equipped with basics like pots and pans, plates, bowls, silverware, wooden spoons, tea kettle, etc.
- Remoteness: Remote with easy access to conveniences. Located about an hour north of Louisville, about an hour south of Indianapolis – concerts and museums are a short drive away. About 20 minutes from the nearest town big enough to have grocery stores and restaurants. Transportation is needed for a successful time at the farm. Bikes encouraged. Many good hikes, pollinator habitat, and waterfalls within a 45-minute drive.
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Your gift could provide experience and technical education for aspiring farmers through on-farm training with a mentor farmer and community building opportunities for farmers, trainees, and those interested in incorporating trees on farmland.
