





Work Exchange at the Milkweed Mercantile!


The Milkweed Mercantile is looking for Work Exchangers for our upcoming 2020 season. Come to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage for an immersive experience deeper than the regular (and more expensive) visitor program!
We are seeking two or more folks who are passionate about and interested in learning more about sustainable living, local and organic food, whole-foods cooking, eco-hospitality, sharing a more sustainable life with like-minded people; who have customer service, restaurant or other hospitality experience; and who enjoy working with the public.
We’d like you to spend three months or more with us here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, where you’ll live in a straw bale building, eat your meals in a food cooperative and participate fully in our community. Please be 21 or older and available for at least three consecutive months between April and October, 2020.
About the Milkweed Mercantile
The Milkweed Mercantile is a cooperatively-run cafe, bar, inn, and store at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. Our mission is to provide meaningful work and to demonstrate a life that is sustainable in all ways. We provide rooms and meals for Dancing Rabbit Seminars & Workshops, host a weekly Pizza Night (where even the dough is made from scratch), have a bar that is open two hours a day with three beers on tap and a dozen other local brews in the fridge, host coffee hour each morning, and serve as an informal Dancing Rabbit Welcome Center. Our wrap-around screened-in front porch is a popular gathering place each evening as the sun goes down and the fireflies come out.
The Mercantile itself is a two-story straw bale building, built by early DR members Kurt and Alline (aka “The Milkweeds”). We collect rainwater off the roof and store it in a 7,000 gallon cistern, and use this water for drinking, cooking and bathing. Filtered twice before reaching the tap, our water consistently passes health department inspections and is delicious!
Wexer Job Description, 2020, Milkweed Mercantile
You will have a 30 hour workweek that may involve split shifts. These 30 hours do not include your weekly cook shift with your food cooperative, or community rotational chores such as taking a turn cleaning the Common House, loading firewood, and doing a humanure shift..
TASKS
Kitchen (training provided)
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Wash dishes and put them away in the correct places
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Help with cooking (the Mercantile provides meals for workshops and seminars)
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Help with baking (cakes, cookies, pies, bread)
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Help with food preservation (canning, drying, fermenting)
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Assisting with Pizza Night traffic flow, customer service, busing tables
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Sweeping/dusting/cleaning kitchen, dining room/store, porch and patio
Inn (training provided)
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Interact with guests - show them their rooms, explain the toilets and other systems, answer questions
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Cleaning upstairs lounge, toilet, sinks and shower
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Cleaning downstairs shower and toilet
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Keeping the lounge and stairs dusted and swept
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Assist with laundry
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Be a friendly presence at the Mercantile
Garden/landscaping (training provided)
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Maintain West and South garden spaces
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Maintain landscaping around patio space
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Plant and maintain veggies/herbs in available spaces (if interested)
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Harvesting from shared gardens
Provided for Mercantile Work Exchangers
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Small shared room in the Mercantile with private door to outside.
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Use of Mercantile wifi, showers, composting toilets, air-conditioned guest lounge, clothesline.
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Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at a food cooperative
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One pizza each Friday (usually at end of shift)
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Monthly stipend of $50 for incidentals (paid at end of each month)
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Transportation from local train station/bus station/airport to Dancing Rabbit, and back at the end of your internship
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Local transportation via the Dancing Rabbit Vehicle Cooperative (for community or Mercantile events)
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Does not include: coffee, tea, soda or alcohol, or snacks purchased at the Mercantile; or use of Mercantile clothes washer.
We like what the Goat Co-op said about life at Dancing Rabbit: "There are storms, ticks, poison ivy, and interpersonal challenges. There are days that are really, really hot and everyone feels crabby. There are also the swimming pond, song circle, dance parties, potlucks, 280 acres with paths, and the chance to experience deeply what it is like to live a life that consumes 90% fewer resources than the average American."
Click here for access to our Work Exchange Application - be sure to mention the Milkweed Mercantile on your application. For any questions, please contact alline@milkweedmercantile.com. Thanks!