The JBG Community has many facets. It includes our employees and their families, of course, our CSA Members, our market customers (their dogs), and our restaurant partners. Yet there is one more facet of our community that is perhaps more jovial, more selfless, and more diverse than the rest: our volunteers.

Volunteers at Hergotz helping to put together roasting bags for the farmers' markets. Have you ever seen a more colorful table? Photo by Scott David Gordon.

Since JBG’s Holly Street days (when our farm was a garden, our fields a backyard) volunteers have been an integral part of the story. In the “old days”, volunteers used to actually pack CSA boxes! Volunteers' hardworking hands have helped save thousands of pounds of root crops from damaging freezes and seed over a million vegetables - each tiny seed going into an individual cell tray, sometimes picked up one by one and sometimes rolled around in our nifty vacuum seeder. Not only could we not do it without our volunteers, we simply wouldn’t want to. Farming can be tough, and on the hardest of days, when the bins of carrots just don’t seem to end, our tribe of volunteers are a welcome addition to the barn and greenhouse. A volunteer’s genuine enthusiasm for the vibrancy of our watermelon radishes or the smell of our dill help remind even the grumpiest of farmers that what we’re doing is, in fact, neat. And apart from the general cheerleading-affect that our volunteers have on our operation, they’re also just wonderful people to be around. The makeup of our volunteers is as diverse as the vegetables we grow. There are the college students, the musicians, and the artists. There are those who visit us in between jobs when they find themselves with the gift of free time. There are the retirees and the flocks of teachers who descend in the summer, the hippies and the corporate team-builds. We love them all, and if you’re a volunteer reading this - thank you! You are an integral piece in the puzzle that is our local food system, and your hard work truly does help get fresh and nutritious vegetables from the JBG fields into our collective community. And if you’ve never volunteered with the farm before, we thought we’d take a quick moment to tell you about the program.

For most folks, the most exciting part of volunteering at JBG is the fact that after a day of volunteering, we’ll send you home with a giant bushel of veggies. We sometime hose corporate team builds (is this you??) and in these instances some groups decide to take their veggies home and some donate the fresh produce to local soup kitchens. If you come to volunteer at JBG, you'll choose between two locations: Hergotz or Garfield.  Whichever you choose, any good volunteer should leave with a bit of dirt under her fingernails, mud on her shoes, and a great big smile.

Hergotz Packing Shed: Monday-Friday, 8am-1pm

Okay, technically, if you come on a Monday we get started a little later… everyone needs to ease into the week. Our Hergotz Packing shed is located at 9515 Hergotz Lane and is just near the airport, behind Callahan’s General Store.

Volunteers at Hergotz help with all of the post-harvest processing of our vegetables, including the sorting and packing of produce for farmers’ markets and our CSA boxes. Volunteers at Hergotz should expect to stand the whole time and to work outside under a covered pavilion. Hergotz volunteers should expect to spend some time getting to know our carrots. Purple carrots! White carrots! Beautiful carrots! Carrots that hopefully have a great personality! Leg carrots! Volunteer at Hergotz and you’ll likely have a very funny carrot riding home on your dashboard. Though the majority of our need for volunteers at Hergotz is M-F, we occasionally need help on Saturdays welcoming home our weary market staff and helping them break down their trucks.

Our post-volunteering recommendations involve a field trip to Callahan’s (make sure you see the baby animals) or a beer at one of two nearby breweries: Live Oak or Hi Sign.

Did someone say carrots? Photo by Scott David Gordon

Garfield Farm Greenhouse Volunteering: Monday-Friday 8:30am-1pm

If you’re eager to get outside and experience ground zero of our local food system, plan to volunteer a day in our greenhouse. The address to our “Big Farm” where this volunteer shift is located is 4008 River Road, Garfield Texas. Look for the Garfield water tower, then go a bit further. (If you pass the gigantic Squirrel at Berdoll’s Pecan shop you’ve gone too far…).

Garfield volunteers can expect to help our Greenhouse Manager, Giana, in day to day greenhouse tasks including soil mixing, filling of flats, planting of seeds, and getting plants staged and ready to go for placement in the fields. If you’d prefer a volunteer shift that is predominantly seated, shoot us an email to see if there is a lot of seeding to be done; this job is usually done seated at a table, overlooking our perennial herb beds, with some faint Austin radio playing in the background. If it sounds dreamy, it is!

After a day on the farm, we recommend you swing by our favorite Thai restaurant in town, which happens to be located in Garfield: Little Thailand! 

Transplant Sale Volunteers: A Saturday Opportunity for all you 9-5ers!

We know that our weekday volunteer slots are prohibitive from many of you, and so we’re happy to announce that we have several Saturday volunteers opportunities coming up at our Annual Transplant Sale! On Saturday February 29th, March 7th, March 14, and March 21st we are looking for several volunteers to help us at our transplant sale, happening at our Garfield Greenhouses. The perfect activity to satiate your spring fever! Volunteers for these Saturdays will be given the option to take home a CSA box or some transplants as a thank you for their time. If you’re interested in planting a spring garden but don’t know where to start, come volunteer with us! You’ll have all day to choose your transplants and pick our farmers’ brains on how to grow your best garden yet. If you want to signup to volunteer at this sale, please email Angie directly with “Transplant Sale Volunteer” in the subject line - volunteer@jbgorganic.com .

Last year's greenhouse sale - so many happy gardeners! Photo by Scott David Gordon.

How to Volunteer:

It’s easy. Just fill out this Google Form and our Volunteer Coordinator Angie will confirm your volunteer shift. If you have any questions about volunteering or perhaps just need a purple top turnip recipe, don’t hesitate to reach out. If you’d like to volunteer for the Transplant Sale, skip the Google Form and just email Angie directly - volunteer@jbgorganic.com

Scheduled to Volunteer?

Please come dressed in closed you don’t mind getting dirty or wet and wear closed toed shoes. There are lots of hazards for open toes! If it’s cold, dress like an onion - in lots of layers. If it’s hot and you’re wearing a sleeveless top, we recommended you bring sun screen. Hats, water bottles, and a light snack are never a bad idea. Ever!

Angie, left, and some of our amazing volunteers. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

We asked our Hergotz Volunteer Coordinator, Angie, why folks should come volunteer with us and she responded, “They should consider volunteering with us because it is fun! They get loads of veggies and an inside look at how those veggies get to market. They will meet other people who are almost guaranteed to have similar interests….You get five dedicated hours to get to know interesting people.” Over the past 7 years we’ve had a wonderful lineage of folks leading the Volunteer Program: Marty, Andrew, Sarah, Ciara, Nicki… Angie joins the ranks of these wonderful JBGers, and even though she suggests you should volunteer to get to know other volunteers, we think you should volunteer to get to know Angie! And of course, come for the veggies and crazy carrots, too.