Practical Farmers Webinars
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Blog
Full-Time Software Developer Position
Posted on by Michael Caplan
HarvestHand is a small start-up company in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. Our mandate is to participate in building a vibrant local food economy by providing new media solutions that help to bring together farmers and food consumers in mutually beneficial ways.
JOB TITLE
Software Developer
This is a full-time, term position for a minimum of six months. Starts immediately.
TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- development and maintenance of HarvestHand Web based CSA software platform
- develop innovative new features and evolve current feature sets
- analyse software to ensure stability, availability, and performance
- identify and implement proactive solutions to address potential issues
- identify ideas for system improvements
- respond to customer support needs
- participation in preparation and implementation of training materials
- thrive in a startup environment and familiarity with launching “lean” software applications
QUALIFICATIONS
experience using:
- Linux
- Apache HTTP server
- MySQL relational database management system
- PHP programming language
- HTML
- CSS
- Javascript
FIELD OF STUDIES
Applicants should be graduates of a recognized computer science training program (degree or diploma) with a concentration in web development.
ELIGIBILITY
- be Canadian citizens, permanent residents or persons who have been granted refugee status in Canada;
- be between 15 and 30 years old (inclusive); required by funders.
- have graduated from a post-secondary institution;
- be legally entitled to work according to relevant provincial legislation and regulations; and
- be a first-time youth participant in a placement of the Career Focus Program of the Youth Employment Strategy.
- Read more about HarvestHand
Apply by March 25, 2015
Send resume and cover letter to
New Product Launch: What's Fresh by HarvestHand
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News Release
January 17, 2015
Launch of What’s Fresh! A new shopping list tool to help consumers make the most of their visit to the Wolfville Farmers’ Market
The Wolfville Farmers’ Market is thrilled to launch What’s Fresh!, a new first-of-its-kind shopping list software tool for Farmers’ Markets. Market customers can now browse for real-time information about Vendors and available Products for the upcoming Market day on their desktops or mobile devices. What’s Fresh makes it easier for people to browse what’s available at the farmers market market, plan meals, remember everything on their shopping list and support local businesses.
What’s Fresh was designed by HarvestHand, a community-shared software development company with a vision to strengthen food and farm communities. The HarvestHand community have lead a number of local food new media projects including HarvestHand CSA Software- management software for Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) producers, F5://Food (Refresh)- a 48 hour idea lab for local new media and food solutions, and a World Map of CSA Farms.
“I am very proud of the Wolfville Farmers’ Market for taking this innovative step to help deliver greater service to its customers. This tool is designed to help families plan their in-season meals and shop at the Market more effectively. We want to help them get the job done, while also enjoying the Market experience,” said Market Manager, Kelly Marie Redcliffe.
“A Farmers’ Market is a unique environment where every week there is a 4.5 hour window of time for over 60 vendors to offer their products with over 1000 people who are also neighbours with one another. We thought it would be great to make it easier to browse what’s available at the Market from home on Friday and make up a shopping list to take with you,” explained Redcliffe, and further to that. “Because we have an IT community particularly interested in building community food systems, we decided to embrace this new adventure. It has been wonderful to work with HarvestHand as they built this tool; and it is our hope we can over time make it more and more effective for us and for the Farmers’ Market community as a whole.”
First time users of the tool can show their What’s Fresh shopping list at the Information Booth to enter to win $50 Market Dollars. The draw will take place on the last Saturday of each month for the next three months.
The url for What's Fresh is: www.wolfvillefarmersmarket.ca/whatsfresh. It can be added to a home screen on mobile devices or bookmarked on desktops for easy access and use.
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For More Information:
Kelly Marie Redcliffe
Manager, Wolfiville Farmers’ Market
(p)902.697.3344
(c)902.690.7951
Duncan Ebata
Food Community Builder, HarvestHand.ca
(p) 902-542-5310
Food Webinars and Teleconferences- January 2015
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Organic Field Crop Production & On-farm Breeding Hosted by: The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14 FROM 3:00 PM TO 4:30 PM ET This unique webinar will provide both technical, agronomic information regarding field crop production best practices and strategies, as well as an overview and results-to-date of our participatory plant breeding program. This webinar will benefit anyone interested in pursuing on-farmbreeding, as well as those looking to generally improve their field crop farming systems. We’ll hear from Anne Kirk (Participatory plant breeding project coordinator, University of Manitoba) and Dr. Martin Entz (Agronomy professor, University of Manitoba). The following topics will be covered: Crop rotations for organic crop production; Choosing the right green manure crop; Overview of the participatory plant breeding program; Results from an evaluation of farmer selected wheat populations. Sign up here |
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Character Capital: FarmWorks – Investing in farm businesses Hosted by: Food Secure Canada and FarmStart TUESDAY JANUARY 22 FROM 1:00 PM TO 2:00 PM ET Part of the Webinar series on the New Farmers Initiative. FarmWorks Investment Co-operative is a Nova Scotian for-profit cooperative that allows community members to invest in local farm businesses. Linda Best will share her experience of how FarmWorks was established and how they finance new farmers. Christie Young of FarmStart will join us to help show the applicability of the FarmWorks model across Canada. This will be instructive for anyone interested in farm and social finance. Sign up here |
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Quality Assurance in Ecological Seed Production Hosted by: The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security WEDNESDAY JANURAY 28 FROM 4:00 PM TO 5:30 PM ET Each seed a farmer purchases and plants is an investment in the harvest, on which their livelihood depends. Farmers need to know that their seed will be high quality, and reliable. This webinar will provide information on how to provide quality assurance. Presenters will speak to such topics as: Storage criteria, viability (including moisture content and germination tests), and seed vigour; Ethics and quality assurance. This is the last webinar in the 2014-2015 series from The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security. Not to be missed! Sign up here |
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Lessons Learned: Effective Internship and Apprenticeship Programs Hosted by: Food Secure Canada and FarmStart THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5 FROM 1:00 PM TO 2:30 PM ET This webinar is for everyone interested in how best to teach the next generation of farmers. Rachel Schell-Lambert from the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA)-NY, Jordan Marr from SOIL and David Alexander from Everdale, all established and respected programs, will share their experiences in this panel discussion. There are myriad issues involved in designing and running training programs that truly prepare students to run their own farm business. Among others, identification of demographic and learning style, selection of trainers and trainees, training methods, suitable location, relationship management and liability are key aspects to consider when constructing or implementing training, internship and apprenticeship programs. Sign up here |
Brought to you by:
Food Secure Canada - Réseau pour une alimentation durable
3720 avenue du Parc, suite 201
Montréal, QC H2X 2J1
Canada
Montréal, QC H2X 2J1
Canada
foodsecurecanada.org
alimentationdurable.ca
Peruse and watch recordings of previous FSC webinars
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Freaks of the Garden and Increasing Facebook Engagement
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People love videos. If a photo is like a 1000 words, how many words is a video? A million? Billion? Video's are a powerful tool for membership engagement and they are practical for social media too. You've likely noticed that your Facebook page posts are seen by far fewer people than 2 years ago. This is because Facebook's algorithm changed and only a small portion (16% of your fans on average) of your posts now are actually seen by people who have "liked" your page. Unfortunately, this will continue to get worse and investing in paid advertising is a must.
That said, there are a few ways you can increase the views of your Facebook posts. One of the best ways to continue to help ensure that your members see your posts is to create posts that encourage comments, likes, and shares. Other than questions which are the best for comment engagement, photos, photo albums, and videos are the best free ways to do this (see 5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Engagement by Social Examiner).
According to Facebook, posts that include a photo album, picture or video generate about 180%, 120% and 100% more engagement, respectively.
By sharing photos and videos that people engage with (comment, share, or like), you can drastically increase the chances of your fans seeing your posts.
Here are 3 examples of different farm videos that worked to grow Facebook page engagement with video:
Freaks of the Garden from Peaceful Belly Farm
This video is what inspired this blog post.
Tomehto tomoato by Manna Farm
Quirky and fun idea to show variety of vegetables.
Is this really spring? by Tim at Strawberry Hill Farm
Simple is beautiful. Smart use of video combined with a question.
Key Takeaways for Improving Facebook Engagement
1. Every Facebook post needs a photo, photo album, or video.
2. Make a plan to invest in Facebook Advertising
3. Make a schedule to take more videos and photos on the farm
Book a Free Marketing Consultation!