We're building a farm community where everyone contributes what they can. Some members pay in full and that financial support keeps the infrastructure solid. Others offset most of their share through work shifts at the farm. Many do some of both. Below you'll find the different pathways into membership, and a detailed look at the actual tasks — what you'd be doing, what tools you'd use, when it happens, and what muscles you'll feel the next day.
Pathways to Membership
Work the land, offset your share
The most direct exchange: show up for a 4-hour shift, do farm work, and that time counts toward your membership cost. Shifts are scheduled throughout the growing season and there's almost always something that needs doing. You can cover everything except the bare material costs — seeds, irrigation parts, organic fertilizers, fencing, tools — through labor alone. No experience necessary. We'll teach you everything on-site.
Typical commitment: 2–4 shifts per month offsets a significant portion of a full share. The exact math depends on share size and current season.
Bring your trade, keep the farm running
Some of our real costs aren't labor — they're services we'd otherwise pay cash for. If you're a mechanic, electrician, welder, carpenter, plumber, or have CDL/delivery capacity, your professional skills directly offset farm expenses dollar-for-dollar. A mechanic who keeps the farm truck running saves us a shop bill. An electrician who helps with solar infrastructure saves us a contractor invoice. These exchanges are valued at what we'd otherwise pay, not at a flat hourly rate — because the impact is different.
Got stuff the farm needs? That counts.
Fencing materials from a project you took down. Lumber. Compost. Straw bales. Hand tools. Wheelbarrows. Chicken feed. Irrigation fittings. Hardware. There's a lot of material wealth sitting in garages and barns around this region that has direct value to the farm. If you have something we need, we'll credit it toward your share at fair value. This is especially valuable in the early stages of farm development — the immediacy of material exchange builds relationships fast and gets infrastructure built.
Help food reach families
A CSA only works if the food gets to the people. Distribution shifts involve picking up packed share boxes at the farm and delivering them to neighborhood pickup hubs across the Portland–Vancouver metro. If you have a vehicle and a route that works, a weekly distribution run counts toward your share. Hub hosting is even simpler — if you have a covered porch, garage, or other accessible space where neighbors can pick up their boxes during a window, that's a real contribution to the network. Hub hosts earn credit toward their own share.
Extend the harvest through the winter
Storage crops keep for months on their own, but processing extends the value of the harvest further — canning, drying, fermenting, freezing. Members with food preservation skills and equipment can process bulk farm output into shelf-stable products. This work can happen at the farm, at a licensed community kitchen, or at home with proper food safety practices. It's particularly valuable in late summer and fall when harvest volumes peak.
Full-price members underwrite access for everyone
Members who pay full price for their share can opt into a small additional contribution to the Resilience Fund. This pool covers the hard material costs — seeds, irrigation parts, organic amendments, fencing — for work-share members who can't meet the cash floor. You don't choose who you're helping and they don't have to ask. The fund ensures that the material baseline is covered so that every member's labor can fully count toward their share. A strong community has both — people who can invest financially and people who invest their time and energy. Both are essential.
What the Work Actually Looks Like
Here's a detailed breakdown of the tasks that need doing across the year. Every shift is 4 hours. We provide all tools and training — you just show up ready to work outside. Some tasks are physically demanding; others are methodical and meditative. There's something for every body and every temperament.
Fair warning: harvest days are hard work. They're also the best mornings you'll have all week. There's something about pulling food from the ground alongside people you're going to share it with — the easy conversation, the dirt under your fingernails, the growing pile of potatoes in the crate. By the end of a four-hour shift, you've earned your share in the most literal sense. You'll probably be sore, satisfied, and already planning to come back.
Most members start not knowing a potato eye from a potato bug. That's fine. By your third shift, you'll know more about growing food than most people learn in a lifetime. By your tenth, you'll be showing new members where to plant. That knowledge doesn't leave when you leave the farm — it goes with you, and it's worth more than the food.
| Activity | What's Involved | Tools Used | Season | Primary Muscle Groups |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trail Maintenance & Brush Clearing | Clearing blackberries and brush from trails around water infrastructure and farm access paths. Keeping pathways safe and functional. | Power head system, weed whacker attachment, power shears attachment, hand loppers, gloves | Spring Summer Fall | Forearms & grip Shoulders Core Upper back |
| Excavation — Trenching & Valve Vaults | Digging trenches for irrigation lines, excavating valve vaults, preparing footings for infrastructure. Precise, physically demanding ground work. | Shovels, pickaxes, wheelbarrows, hand tamper, measuring tape | Year-round | Legs & glutes Lower back Shoulders Core Forearms |
| Excavation — Root Cellar & Storage | Excavating underground storage space for crop preservation. Moving earth, shoring walls, creating climate-stable food storage. | Shovels, pickaxes, wheelbarrows, pry bar, buckets | Year-round | Full body Legs & glutes Lower back Core |
| Water Infrastructure Improvement | Installing, repairing, and upgrading irrigation lines, valves, risers, and drip systems. Connecting solar-powered pumping to distribution network. | Pipe cutters, fittings, Teflon tape, shovels, channel locks, screwdrivers | Year-round | Hands & grip Forearms Knees (kneeling) Lower back |
| Infrastructure Hardening | Protecting and reinforcing electrical, water, and structural elements. Securing fencing, reinforcing raised beds, weatherproofing equipment shelters. | Post driver, hammer, screwdrivers, wire, zip ties, shovels, level | Year-round | Shoulders Arms Core Grip |
| Planting — Potatoes & Early Season | Cutting seed potatoes, preparing beds, planting, hilling. Our first and most critical crop of the season. | Hoe, rake, hand trowel, wheelbarrow, seed potatoes, compost | Spring (March–April) | Lower back Legs (squatting) Shoulders Hands |
| Planting — Dry Beans & Warm Season | Direct-sowing beans, transplanting starts, trellising where needed. Building the protein backbone of the winter share. | Hoe, hand trowel, stakes, twine, watering can | Late Spring (May–June) | Lower back Legs (squatting) Hands |
| Weeding & Row Maintenance | Hand weeding, hoeing between rows, thinning seedlings, mulching. Steady, methodical work that keeps crops healthy and productive. | Hoe, stirrup hoe, hand weeder, kneeling pad, mulch fork | Spring Summer Fall | Lower back Knees Forearms Core |
| Harvesting | Picking, digging, cutting, and gathering crops. Washing, sorting, and packing for distribution. The most satisfying work on the farm. | Harvest knife, buckets, crates, digging fork, washing station, scale | Summer Fall (June–October) | Lower back Legs (squatting/bending) Hands & grip Shoulders (carrying) |
| Distribution Runs | Loading packed share boxes at the farm, driving to neighborhood pickup hubs across the metro area, unloading and organizing for member pickup. | Vehicle, hand truck/dolly, insulated bags (if needed) | Summer Fall (June–November) | Arms (lifting) Lower back Legs |
| Hub Hosting | Receiving delivered share boxes at your location (porch, garage, carport) and making them available for neighborhood members to pick up during a scheduled window. Light coordination. | Covered space, table or shelving, phone for coordination | Summer Fall (June–November) | Minimal physical Organizational |
| Preservation & Processing | Canning, drying, fermenting, or freezing bulk harvest for winter storage. Preparing value-added products from raw farm output. Extends the season and the value of every crop. | Canning equipment, dehydrator, fermentation vessels, freezer bags, kitchen tools | Late Summer Fall (August–November) | Hands Standing endurance Attention to detail |
| Chicken & Livestock Care | Moving mobile coop, collecting eggs, feeding, watering, checking fencing, cleaning. Daily rhythms that keep our protein source healthy. | Feed buckets, waterer, egg basket, fencing stakes, coop hardware | Year-round | Legs (walking/bending) Arms (carrying) Lower back |
| Compost & Soil Building | Turning compost piles, spreading finished compost on beds, hauling organic matter, building soil fertility for next season. | Pitchfork, wheelbarrow, shovel, rake | Year-round | Full body Core Shoulders Legs |
A note on bodies: We list muscle groups not to intimidate but to be honest. Farm work is physical. Some tasks are heavy and demanding; others are gentle and repetitive. We match shifts to what you're comfortable with and what your body can handle. If you have limitations, there's always work that fits — sorting, packing, coordination, preservation, hub hosting. Nobody gets turned away because they can't swing a pickaxe.
How It All Adds Up
Every share has a base cost that reflects the farm's real expenses — the things that can't be replaced by labor: seeds, irrigation parts, organic soil amendments, fencing materials, tool replacement, fuel for distribution. This is the floor. It's the same for everyone.
Everything above that floor can be covered through any combination of the pathways above. A typical work-share member doing two 4-hour shifts per month throughout the growing season can offset a large majority of their share cost. Skill exchanges and material barter are credited at fair market value — often higher per-hour than general farm labor because they directly replace a cash expense.
The Resilience Fund exists so that members who genuinely can't meet even the material cost floor still have a path in. No applications, no means testing, no awkward conversations. The fund is there because the members who can afford to contribute believe that access to local food shouldn't depend on your bank balance.
As conditions change — and they may — these arrangements can flex. The escalation ladder we've built means that if the cash economy gets harder, more of the share can be covered through direct exchange. If things get genuinely difficult, the farm becomes the hub around which the community organizes. The structures are already here. We're just waiting for you to step into one.
Leadership Roles — Build This With Us
We need partners, not just participants. These roles come with real compensation and real ownership of their domain.
Food Preservation Lead
Co-develop and lead our food preservation program — fermentation, canning, dehydrating, root cellaring workshops. Build the preserved foods component of our CSA boxes. This is a leadership role, not a support role. We need someone who can take cognitive point on preservation while the farm operator focuses on crop production.
Compensation: Sustainer CSA membership + revenue share from workshops and preserved product sales.
Wildcrafted Mushroom Lead
Develop outdoor wildcrafted mushroom cultivation on the farm: log-grown shiitake under the trees, wine cap and oyster mushroom beds in shaded woodchip rows, lion's mane on hardwood stumps. No grow rooms, no climate control — mushrooms fruited the way the forest grows them. Year-round availability comes from species succession, not artificial environments.
Compensation: CSA membership + 20–30% revenue from mushroom sales.
Find the pathway that fits you
Whether you're paying in full, trading shifts for food, bringing materials from your garage, or hosting a pickup hub in your neighborhood — there's a place for you here. The farm gets stronger with every member who joins, however they join.
Reserve Your Share → Read: Why Resilience →