OUR ROOTS

Established in 2005, Girl & Dug Farm started in an 8-acre farm as "Lucky Growers," but not before founders Brian and Agnes Choi were lovingly pushed out of their prior fresh-cut flower business by their children who wanted them to enjoy retirement. Despite Brian and Agnes' plans to retire and grow flowers for the family's retail shop, their Korean Cucumbers and Sesame Leaf would be so well-received that the 8-acre farm blossomed into 60 acres. Obsessive and driven to discover, grow, and introduce the weirdly wild produce of the world, Brian and Agnes' son Aaron succeeded them in 2009, and so came "Girl & Dug Farm," a nod to his daughters and their lovable overweight beagle Dug. 

Today, we farm a total of approximately 180 acres, employing about 100 workers. We serve our unique vegetables to restaurants and chefs nationwide, including Michelin-starred in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York. Our “Lucky Growers” brand serves nearly all Korean retail markets in the US through retail partners and distributors. 

BRANCHING OUT INTO THE FUTURE

Food feeds our bodies but we rarely consider how it nourishes our mind and soul. Food brings people together. People together create conversation. Conversation among people kindles the understanding of others' culture, and thereby the world, a bit better. This is the intersection of farming and art, where we magnify food's unique superpower to make us whole--body, mind, and soul.

Promoting food diversity, practicing responsible farming techniques, and cultivating direct, intimate partnerships with the very chefs best able to translate one-of-a-kind raw ingredients into transformative flavors are all inseparable threads of weaving the future of food and farming. 

CULTIVATING CULTURE FOR GROWTH

We believe products are only as good as the company behind them, and companies are only as good as the employees that comprise them. We believe that culture is the sum of every member’s actions that align with the words prescribing them. We don’t always get everything right so we focus on learning how to make things right. Healthy relationships are the key to community and to that end, everything we do as a company places reasonable priority on building, maintaining, and nurturing relationships, be it internally among fellow workers or externally with our customers.

GENERAL DAY-TO-DAY FARM/OPERATION DUTIES

Personnel management and helping run basic production such as:

• Prioritize sowing, crop bed maintenance, weeding, transplanting as well as trellising and pruning.
• Maintain optimal growing conditions by managing fertilization, environmental controls along with monitoring plant & soil health.

• Help track plant succession, location of crops, production schedule/map and rotation cycles.
• Build and maintain logs of seeds required per rotation, seed procurement, seed-production yield across rotation/season to aid in forecasting.

• Identify and solve production-related bottlenecks such as reallocating resources, maintaining equipment/tools/methods, and improving infrastructure.

• Develop and follow a rigorous IPM schedule with checklists and continuous improvement protocols.
• Employ appropriate crop rotations with cover cropping and interplanting of insectary and beneficial buffer strips.

• Assist R&D projects: in addition to monitoring plant health/progress as above you will assist in growing experimental crops. These responsibilities include plant breeding, selection work and manipulation of environmental factors along with techniques to improve taste, nutrition, and other desirable traits.

PRODUCTION, IRRIGATION, FERTIGATION

Irrigation & fertigation are key aspects to production and requires you to go focus on the following:

• Build soil fertility by adding appropriate amendments and biological inputs along with remediating adverse conditions for optimal crop production.

• Maintain precise moisture level for each crop’s particular needs, know about and manage environmental conditions, root health, water quality/testing.

• Adjust irrigation, feeding and crop protectants according to all fluctuations regarding weather & seasons. 
• Ensure all irrigation equipment is properly functioning, bring to attention any problems and/or solutions to improve the system for water handling, injecting and delivering our precious water. 

• Continuously monitor and adjust all aspects of deploying fertilizers & chemicals into the irrigation system following each crop’s programs, schedules and cycles.

** We will provide all necessary training on various equipment, materials, vendors, crops, products, etc. and will help you become familiar with the information itself since much of it is unique to our company. Your job is primarily about organizing, maintaining, and building off of that information.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree in Science with preference in Horticultural Production or closely related studies
• 5+ years of farm experience, preferably irrigation/production responsibilities and though not required, any experience in greenhouse farming

• Technical proficiency in specific crop nutrient requirements including both mineral and organic inputs.
• Advanced knowledge and application of Integrated Pest Management
• Managing teams/groups of people with emphasis on team building, accountability and roles. Delegation and follow-up skills are essential

• Basic computer skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office esp. Excel and Word; Google Docs and Sheets fluency is a bonus

• Precise, intuitive (for others to follow) organizational skills
• Minimum of basic conversational Spanish highly preferred/recommended
• Reliable transportation to the farm is required -- we are not conveniently located for public transportation so please keep that in mind. 

NOTABLE QUALIFICATIONS

• Takes initiative by proactively identifying and bringing to attention all potential problems along with recommendations and remedies for solutions
• Creative, resourceful problem-solving team-builder
• Follows through on a task from start to finish with little supervision
• Willingness to learn and listen, be flexible, quick to adapt to changing circumstances
• Detail-oriented, observative
• Not afraid to disagree but works well with others