FARM PROFILE They've Got the Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night

Summer is a farm's sexiest season, literally a colorful bounty of plant reproduction. Crates of rainbow tomatoes and bouquets of double-petaled dahlias speak for themselves. They are as alluring to us as to the pollinators. The hot days of harvest provide the raw material for advertising the work of a farm for the rest of the year. &emsp;&emsp;Knowing this, some farmers might be disappointed to be featured in a magazine's winter issue. The winter season on the farm is stripped of its colorful distractions and mind-numbing workload. It is a time for maintenance, repair and reflection. &emsp;&emsp;Yet, some farmers, like Craig Jensen and his wife and farm partner, Megan Jensen, know that this work, often unseen, is ultimately the work that guides and supports the summer season and is, therefore, the most fundamental. Winter gives them the necessary time to look more closely at their life and business, Sun Moon Farm, in Rindge, New Hampshire. &emsp;&emsp;Sun Moon Farm is on the site of the now-closed Meeting School, a Quaker secondary school that operated from 1957-2011. The Jensens were part of three families — former teachers at the school — who purchased the land in 2013 to develop a community farm and a small co-housing neighborhood called South of Monadnock. The farm operates as a community CSA for 20 weeks, both locally and with a satellite location at Cornerstone Village Cohousing in Cambridge, Massachusetts. &emsp;&emsp;In the winter months, the farm offers direct sales of fresh greens from their unheated hoop houses. Sun Moon Farm also supplies onions, carrots and garlic to the Monadnock Co-op. Their hard neck garlic, developed on the farm, boasts four perfect giant cloves and is as coveted in the kitchen as seed stock. Additionally, the Jensens steward a collection of heirloom and rare dahlia tubers. &emsp;&emsp;This fall, The Cheshire County Conservation District (CCCD) honored Sun Moon Farm with the "Cooperator of the Year" award. The award recognizes "the efforts that the recipient has undertaken to steward the natural resources in their land in cooperation with the CCCD and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)." &emsp;&emsp;The award recognizes both the environmental and social collaborations of the farm. Their work with NRCS includes seasonal high tunnels, insectary strips, pollinator plantings and cover crops. Their work to fortify social and community relationships is equally diverse, including food access work, business networking and support, clean energy infrastructure, community social events and an inclusive and organized volunteer culture. &emsp;&emsp;In September, the farm held a celebratory lunch with their CCCD and NRSC partners in the barn; the last of the curing garlic moved to the wings. After the meal, they exited through the back of the barn, past a pollinator bed, and propagation greenhouse, out past the fields of dahlias in their final moment of brilliance. After a record summer rain season, a soil scientist took Craig Jensen aside to compliment his soil retention. As Jensen looked across the field, he recalled watching the topsoil wash down the fields in August. It felt good to be affirmed and acknowledged, but his feelings were also complicated. &emsp;&emsp;"I feel like we were barely making it this year," notes Jensen. "And I feel like that shouldn't be awarded." &emsp;&emsp;The "that" he is talking about is the idealization of the farmer, at the same time that so many societal factors are making the career an untenable professional choice. When we recognize a farmer's success, there could be the misconception that things are going well. That's because they are making sustainable choices for the environment and the community, and their work is also sustainable. This narrative is perpetuated by the physical beauty of the work itself. It is hard not to fetishize the farm. &emsp;&emsp;"This year is harder than it has ever been," says Jensen. "Many times this season, me and Megan locked eyes saying 'We are not going to do this again,'" and now the work begins to define what "this" is. &emsp;&emsp;The Jensen's farming skills, their desire to farm, and the necessity of the farm have all been solidly established. The COVID-19 pandemic loudly reinforced the demand for local food. Still, it also reinforced the limitations and vulnerabilities of the farm, including access to help, land capacity, the artificial boundaries of food commodity prices and the very real limits of time and weather. &emsp;&emsp;Ten years ago, at Sun Moon Farm's start, filling 40 shares felt like a big ask of their community. Now, they have no problem filling their 130 shares. They are discussing adding a final additional 20 shares — having determined that 150 members is the largest their model can support. &emsp;&emsp;Their CSA membership is diverse, rural and urban, individuals and families, with varying incomes and politics. It is important for the Jensens that they provide value. In regard to food prices, this model has always been that they provide 10 items each week, each item equivalent to about $3.00. Even with the most recent inflation of food prices, food prices have not drastically increased since the CSA's start and have always been divorced from the true cost of energy and labor inputs. &emsp;&emsp;The Jensens also provide value in a myriad of ways that are currently not part of the compensation model. To Craig Jensen, part of the unspoken contract of community-supported agriculture is access to your farmer; for him, this means a farmer-delivered CSA. It is a collective 11 hours of work time, meeting, greeting and sharing that moment of transfer. The farm's donation to the Rindge Food Bank also means an additional two hours. This is important, meaningful work, but it is of no direct economic value. &emsp;&emsp;The Jensens know that they are not paying themselves or their farm interns enough and that all of them could get work outside the farm starting at $15 an hour, a far higher monetary exchange for their time. Food costs everywhere still reflect the reality that the food system works by paying farmworkers unsustainable wages for their labor. &emsp;&emsp;At Sun Moon Farm, the number of CSA members has reached its upper limit, and the price of the CSA also has a price ceiling. What it ultimately means is that the farm "is carrying too much work and too little resources," notes Craig Jensen. &emsp;&emsp;Faced with the complications of moving his farm into a sustainable future, it is his spirit of cooperation that keeps Jensen hopeful. He feels buoyed by this work with his organization, Farmer's Helping Farmers, where he can find camaraderie to tackle problems in the field, improve food access, and feel supported in his fatigue. &emsp;&emsp;Also, in the season of 2019, the Jensens put together a group of CSA members and mentors in a group currently known as Friends of the Farm. The idea was to create a steering and oversight committee for the farm. Since its beginning, Megan and Craig have held sole responsibility for the creative and business decisions of the farm, and they are now ready to share that heavy load. &emsp;&emsp;Friends of the Farm was vital in responding to the practical questions of producing food during a pandemic, but hopefully, now can turn its attention to the structural and ideological conversations that can only happen on a farm in the quiet of winter. &emsp;&emsp;This structure of oversight, the idea that others can help us hear what we are called to do, is one of the Quaker traditions. Quakers believe in the power of inward listening. This practice, or worship, is sometimes called "expectant waiting," another form of time with no monetary value. Patience is required, in very much the Quaker tradition; the collaborators of our dreams are often unseen. BOX: Sun Moon Farm 21 Thomas Road Rindge, NH 03461 603-899-2806 Sunmoonfarm.org