Oxbow Farm 2026 Integral Ecology Internship

Catholic Worker; Baltimore, Northern (MD, KY); Hybrid; USD 4,000 - 5,100; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Agroecology classes

Private room in shared house

Good food

Weekly stipend $100

Job summary

Oxbow Farm is seeking interns for the 2026 season with an 8-week minimum commitment during February–October. No direct farming experience is required—just a hard work ethic and a desire to participate in community life.

Interns receive agroecology classes, good food, a private room in a shared house or trailer, and a $100 weekly stipend. As an intern you will gain training in ecological farming and faith-based hospitality.

Qualifications

• No direct farming experience required.
• 8-week minimum commitment during Feb–Oct.
• Interest in farming, homesteading or gardening as ministry.

Responsibilities

• Work 20–30 hours per week on farm tasks.
• Assist with meals and dishes; food prep as needed.
• Participate in weekly farm team meetings and chore chart.
• Handle daily animal chores, planting, weeding and harvesting.
• Engage guests, neighbors and customers; support hospitality tasks.

Skills

Hard work ethic

Community life participation

Willingness to learn

Job description

We are seeking interns for the 2026 season with flexible dates. We ask for an 8-week minimum commitment during the months of February-October. No direct farming experience is required, just a hard work ethic and desire to participate in community life. Compensation includes agroecology classes, really good food, a private room in a shared house or trailer, and a $100 weekly stipend.

About Oxbow Farm

My husband and I (Julie) are inspired by the Catholic Worker movement and started this farm so we could share the joys and challenges of farm life with others. Expect challenges! Our mission is to offer fresh produce, hospitality, and ecological education to people experiencing material or spiritual poverty. We manage our land as a practice of integral ecology, where community members can learn the satisfying work of farming and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

We sell and donate our produce at the Govans Farmers Market, which is in a food desert in Baltimore, and offer a CSA (weekly produce subscription) on a sliding scale. The farm is home to chickens, milk goats, a team of oxen in training, a farm cat, and lots of wildlife. We offer educational tours of our 17 acres featuring our historic barn, fields, farm animals, woods, streams, and pond. We are also part of the Care Farming Network. Visit www.oxbowfarm.net to learn more.

About the Integral Ecology Internship

As an intern, you will get training and experience in both ecological farming and faith-based hospitality. I have a Master of Science degree in Agroecology and am currently working on a Master of Theological Studies degree at Loyola University (where my husband teaches). Therefore, this internship is ideal for people who want to engage in farming, homesteading, or gardening as a form of ministry. It's not required that applicants be Catholic/Christian or otherwise religious, but a strong interest in farming and community life as a spiritual practice is important.

Upon arriving at the farm, you will receive a binder full of farm protocols on everything from greenhouse setup to animal chores, as well as more conceptual lessons on over 20 topics designed to help you start your own operation. The internship includes three guided class sessions of your choice on topics including but not limited to farm site selection, soil testing, greenhouse setup, canning and food preservation, composting, philosophy of science for organic farmers, history of the Creation Care movement, history of the Catholic Worker movement, material and spiritual poverty, theology of evolution, and integral ecology.

Duties and Expectations: Interns are expected to put in a solid 20-30 hours per week.

Interns will have the same responsibilities as short-term WWOOFers and will also be more engaged in hospitality and service to guests, neighbors, visitors, and customers. Because of the more committed workload, you will get a weekly stipend of $100..

As an intern, you will participate in our weekly farm team meetings and chore chart which includes daily animal chore tasks (feeding animals, milking goats, mucking the barn etc.), regular farm work (planting, weeding, harvesting etc.), as well as general cleaning and maintenance tasks. You'll also have the opportunity to do more independent work. If you have any special skills that you want to contribute (mechanical work, furniture rehab, sewing, beekeeping, etc.) feel free to let us know because there's always things around the farm that need to be fixed or improved! We host a quarterly neighborhood party, so you might catch one of those. We also have other neighbors that host monthly events.

In addition to farm work, you will be expected to help with meal prep and dishes. If you don't know how to cook, that's fine! You can help chop veggies and/or do dishes after the meal. If you LOVE

cooking and want to make a meal for everyone, that's great too! We just ask that you're willing to work with the ingredients we've got on hand. We eat mostly vegetarian: lots of rice and beans and produce that is in season. Meat is an ecologically expensive resource, we mostly just slaughter and eat our own chickens, so we typically only have meat a few times a week. You are welcome to bring some of our own food or snacks to supplement your diet if you want.

While we are an organically operated diversified veggie CSA farm, I'd say the harder and more important part of the work that we do is to provide a space for our interns, WWOOFers, and shorter term guests to experience the healing nature of farm work, ask questions, and discern new possibilities for the future. To this end, organic growing experience is very useful, but we really need someone who is up for the challenge of investing in the growth of the many different types of people who pass through our farm community.

The mission of CatholicWorker.org is to document the Catholic Worker movement in all its diverse expressions around the world. The website includes a searchable archive of all of Dorothy Day's writings in THE CATHOLIC WORKER newspaper, a directory of all known Catholic Worker communities, information about the aims and means of the movement, and news from Catholic Worker communities around the world. See the About CW.org page for more information.