Cross Island Farms Wellesley Island, NY

Location: Wellesley Island, United States

We are a small, highly diversified certified-organic vegetable and livestock farm with a direct-marketing focus, located on Wellesley Island in the Thousand Islands region in northern NY. Our land is 102 acres of pasture, beaver ponds, woods and rocky ridges. Our products include over 200 varieties of gourmet and heirloom organic vegetables and vegetable plants small fruit, honey, maple syrup, pastured pork, goat, beef and eggs. We are developing as an international agri-tourism destination and offer farm tours and on-farm primitive camping. Work/learning opportunities vary with the season, the farm's needs, and the interest of the volunteer and may include: honeybees, maple syrup, grape vineyard, fence construction, intensive grazing management, drip irrigation, vegetable planting, picking and weeding, greenhouse operations, livestock care, mulch and organic fertilizers, row covers and other season extension, stocking farm-stand, preparing for CSA, and special orders, marketing and publicity, helping with farm tours and special events, machinery repair and modification, farm construction including buildings and feeders, wood-lot management, and whatever else needs to be done. We welcome volunteers year-round and generally need one or two apprentices at a time. We have one room available, and on-farm camping is an option. We provide room and board in exchange for approximately 6 hours of work 6 days a week. Stays may vary from 1 to 2 weeks to a month or more. We speak some French and Spanish. Cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing are available on the farm in winter, boating and swimming down the road at state park in summer, and hiking and biking year-round. We can provide boats, bicycles and snow-shoes, and some off-farm motorized transportation. The Thousand Islands is an international tourist destination where numerous cultural and recreational activities are available. We are very near the Canadian border: just half an hour from Kingston, two hours from Ottawa, three from Montreal, four from Toronto. Check our web-site for more info: www.crossislandfarms.com.