Senior Assistant Grower at Sandy Lane Farm, Oxfordshire.

Location: Sandy Lane Farm, Sandy Lane, Tiddington OX9 2LA

Start date: Beginning March 2026

Term: Full time, 1 year fixed term contract, with opportunity to extend.

Salary/rate: £28k

Requirements: On a rota basis, few hours on the weekend once a month in the summer season; March – September. Time off in lieu in exchange. Assisting with on farm open days and events offered for paid overtime but not required.

Holiday entitlement: 28 days (which includes bank holidays) pro rata.

Benefits: Weekly organic veg box & 10% staff discount in the farm shop.

About us: Sandy Lane Farm is a 100-acre certified organic family run business. Our main focus is on growing and selling organic vegetables but we also have a small flock of sheep and pigs for meat and laying hens. We sell our veg through our thriving veg box scheme, an onsite shop, a market in Oxford every other week and some wholesale into Oxford colleges through the OxfarmtoFork scheme. We have an ethos of good communication, teamwork, efficiency and mucking in. We like to look at how we work from minor processes to overall systems to see how we can improve our work as well as celebrating the successes we have achieved as a team. Building a sustainable business, supporting our community and the land on which we grow.

This role is part of the growing team with a focus of responsibilities in the Market Garden. You will work closely with the Head Grower Market Garden to look after and monitor the Market Garden on top of the general responsibilities of all growers. We are a small team so all members get involved with all aspects of the business and are required to be flexible. The Growing team consists of 5 full time and 1 part-time workers. The week has a regular routine with variety throughout the year as required.

Weekly routine:

• Monday – Market Garden Harvest/jobs (spring/summer), Field Harvest/Field jobs (autumn/winter)
• Tuesday – Market Garden Harvest/jobs and bagging for boxes
• Wednesday – Market Garden Harvest and packing boxes, Market Garden jobs if staffing allows.
• Thursday & Friday – Market Garden jobs, Field jobs at some points of the year. Routine harvests in Market Garden when required. Harvest for Market every other Friday as required.

Responsibilities:

• Assist Head Grower Market Garden with all aspects of growing – propagation, planting, weeding, maintenance etc.
• Contribute ideas in planning meetings and day to day to help improve efficiencies of systems and meet our aims.
• Build an understanding of the growing plan for the market garden to have an awareness of the priority of jobs.
• Participate in record keeping of activities in Market Garden online and in paper Diary as instructed by Head Grower Market Garden.
• Supervising sub teams of employees and volunteers.
• Irrigation – work with the team to ensure areas are watered as required.
• Assist the head grower by coordinating the irrigation program in the summer months.
• Harvesting in the Field and Market Garden as required.
• Assisting Head Grower Field Scale with bigger/group jobs in the Field when instructed.
• Assist with bagging and Box packing as required on Tuesday and Wednesday, under instruction from Veg box manager.
• Assist with bagging for Shop and Market on Wednesday – Friday as required.

Candidate Requirements:

• 2 seasons growing experience from which candidate will therefore have good understanding of propagation, planting, weeding, harvesting and all basic market garden skills. This will enable them to work independently with minimal supervision required after initial induction.
• A genuine interest in organic growing principles, our farm, sustainability & the local food movement.
• A desire to do a job well. Whether that means caring about quality, speed, efficiency, the farm environment or teamwork.
• Good communication & Team working skills.
• Happy to get stuck in and be flexible.
• A positive, solution focused, can-do attitude.
• Ability to work outside in all weathers all year round.
• Experience working with volunteers and supervising others desired, not essential, but willingness to learn and supervise others less experienced than themselves.
• Willingness and ability to use Google sheets in line with our box packing software, Whatsapp and Trello (task management app).

Deadline for applications will be 21st November 2025. We will then contact those for an interview week of 28th November 2025. Interviews to be held on the farm between 1st -12th December 2025.