黑料正能量

June 8th, 2011

The latest improvement at Village Acres Farm in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, is a new kitchen and education center where Hope and Roy L. Brubaker 鈥�67 and plan to host cooking classes. They have been concerned lately about the health effects of poor diets. Maybe offering a crash course in cooking with fresh vegetables would be a way to help out.

There are plenty of fresh vegetables to be had at Village Acres Farm, where Roy and Hope run a weekly Community-Supported Agriculture, or CSA, program and supply a farmers cooperative that provides Washington DC and Baltimore with produce, flowers, eggs and poultry.

To keep up with all the work, the Brubakers employ several local people and host four or five farm interns each year. Over the past 15 years, several dozen interns have come and gone. Some have since started organic farms of their own, others have felt the Brubakers鈥� continuing influence in different ways, and either way, the little farm in Juniata County has had an outsized impact on the wider world.

In 2010, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture recognized Roy鈥檚 and Hope鈥檚 influence over the years by awarding the couple the organization鈥檚 Sustainable Agriculture Leadership Award.

鈥淸Roy and Hope] have been a real asset to that community,鈥� says Kent Sensenig 鈥�92, who became Village Acres鈥� first intern in the summer of 1993 and returned for two subsequent seasons.

Kent, who now teaches part-time in the Bible department at 黑料正能量, is working on his PhD from Fuller Theological Seminary. His dissertation includes a major focus on environmental and ecological ethics,聽an interest kindled at Village Acres Farm.

Kent and his wife Jennifer, also an intern at Village Acres for one summer, later worked for four seasons on an organic farm in Wisconsin. When Jennifer served as pastor of a church in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Kent ran his own CSA there for three years. (Jennifer David-Sensenig is now pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.)

Jen Hess 鈥�03 also continues to draw on her experience as a Village Acres intern in her job as services director for Goodwill Keystone Area, an organization that provides job training for adults with disabilities. One of the programs Jen works with is an organic farm and CSA.

Hess, whose favorite job at Village Acres was tying up tomato plants, and whose first accomplishment on Roy鈥檚 brand new lawn mower was crashing it, was the first services director at Goodwill Keystone Area with first-hand experience in organic farming.
鈥淩oy and Hope taught me about conscientious living,鈥� Hess writes. 鈥淲e ate well, cooked well and lived well. The best part of every day was everyone around the dinner table at lunch and dinner 鈥� [where] a lot of great memories were created.鈥�

Roy and Hope moved to Village Acres in 1982, after spending 15 years in East Africa with Mennonite Central Committee. While both of them worked off the farm, by the late 鈥�80s they鈥檇 begun growing significant amounts of produce, and a decade later, Roy began devoting his time completely to the farm after they started their CSA. It wasn鈥檛 a career choice without precedent; Roy鈥檚 parents (鈥渙ddballs,鈥� as he puts it) had an organic farm of their own near Mifflintown, long before the concept of 鈥渙rganic鈥� farming ever became widely understood.

One of the several new farms started by Village Acres interns is Plowshare Produce, run by Micah and Bethany Spicher Schonberg 鈥�01 in McAlevy鈥檚 Fort, Pennsylvania. On part of Bethany parents鈥� farm, Micah and Bethany operate a CSA with about 70 members and grow their produce on two acres, using horses for much of the fieldwork. They say Roy and Hope have been supportive and helpful in many aspects of starting Plowshare Produce, from day-to-day matters of growing vegetables and developing their business to modeling a dedication to community service.

Their appreciation for the example set by Roy and Hope prompted Bethany and Micah to nominate Village Acres for the leadership award the Brubakers recently received.

鈥淭he Brubakers have been mentors to us 鈥� by teaching us what successful and sustainable farming looks like: strengthening our agricultural community through service to our neighbors,鈥� wrote Bethany, in a speech she and Micah made when Roy and Hope accepted the award.

Another young farm with a long and close relationship to Village Acres is Blue Rooster Farm, run by Roy Dale Brubaker 鈥�92 and Julie Hurst 鈥�93, Roy and Hope鈥檚 son and daughter-in-law. While Roy Dale and Julie concentrate their efforts on pasture-raised beef and lamb, they too have been discovering the rewards of farming as a community-building activity.

Sometimes, it’s a matter of practicality, like when聽Roy Dale and Julie and a farmer neighbor take turns feeding each other鈥檚 animals when one of them is away. And at other times, it鈥檚 a matter of emotional support 鈥� starting a farm from nothing in an isolated, rural area is challenge enough, they say, and going it alone would have been hard to imagine. Keeping close ties with Village Acres, a half-hour away, and other sustainable farmers in the area, and building ties with more immediate neighbors,聽have been important parts of Blue Rooster Farm鈥檚 development.

鈥淸By doing this], you really build community, and you build it with people you might not think you鈥檇 have much in common with,鈥� says Julie.

That鈥檚 a lesson she and Roy Dale have been learning themselves as they鈥檝e become farmers, and it鈥檚 a lesson absorbed from her parents-in-law at Village Acres, who have been living it for decades.

鈥淲e always had an emphasis on community here,鈥� says Roy L., pausing for a moment in the muddy barnyard on a balmy February morning, a prelude to another busy spring at Village Acres. 鈥淲e see that as an important component of our farm life.鈥�