By Caroline Frank, NDF Volunteer

It is summer and in New England that often means fresh vegetables and farm stands.  At Wonderwell we enjoy local produce all summer long thanks to Peter Blank’s connection to the amazing Sweet Beet Farm located twenty minutes down the road in Bradford.  Yes, they are local—which means fresher produce and less pollution from shipping—but the sun-ripened tomatoes and squash and greens from Sweet Beet are so much more than local.  Sweet Beet Farm and its genesis, Kearsarge Food Hub (KFH), have a story to tell that overlaps strikingly with the mission of the Natural Dharma Fellowship.  For one, be mindful of what you are eating.

The regenerative farm was founded in 2015 by five friends who returned to Bradford after college with that very goal in mind.  The grads did not intend to stay in their hometown—all the messaging in college pushed them to go out into the world to solve problems—but after reconnecting over many meals and conversations, they discovered they had a common global concern best tackled at home. The environmental crisis underlying their mission is summarized in a headline from The Guardian earlier this year: “America is a Factory Farming Nation.” The article shows steep declines in all farms except the super-sized, while climate-friendly regenerative agriculture and conservation are rare and losing traction across the board in a market dominated by industrial ag. All of this is also a concern at NDF, which recently purchased a 170-acre adjacent farm.

Hanna Flanders, a founder and Director of Community Engagement at Kearsarge Food Hub, explains she and her friends had learned how most of the food we eat at home comes from an “industrial food system” that uses artificial fertilizers, polluting rivers and creating environmental dead zones, machinery that pumps out fossil fuel pollutants, and monoculture that decimates the soil.  “The Earth has lost 50 percent of its topsoil in the last 150 years!” she points out. “The industrial food system is a leading cause of climate change, poverty and, ironically, food insecurity.”

With youthful idealism, the group of friends set out to teach themselves how to farm, aiming ultimately to contribute to the vitality of the small-scale agricultural system grounded in community. Like most recent college graduates, they had few funds, but generous community members shared their dreams and loaned them plots of land, and one even contributed architectural plans for a roadside farm stand. From the start, the group sought to engage the community and other local farmers, whose products they sold at the Sweet Beet Farm Stand.

Today, a decade later, that seasonal roadside farm stand has moved across town to become a year-round indoor market and cafe. The project has blossomed into a fully formed regional institution: The Kearsarge Food Hub (KFH), home of Sweet Beet Farm + Market + Cafe.  A testament that with right effort and sangha, dreams do come true. Last year the one-acre farm produced nearly 20,000 pounds of certified organic food. It was offered in the Sweet Beet Market—now located in the once-derelict Bradford Inn, renovated by the team—but also to regular customers at places such as Wonderwell, Local Harvest CSA, Concord Farmer’s Market, and several local food pantries.  A total of 4,000 individuals received food donations from the Kearsarge Food Hub. Offering goods from 156 small food vendors based across New England, KFH is able to send $370,440 back to local farms from both purchasing for food donations and sales at the market and café. Education programs and community events have also been added to the KFH regular schedule, as well as training and encouraging future small farmers and environmental activists.

In a recent Sunday Dharma talk, Lama Willa zoomed in from Hawaii, where she is exploring permaculture, restorative land practices that engage people and the environment in a closed-loop system: no waste.  She discussed āina, the indigenous Hawaiian word for whole Earth, inclusive of all life, plants, animals, and spirit.  She pointed out that “We have lost our relationship to a whole living Earth.”  It is exactly this concern that has driven the hard-working team at Kearsarge Food Hub.

“The mysticism in the garden these days is in the compost,” says Pierre Hahn, one of the original founders who now oversees the farm.  “The way to get fertility in the garden is directly from the immediate environment. Even organic commercial fertilizers use minerals imported from all over the world”, he notes.  Pierre and his team of staff and volunteer gardeners go into the surrounding woods and gather up the forest floor detritus.  That combined with greens from the garden, food scraps from the market and cafe, wood chips from adjacent clearing, and hay donated by local farms makes a rich, steamy, smelly brew that keeps the farm soil alive.

Fostering an interconnection between the farm and the forest ecosystem is a stated goal at Sweet Beet. The farm is less than two acres but nestled in fifty acres of forest. “We would like to grow food in a reciprocal relationship with nature,” says Hanna. “We believe in the Earth as a life-giving force. We need to trust that Nature knows how to balance herself—that is the spiritual aspect of farming”, a regular volunteer adds.

At Kearsarge Food Hub farming and distribution is based in a “restorative local food system,” that is, producing food in a way consistent with ecological principles, as well as being humane, socially just, and equitable.  One of the many farm education programs offered at Sweet Beet is the Farm & Forest Club, offered especially to homeschoolers aged 6-12.  This allows children to learn the basics of farming while experiencing its connection to the surrounding natural environment. Similar programs are offered to primary public school students, high school students pursuing an Extended Learning Opportunity, and to college age and beyond through a dynamic Farmer Apprenticeship Program.

The team at Kearsarge Food Hub have always been aware that their farm and market sit on unceded N’dakinna land. This area had been a meeting site for Abenaki peoples for thousands of years. Over this time the gardens of Native peoples thrived in balanced coexistence with the environment. Out of deep respect for this past and the Abenaki still living and working in the community, KFH partnered with the Abenaki Trails Project and other partners to co-create the Abenaki Seed Project.  Last year they distributed Abenaki heritage seeds to over 50 local home gardeners. The harvest of hundreds of pounds of corn, beans, and squash went directly to the Abenaki Helping Abenaki food pantry.  Perhaps some of these seeds will end up in former front lawns, following KFH’s free distribution of a six-minute how-to video on transforming your lawn into a garden!

Below are ways to get involved. All are welcome. Also stop by to shop at the market, open Wednesday through Sunday, with grab-and-go options from the café during market hours, and weekend service of a full menu available Saturday and Sunday 9am-2pm. Located at 11 West Main Street, Bradford NH.

Resources:

To learn more: https://www.kearsargefoodhub.org/annual-report

Tour the farm, contact Julie: . 

To volunteer: http://www.kearsargefoodhub.org/volunteer 

Hanna Flanders on TEDx:   youtube.com/watch?v=j-S93CwDmgE

The state of American farming: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/15/us-agriculture-census-farming