Goldfinch Gardens

Last Updated On: October 12th, 2026 at 02:47PM MST

Internship information

General Farm Description: Goldfinch Gardens is a 2 acre production vegetable farm in Celo, in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We are one hour from Asheville and half an hour from Burnsville. We grow a diversity of vegetables using no-till methods and we are Certified Naturally Grown. We sell to a local food hub, through a farm stand, and an online CSA. We are committed to tending the farm with thoughtfulness and integrity. We focus on soil health with soil testing, compost use, mulching, cover cropping, crop diversity and minimizing tillage. We focus on the farm as an ecosystem with beneficial flowers, inter-cropping and flowering cover crops. We maintain 4 greenhouse for summer crops and winter crops. We have a small flock of chickens for eggs and to help process the farm waste into compost. The work varies a bit by season but always has some amount of harvesting, washing and packaging produce. We regularly hand weed, hoe, prep beds, tarp beds, plant cover crop, tend the chickens, transplant, and seed crops. Seasonally, we start transplants in the greenhouse, prune tomatoes, fertigate, make compost, weed whack, and prep beds with the tractor. We also hire harvest helpers on harvest days and we have work traders on Monday and Thursday mornings. This can be a fun time to connect with community members and get some help with big projects (and the hard jobs like tarp moving). We highly value a positive farm environment for the people as well as the plants. We strive to make farming sustainable for the farmers as well.

CRAFT Member Farm? Yes

Internship Starts: March 2027 - there is a bit of flexibility about when in March you begin.
Internship Ends: 2nd week in November 2027 - There could be some flexibility here as well.
Number of Internship Available: 1 single person or a couple
Application Deadline: till filled
Minimum Length of Stay: full season

Internship Details:

We are looking for interns who can commit for the months of March thru early November. We will give preference those who have had some vegetable growing experience in the past, and are looking to take their knowledge to the next level. We ask for 8 hour days, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. There is also some limited work on one of the weekend days. Weekend work will involve the required chores such as tending the farm stand, chickens, and transplants. During squash and cucumber season, those must be harvested as well. Wednesday is off so Cedar can have a day to work on the farm by herself. Harvest days are Mondays and Fridays. Tuesday is the day for vegetable delivery and field work. Work trade crews come and work with us 2 mornings a week. In total it is a 32-36 hour work week.

The work is sometimes solo and sometimes with others, so we want folks who enjoy both. The first few months will involve working more intensively with Cedar as she trains you. After that you will work more independently. Certain tasks you will master. Others you will do less frequently, but you will have a chance to try all the jobs. If there is something you are especially interested in, please let me know.

We expect a good attitude, lots of questions, open communication, ability to work on ones own, and an ongoing interest in learning the craft of vegetable production. Interns need to be in good health and able to handle the summer heat as well as the cool rainy spring and autumn.

Applicants must have a vehicle as we live in a rural area. No dogs. We live in an intentional community and the neighborhood already has a number of canine friends including ours.

Educational Opportunities: Cedar works full time on the farm, and will be able to dedicate a lot of our attention to teaching what she has learned over her 15+ years of farming. Cedar enjoys teaching and loves answering questions. We have an extensive library of farm books to share with you. Beyond that we highly encourage our interns to attend CRAFT tours (where you can visit neighboring farms) on the weekends.

Skills Desired: Previous experience preferred. Other physical work experience is helpful. Enjoying vegetables and cooking is pretty important. A good attitude and good communication is a must.

Meals: No

Stipend: Yes $500-600 every two weeks for 32-36 hours of work a week. We also provide housing, utilities (good internet) and farm vegetables.

Housing: Yes, we have a nice straw bale cabin. There is a loft with a queen sized bed. There is a kitchen and bathroom in the cabin. Laundry is in our basement next door.

Contact information

Farm Address:
77 Paw Paw Hill Road
Burnsville, North Carolina, 28714

Primary Contact: Cedar Johnson
Primary Phone:
    Type: Cell
    Number: 828-284-1700
    Email: farmers@goldfinchgardens.com

Website: https://www.goldfinchgardens.com

Preferred method of Contact: email