Mushroom Farm Harvesters/Pickers, Leckford Estate

Job description

Job Type

Agriculture

Region

South East England

Location

Leckford

Preferred Hours

Full and Part Time

Partnership Level

10

Closing Date

5/1/2020

Vacancy Type

Permanent

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Salary

£8.40 - £10.00 plus overtime depending on experience and reward for performance and productivity

Salary Frequency

per hour

Hours of Work

- Full time 39 hours per week, Start time 07:00, latest finish 18:00
- Part-time 20 hours per week 10:00 - 14:00

Both full and part-time rotas to work 5/7 days to include weekends, plus overtime as and when required to complete the harvest.

Flexibility required to complete the harvest.

Duties & Responsibilities

--- About the role ---

As a Mushroom Farm Harvester, you will be hand-harvesting mushrooms from our growing rooms, ensuring optimal picking rates, punnet and tray weights, mushroom quality and presentation. Playing an important part of a wider team responsible for supplying high-quality mushrooms to our Waitrose & Partners supermarkets.

This position includes harvesting mushrooms from shelves, cleaning and preparing facilities and the growing beds, preventing mushroom disease and other tasks specific to the mushroom industry.

In this role you'll be part of a dynamic, vibrant team in an exciting environment where performance is rewarded. We are seeking Harvesters who enjoy working individually and as part of a diverse team.

Due to the nature of the role, you must have reliable transport to the farm and be available and flexible to work until the end of harvesting operations if required.

Full training will be provided.

More information about our Mushroom Farm:
Click here

--- About the Mushroom Farm ---

At the Leckford Estate we sustainably grow and pick first quality fresh mushrooms every day, all year round. We have 16 growing rooms specifically created for mushroom crop production. We produce the finest quality Chestnut mushrooms, including pre-packed products and loose products. Mushrooms are harvested at different times of maturity producing different product lines.

Our crop consists of five lines in total: Chestnut Cups, Portabellini, Portabella, South of England and 2kg loose Chestnut Cups. In order to achieve the finest mushrooms, each room maintains a 16-18-degree temperature. We have been producing mushrooms on the Estate since 1986 and typically harvest 25-26 tonnes of Chestnut mushrooms per week; each is carefully handpicked and packaged for protection.

--- About Leckford ---

We are a 4,000-acre estate near Stockbridge, Hampshire. The estate was purchased in 1929 by John Spedan Lewis, founder of the John Lewis Partnership, and we have been farming it now for nearly 90 years.

We are the Waitrose Farm and our produce is supplied to Waitrose stores across the country. The estate is diverse and our commercial businesses span property, food production, farming, retail and leisure activities.

We care passionately about British farming and the environment and we practice 'The Waitrose Way' of healthy living, fair treatment, treading lightly on the environment and championing British produce.

Take a look at our interactive video to learn more about the Leckford Estate.

Job Requirements

Due to the set-up of the growing rooms and the nature of the role, you'll require a positive attitude, strong attention to detail as well as good hand-eye coordination. The role is active with standing, kneeling and working at height required.

The main responsibilities of our Mushroom Farm Harvesters are:

- Correct selection and handling of mushrooms from the growing bed
- Correct trimming of the stalk. Quality grading of the mushrooms
- Assessing product presentation.
- Assessing the correct punnet/tray weights
- Monitoring and maintaining a high picking rate
- Keeping the picking area free of debris. Cleaning and stripping the beds
- Flexible and adaptable and willing to help out in other areas of the Mushroom Farm and the Estate if and when required
- Showing attention to detail in all aspects of their work
- Working on their own initiative and unsupervised for short periods within the working day
- Instinctively demonstrating good Partnership behaviours in the workplace

Required essential experience skills and qualifications

- Language - Good command of English
- Own transport, due to the location of the estate
- Good hand-eye coordination
- Good awareness of food quality and safety and good health and safety awareness

Required desirable experience skills and qualifications

- Basic food hygiene certificate
- Previous experience of harvesting fresh produce (fruit and/or vegetables; preferably mushrooms)
- Previous experience of working unsupervised
- Previous experience of any work that requires good hand-eye coordination over long periods of time

Please consider the following when making your application:
- We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications. Therefore, we recommend you apply early
- Print off the job description now if you require it
- Ensure you have an up-to-date CV

Internal use only:

Please click here to view & download the job description  

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