Before applying, first read and understand this entire page. Contact us if you have any questions.
Glade Road Growing is a small, family farm in Blacksburg. We grow certified naturally grown vegetables year-round as well as pasture-raised pork and poultry, and sell directly to the public through our farm stand and farm share. Besides ourselves, we hire 3-7 additional people to help us. Many of our employees return for multiple seasons. Our farm business provides a livelihood for our family and our staff, which we take seriously. Like most small farms, ours is a continual work in progress.
All our positions require the following:
- Positive attitude
- Responsible and reliable
- Teachable
- Committed
- Comfortable receiving corrective and demonstrative feedback
- Adaptable and flexible with necessary plan changes due to weather, market, crew dynamics, etc
- Excellent physical fitness, range of motion and stamina
- Physical strength to lift 40 lbs without injury to yourself
- Can maintain your own physical and mental health
- Awareness for safety of self and others
- Can work fast to set a standard for others
- Can keep busy and not be distracted by cell phone or the adjacent brewery
- Has reliable transportation to arrive on time every day
- Comfortable working around children (our own and those that visit during camps/tours)
- Comfortable working around our large farm dogs (no other dogs permitted on the farm ever)
- Note- we do not allow the use of earbuds during work
Benefits to working here (besides starting wages listed) include:
- Fun and positive work culture
- Home-made lunch provided (M-F, 12:30 pm)
- Free produce for you/your family’s home consumption
- Discounted farm meats available in staff freezer
- Discounted meals and drinks at Rising Silo Brewery (no alcohol use permitted during work)
- Wage increases and bonuses with proven competency
First, read and understand this entire webpage. Contact us if you have any questions.
The work is physically and mentally demanding, but rewarding as well.
Being available for the full time frame listed for each position is important to us. Do not apply if you are not available for the full time commitment listed with each position. We allow up to 7 pre-arranged days off on a case-by case basis.
Upon hire, we do a paid 2 week trial period. After the trial period we’ll do a review together with you on work performance and trainability and determine if employment will continue with you for the season.
If you’re interested in applying, please fill out an application here, specifying the specific position you are interested in. If you are applying for multiple positions, fill out a separate application for each one.
We do background checks.
Have ready 3 work references upon request.
Current Openings
2025 Vegetable Crew Member
(full-time, seasonal, 40 hrs per week, flexible start date, April 1- May 1; goes through minimum Nov 1; starts at $15.50/hr)
Vegetable Crew Members are critical in the day-to-day workings of harvest, transplant, cultivation, prepping vegetables for sale and more. These are our most physically-demanding jobs and require stamina, constructive team-work and dedication, day after day, all season long. Our crew members work in small teams on the projects listed below:
- Bulk harvesting
- Daily harvesting needs
- Washing
- Packing
- Bagging
- Weeding
- Transplanting
- Trellising
- General farm tasks
- Help time tasks to establish benchmarks and record results
2025 Vegetable Crew Member – for VT First Generation Student Success Participants
(part-time, seasonal, 30-40 hrs per week, flexible start date, April 1- May 1 , goes through minimum Aug 8; starts at $15.50/hr)
We have positions reserved for participants in Virginia Tech’s First Generation Student Success Program. These positions may extend past the end date with successful completion of the main season and if the student’s fall schedule allows.
Vegetable Crew Members are critical in the day-to-day workings of harvest, transplant, cultivation, prepping vegetables for sale and more. These are our most physically-demanding jobs and require stamina, constructive team-work and dedication, day after day, all season long. Our crew members work in small teams on the projects listed below:
- Bulk harvesting
- Daily harvesting needs
- Washing
- Packing
- Bagging
- Weeding
- Transplanting
- Trellising
- General farm tasks
- Help time tasks to establish benchmarks and record results
2025 Poultry Processing Assistant
(part-time, seasonal, 8 hr days on approx. ~13 specific days, April 30 – Nov 24, starts at $15.50/hr)
Raising and selling pastured poultry is an important part of our farm and serves our community. Our poultry processing assistant will work in a small team to process and package the chickens, pekin ducks and Thanksgiving turkeys we raise. Our processing area is a VA state-permitted covered space outdoors behind our home and subject to outside temperatures (heat, cold, dampness). The restroom is in our house. A lot of water and spray down is involved with poultry processing. Blood, guts, and poop are all present on processing days. So is love, teamwork, and a shared mission to provide the best meat products we can where the animals lived a good life in fresh air on our farm rather than in an industrial confinement system.
The work is physically and mentally demanding, but rewarding as well. It’s more fun than it sounds like. Our current processing team is a group of stellar, positive and fun individuals.
The ideal candidate:
- Appreciates the value of sustainably-raised meat
- Has excellent observation skills and pays attention to detail
- Can move quickly and safely, especially with knives
- Is not bothered by the sight, smell and handling of poultry blood and innards
- Is teachable and welcomes instruction and correction to provide a food-safe and top-quality product for our customers
- High-paced commercial kitchen experience a plus
- Is available for at least 11 of the 13 days (entire 8-5 pm day) we are processing (exact schedule of dates below). Additional hours possible the day following processing days to help vacuum seal and label.
- Processing dates (pretty confident but subject to change):
- Wed, April 30- Broilers
- Wed, May 7- Broilers
- Wed, June 18- Broilers
- Wed, June 25- Broilers
- Wed, Sept 3- Broilers
- Wed, Sept 10- Broilers
- Wed, Oct 15- FR Broilers
- Wed, Oct 22- FR Broilers
- Mon, Nov 3- Pekin ducks
- Tue, Nov 4- Pekins ducks
- Thur, Nov 13- Turkeys
- Thur, Nov 20- Turkeys
- Mon, Nov 24- Turkey
Duties:
- Eviscerate poultry (training provided; apron and knives provided but bring your own rain boots and change of clothes)
- Occasional quality control of others’ eviscerated birds
- Help clean up after processing
- Assist in packaging, weighing, labeling, and storing finished product in walk-in cooler.
Check back for more postings throughout the season.
Thanks for your interest in being part of our farm!