FAMILY & FARM  |  OUR ORCHARDS

2013 Skill Building/Work Exchange Program

Our homestead is a dynamic permaculture forest garden.which Includes a wide diversity of temperate and subtropical fruit trees, bushes and vines as well as many medicinal and culinary herbs and flowers.  We also care for 10-15 goats, 30 chickens, 10-20 ducks, 5-10 turkeys, and Honey Bees.  We own and operate an on-line container grown, Edible landscape mail order plant nursery with a diversity of over 300 fruit trees shrubs and vines.  We have intensively planted about 2 acres to pomegranates apples pears persimmons, paw paws, peaches plums citrus, cherries, figs olives and jujubes, table (and a few wine) grapes, kiwis and berries,  as well as perennial vegetables such as asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish, artichokes and a large homestead annual garden. It is part of our mission to create sustainable systems and preserve biological diversity.

Our location is paradisaical, a southwest facing slope right above the Klamath River. We use minimal tilling and make extensive use of perennial cover crops and rotational animal grazing throughout our orchard and gardens. Marc has been a homesteader, market farmer nurseryman and orchardist for the last thirty years.  He also has carpentry experience, knowledge of alternative building and solar power systems. Corrina has been farming and growing medicinal herbs and flowers for the past twelve years. Together we are working to create a loving, low input, productive and self sustaining homestead that can also serve as a model for others.  We have 3 children, 19 and 17, and 5.  We are passionate about our family, homesteading and home schooling, the outdoors, simple sustainable living, plants, eating healthy and a TV free environment.  In our leisure time we enjoy doing fun things with our kids, hiking in the mountains, making music, swimming in the river and working on craft projects. The spirit of the farm is one of hard work and good family fun.  We eat a mostly vegetarian diet of fresh ground grains, legumes, goat dairy, eggs, and some meat (mostly raised at our farm) for protein

Our Edible Landscape Nursery produces about 7,000+ starts annually, which include nut and fruit trees, shrubs, berries, citrus and other subtropical plants, and California Natives.  We propagate through seeding, budding, grafting, cuttings and stool mounds.  You will have the opportunity to learn a variety of propagation techniques and growing a diversity of plants with a focus on the edible landscape and natives.

Orleans is a small remote town located one and a half hour NE of Arcata, the nearest city on the coast.  It is surrounded by National Forest Land including three wilderness areas, the Marble Mountains, Siskiyou and Trinities.  This area is popular for hiking fishing, swimming and rafting.  We also live amidst three Native American tribes, the Hoopa, the Yurok and Karuk.  The local community is a mix of forest service personnel, Native Americans, old timers, artisans and organic farmers. . The climate here is Mediterranean.  We have rainy falls and winters (about 60" per year), and hot dry summers (high 80s to high 90s).

 You will have a chance to learn about; different seeding and germination techniques, intensive plantings,and planting guilds, bed preparation, soil amendments, fertilization, cultivation, seed saving and harvesting, organic orchard management, organic disease and pest management, medicinal herbs, making tinctures, salves and teas, and poultry, goat and bee care management systems and plant propagation...

We are looking for people with high energy, a positive attitude,sense of humor, who like kids, animals and working hard outdoors and who have the ability to clearly communicate.  We find those who have a strong interest in sustainable living and homesteading and a love for propagating plants, get the most out of their experience here.
 

If you are interested in joining our skill building program please email us for an application.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

Thank you,

Corrina Cohen and Marc Robbi
Rolling River farm
PO BOX 332
Orleans, CA 95556
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it