The Farmer and Rancher Mentorship program (FARM) is accepting applications for a 200 hour on-farm summer internship with a variety of farmers across East TN and Southwest VA. We still have spots open and wanted to highlight the awesome farmers that interns can choose from this year!
Gibson Berry Farm in Greeneville, TN with Farmer Duane Gibson.
Duane has been farming on and off on his family’s farm for the past 10 years, growing a wide variety of produce and creating a line of value-added products that are in high demand at farmers markets in TN and NC. His farm is Certified Organic and produces fruit, primarily blueberries, as well as a handful of other fruits like elderberry, strawberry, currants, black raspberries, and a few others. He also grew an acre of hemp in 2018 and plans to expand production in 2019. The farm also has 2 high tunnels in which he grows ginger and turmeric with a mix of winter/spring greens.
Duane’s philosophy is bringing quality, nutrient dense fruits to market making parents and children happy and healthy and being a supplier of organic fruits and herbs for small batch value-added products and regional processors. While Duane comes off as an easy going guy, he’s actually a very dedicated business person devoted to making connections with retail and wholesale customers and promoting his farm products. Duane has done extensive research on his chosen crops, talking with growers and buyers from across the southeast and beyond looking for niche markets so he can make a solid living off his land.
Interns on Gibson Berry Farm can expect to participate in planning, planting, harvesting, weeding, trellising, pruning, and fertilization. Interns will have the opportunity to learn about berry production, field prep, sales, water management, and high tunnel management.
Would you like to participate in the FARM program as an intern on Duane’s Farm? Fill out this online application and select “Gibson Berry Farm” from the list. To read more about the FARM program and the other farms in our network, check out www.asdevelop.org/farm.