Now accepting interns applications for 2026 for slots from April thru November. Find the application below.
Welcome to our 90 acre playground! Are you someone who wants to learn about yourself, make new friends, build your skill set, have fun and work on changing the world? Our intern program offers this and more.
The internship weaves together several themes throughout the seasons. First, participants learn techniques for small scale diverse organic annual and perennial food cultivation. We teach basic permaculture principles and permaculture design and apply them to the landscape. We focus on the ins about outs of growing a diverse garden for a small conference center and what each crop needs. The work includes skills in the greenhouses, garden bed preparation, use of planting charts, seasonal plantings and flow, compost making, pest management, and harvesting, cooking and processing food.
Our work is done by hand in raised bed systems including two diverse food forests and an acre of annuals. Our annuals consist of the common vegetable crops, while the perennial crops cultivated include blueberries, paw paw, gooseberry, black currant, chestnut, raspberry, asian pear, grape and hearty kiwi etc.
Second, we focus on the built environment. Interns learn the basics of carpentry and tools, plumbing, green building and alternative technologies. Interns focus on necessary community projects from building compost bins to making lumber. They experiment with natural and green building methods and compare alternative and standard carpentry practices. In our wood shop, we teach you how to operate our sawmill, turn tree trunks into lumber and use power tools. We describe best drying practices, how to plane boards, and cut in a straight line. You gain confidence in your ability to hammer, make natural building mud recipes and stack a lumber pile. Some of the projects for 2026 include working on a wind power project, renovating a post and beam greenhouse, repairing and 1850s school house, making lumber, driving the tractor, making firewood, making wood chips and so much more.
Third, you learn about living and working in community and developing a better understanding of yourself. We explore the ins and outs of community living from group decision making, goal setting, conflict resolution to eclectic spiritual practices. Topics include non-violent communication, meditation, group reflections, reiki, workshops and classes focused on personal growth and development, directly tying into your own life journey and purpose.
As a conference center that hosts weekend workshops and retreats, we help with short-term guests. Some of the tasks can include; cooking, preparing spaces and supporting the guest services manager.
We blend work and play and provide education to the interns while we bring in the annual harvests.
Work-Trade Program
The program is a work trade program running from April to November and though we encourage participants to be here for the entire time, it is not required. A longer stay helps you experience all of the topics and projects as the curriculum builds on itself.
We host 6 interns at a time plus revolving regular shorter term volunteers. Participants work 4.5 days a week. Four of those days are with the program focalizers that focuses on intern tasks while one afternoon a week includes a check in, a feedback session and a sit-down class taught both by of the focalizers and different community members.
The other half day on Saturday mornings is spent with the rest of the community with a focus on general community needs. Your time off is Saturday afternoons, Sundays and Mondays to do as you wish.
In exchange for your work, you receive room and board a small dorm living space with two private room options and an organic vegetarian diet which we and the community take turns cooking. (we do not provide meat, though there is separate place to cook as needed). Most evenings are free time but you are encouraged to join in meetings and other spontaneous social events such as singing circles, group sharing and field trips. Interns are part of the community and active participants while you are here.
While the work is physical and requires stamina, it revolves both around the education of participants to gain competency plus achieving our weekly goals and getting the work done. During the spring we focus mostly on the garden and work more on the carpentry and natural building in the summer months.
A typical day:
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- 7:30 am – Meditation (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays)
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- 8:00 am – Self serve breakfast
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- 9:00 – 1:00 – Gardening (Tuesdays is the big harvest)
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- 1:00 – 2:30 – Lunch, usually with a 45 minute break
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- 2:30 – 5:00 – Carpentry projects or Garden Work (classes on Wednesdays)
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- 6:30 – 7:30 – Community Dinner
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- 8:30 – 10:00 – Optional meetings and events
Wednesday Afternoon Classes
The class and weekly check in gives us a formal weekly pause. We learn how you are doing, give and receive feedback, bring up logistics and share any insights or observations that were discovered during our hands-on work. in-depth understanding and integration of the material happens in these sessions.
While some of the classes are the same annually, input from the current intern group steers the curriculum and not all classes happen every year.
Some Class Topics:
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- Introduction to Community Living
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- Introduction to Green and Natural Building
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- Introduction to Wood Carpentry and Power tools
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- Pruning
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- Herbal Teas and Tinctures
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- House Construction Basics
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- Permaculture Principles and Design
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- Seasonal tasks for Vegetable growing
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- Basic Cooking with Fresh Produce
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- Composting and Soil Systems
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- Biodynamics
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- Food Preservation
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- Seed Saving Propagation and Grafting
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- Attunement to Nature
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- How to use a cob oven
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- Composting and Soils
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- Shiitake Mushroom log cultivation
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- Bike Repair
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- What is it that you truly want for yourself?
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- Non-Violent Communication and Mediation
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- Transformational Kinesiology
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- Intergenerational Constellations
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- Constellations for co creating with Nature
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- Reiki
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- Reflective Journaling
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- Land Justice and food sovereignty
To read about the experiences of previous interns, you can read the following blogs written by Faith, a 2022 intern: Sowing Seeds, Taking Root, and Reaping Harvest or read the testimonials from our WWOOF page here.
Click here for the online application.
For questions about the program, contact Llani Davidson by e-mail (intern.program@siriuscommunity.org) or phone: 413-230-4905
We look forward to hearing from you!