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December 2021
Transition update by Joanna
We delayed this newsletter hoping that we’d have clearer news about what will happen on this land after we move on. We don’t have that clarity yet, though we’re hopeful about some possibilities that have opened up.
The process of searching for another group to receive the land has made us more aware of the ways in which we’re unusual. St Francis Farm’s stated mission is to live an alternative to the consumer culture. This has also meant we’re outside the usual nonprofit model. Sometimes I have seen this as a strength. In this transition time it’s also a challenge.
We’ve never had large preplanned programs that allowed or required grant-writing. Instead the farm has been able to respond to the needs that didn’t fit the larger programs around us. In our first year at the farm an elderly couple called us because they had a hole in their roof. Rain was coming in, and soon there would be snow. They had been told they weren’t eligible for weatherization assistance. The agency that ran the program explained the couple wasn’t spending enough on fuel to qualify for weatherization assistance, probably because they didn’t have enough money… We couldn’t give them the new roof they needed, but we patched the hole. Later when we worked with Catholic Charities and Literacy Volunteers we built relationships with some people who needed the help they gave but didn’t meet their criteria. We could respond to our neighbors’ needs without needing much money because the land and our own labor provided so much of what we needed. We grew food and heated with firewood, and Zachary learned how to fix whatever was broken and build whatever needed building (often with lumber he’d sawn out from our trees).
This way of life came to seem normal to us. But as we talked with other organizations about taking on this property, many groups doing very good work asked us about endowments, major donors, and grants. They looked at the buildings and saw expensive infrastructure that would have to be maintained by a hired caretaker. They imagined programs they could run here but didn’t see how to raise money to pay the people who would implement the programs. The possibilities we were considering as we wrote our last newsletter didn’t work out. Habitat for Humanity decided that we did not fit their mission, and Oswego County Opportunities has been too busy dealing with COVID and other emergencies to follow up on the initial interest they showed.
While we had those conversations, I also sought legal advice about the technicalities of dissolving a nonprofit corporation. I tried my usual DIY approach, looking up information on the New York State Charities Bureau website. They gave some instructions and said to contact the state Attorney General for further advice. When I called the numbers and wrote to the email addresses listed, nobody responded. So I inquired about hiring a law firm with considerable experience in nonprofit work. I imagined asking them an hour or two’s worth of questions about the bits of the forms I didn’t understand. They told me that I’d need many hours of services which would cost me tens of thousands of dollars–their estimate was equal to the amount of money we’ve saved over these twenty years. I told them I couldn’t do that, but they said they’d still be glad to give me a one-hour free consultation and look at options. I gratefully accepted their offer.
During the consultation it was clear that we came from different worlds. They initially assumed that we must be closing because we lacked money, and also that we knew nothing about the legal requirements for maintaining and dissolving nonprofits because we didn’t have a lawyer. I explained what we were doing and what I already knew, and they became less condescending. They still urged that nobody really wanted land and buildings, and that we should sell the land and donate the proceeds to a nonprofit since everyone wanted money and many knew how to keep it growing. They said that we were not legally required to hire attorneys for any part of the dissolution process, but that in fact we couldn’t manage without them. When I asked how long it would take to get the Attorney General’s approval (or challenge) once we submitted our dissolution plan, they said that it could take months but would go faster if we were represented by hired attorneys who knew workers in the Attorney General’s office personally. This sounded to me like a lawful equivalent of bribery. Plainly it sounded to them like the normal way of the world. They said that the contact information given free on the state website was not helpful and that instead I should contact the local assistant Attorney General, whose contact information they gave me. They also suggested contacting the Central New York Community Foundation (CNYCF), which works with many nonprofits in the area and might be able to suggest organizations interested in land.
Those contacts were very helpful. The local assistant Attorney General responded promptly and said that our dissolution plan could be processed in 2-4 weeks. That reassured me that we still had time to find a group that could make good use of our land, if there were any such groups. While we were strongly disinclined to just sell the property, we were starting to give up on finding someone who could use the buildings we’d built and maintained, the fields we’d kept clear, or the gardens whose soil we’d built up. The Cooperative Extension had expressed interest in using this as a teaching farm when we first asked them, but they never followed up. Later we contacted the Tug Hill Tomorrow land trust. They were interested in the forested land but not in the buildings and farmland. They hoped to get in touch with the Extension and perhaps work out a partnership, but it’s been several weeks with no word from them.
CNYCF got us in touch with some organizations that were interested in working with the farmland and forest and in using the buildings. This included the Syracuse Refugee Agricultural Program (SYRAP) of Refugee and Immigrant Self-Empowerment (RISE). I was especially glad of that contact. Early in our search I had contacted a farm where refugees grew food to use and share, but I hadn’t heard back. As soon as I reached out directly to RISE they responded thoughtfully. Several of their staff came out to meet us and look at the farm in mid-November. Like our earlier visitors from the Onondaga Nation, and unlike most visitors since then, they seemed to see the buildings and the farmland as useful resources not problematic expenses. We greatly enjoyed our conversations with them and we hope they may be able to use this property.
We still have some time to think about all this. I am now planning to intern at Koinonia Farm starting in June, not February. Moving to Georgia at the beginning of summer may be a bit of a climate shock. On the other hand, it will give me time to deal with SFF’s legal paperwork, take care of things here while Zach is away fixing his house in the Adirondacks, and help the new farmers here, whoever they may be, get acquainted with this land. I am grateful for my time here. I’m looking forward to learning to care for another piece of land and another community, and to hearing about the good work that will go on here once we have gone.
Thank you again to everyone who has supported the farm in many ways through its many changes. People keep thinking that SFFC must need more money, but we really have enough. We hope that people with money to give will give it to places that need it now as we do not. We would be delighted if you took time to write us letters and share your memories of this place. Most of all we’d be grateful for your prayers in this time of transition.
Letting Go by Lorraine
This confusing transition time offers me lessons in letting go. I like to plan ahead but it is hard to do given all the unknowns. However good this life has seemed to me, I’ve had to let go of the idea that others would also value it or be willing to live it. I keep running up against the limitations of my energy or time or perception. After 20 years of living in a barn with all the space that implies, the small house Zach bought this fall prompts me to let go of some of my ‘stuff.’ I’m trying to remember what I’ve often told others: that letting go can lighten our load, that loss of illusions means a clearer view of truth, and that what we can no longer use may be a gift someone else can use.
Over the past few months I’ve been frustrated and disappointed by the difficulty of finding successors for this place. Seeing how others see our life here at first surprised me and then raised doubts. I’ve had to let go of concern over how I look to others and of my expectation that I can figure out this transition and make it work and to remind myself that what is beyond my control cannot be my responsibility. Everything is always in God’s hands, but that becomes clearer when I am forced to see my own helplessness.
I’m grateful for Joanna’s and Zachary’s patience and help with what was once my work. And I’m thankful that I can still do something—harvest herbs for drying and tincture, render lard, keep in touch with elders by phone, cook some of the meals, answer some of the mail, pay bills and keep records. I’m grateful for walks in the autumn woods, for Venus and Jupiter shining bright each evening through November, for the red-tailed hawk that has perched near the buildings day after day, for the brooks full from fall rain and for the lacy ice along their edges when the cold set in.
When we finally were able in mid-October to go look at the house that Zach had bought, I planted daffodil bulbs on either side of the front door and 100 garlic cloves in a hastily dug square on the lawn. The maple trees on the north and west of the house were in full fall color and I pictured my swing under one of them and looked forward to planting more perennials on the steep slope in front of the house. We measured inside and out and began thinking about what would fit in the space we had. Somehow this feels to me like an invitation to know what I want to keep and what I am ready to let go.
Just when the transition was looking most discouraging, Paula and Kathy (the women who had been coming for vegetables all summer) came for lunch and a visit. I had gathered things we couldn’t take with us and didn’t think our successors would want. There were crafts we’d made and brought from Maine, fabric, finished toys and parts to make the things we used to make for refugees and later did with families here or with elders at Springbrook before COVID. We were surprised and delighted that after a couple phone calls, they took all of it. That left some spaces clear that had been crowded and cluttered and the satisfaction of knowing that things would be put to good use.
Still uncertain who will be here after us, we have to wait to see what they will want or be able to use. Records of the corporation we formed in 2003 will need to be kept for some time. Some of the letters and records will go with me or be sent to the Catholic Worker archives. Years ago we packed away photo albums and scrapbooks from a few years before we came that may be of interest to someone who was here then. There are also posters, Catholic music books, Companions to the Breviary, books on Catholic social teaching etc. that anyone interested would be welcome to take.
I feel discomfort at the uncertainties of this transition time, and the rest to which I look forward still seems distant, but I also feel hopeful. Letting go clears spaces in me as well as on the shelves, and I trust that they will be filled with good things as well as new challenges and grace sufficient to meet them.
Zach’s Work
This fall has been a busy time for me, though I have done less work here at the farm and in the area than usual. Late in September I bought an abandoned house in the town of Piercefield, just west of Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks, through the county tax auction. I wasn’t permitted to access the property till the deed was recorded in mid-October, and when I was able to inspect what I had bought I found that it needed to be almost completely torn apart on the inside, though the outside was in good condition save for the back roof. I’ve spent 11 days up there working on the house this fall, and have removed everything that needed to go, replaced the rear roof and jacked up and straightened some parts of the frame. One part of the stone foundation is damaged and if I have not found a mason by then to do the work I may attempt it myself in the spring. There is no floor in the kitchen till I can get the foundation fixed and jack up the kitchen walls. All of the plumbing and wiring need to be replaced, and I will insulate the house while the walls are open. Also new windows and a new septic system will need to be put in in the spring. It’s getting too wintry now to make the 120-mile trip very convenient, so I will likely only visit the house during an occasional warm spell, if we have some this winter. Once spring comes I will need to put in quite a bit of time to make the house livable so my mother and I can move up there in late spring or summer, but it will be easier to travel and to work then than during the winter.
The loft at the sawmill building is almost empty this fall. Normally I would be trying to fill it up to have wood to sell through the winter, but that seems less necessary this year. Late in the summer we had good conditions for skidding logs but my back was giving trouble, and in the fall it has been very wet, and in the few dry spells we have had I have been gone to work on my new house. Late in November we had a morning when the ground froze hard and I was able to skid out some logs from dead ash trees I had cut for firewood this fall. We will have some ash to sell this winter, but probably no other lumber. The summer firewood for next year is all in the sheds now, and all that remains is to finish filling the sugar house woodpile with slab wood. We intend to make at least some syrup this coming spring, most likely.
We still don’t know for sure what group will take over the farm, but it seems hopeful now that someone may who will actually have a use for the buildings. Once we know who is coming next we’ll need to coordinate with them to find out what they can use of the things that are here and what we should try to clean out before they come. Often in the early winter I would go out and cut firewood and dump it in front of the woodshed to be put in in the spring, but I am not sure yet if whoever comes next will want to keep burning wood. Our convertible picnic table/bench units by the pond are getting a bit rotten, as they have been out there during the warmer months for several years. If the new people would like new ones made I will do that this winter, using the old ones as patterns. All this uncertainty makes it a bit harder than usual to know what to do, but we travel in hope (as a friend wisely said) and no doubt all will be made clear at the right time.
The shiitake mushrooms did well this fall, and my mother suggested that we could extend the season by bringing some of the last logs that we soaked inside and putting them in one of the showers where they could stay damp and be warm enough to fruit. We had a better cider year than I had anticipated from looking at the apples on the trees and were able to give away the usual amount. Our neighbors from up around the corner were interested in seeing how the cider press worked and came by one day to help press a batch. The last rabbits were sold or processed in November, and now the rabbit area is untenanted for the first time since I put up that building in 2015. Most probably we will need to sell the rabbit cages and such before we go, in order to make room for the next use of the space. The chickens were able to stay out till the day before Thanksgiving, but then it got too snowy to be practical for them. They seem happy in the winter coop with more light, though it’s hard to tell for sure what a chicken thinks about things.
Agriculture Update by Joanna
My last harvest season at St. Francis Farm is over. The weather stayed wet, but our hilltop garden drains well enough so we were able to harvest the root vegetables without trouble. Onion maggots damaged some of the crop, but we still had all that we needed for storage and for immediate use as well as extras to give away. The potatoes outdid themselves. The carrots and parsnips didn’t do as well as last year–more rodent damage, and more split and forked roots–but we still have all we need packed in the root cellar, plus some to share. After an unpromising start our broccoli gave us a good late crop before it froze. Hard freezes didn’t come until late October, so we had a lovely long time in which to bring in fresh chard and lettuce. I’m grateful for that since the greenhouse ‘winter garden’ got off to a slow start due to the grey weather. Now there’s nothing to harvest outside except occasional kale, but the greenhouse plants are flourishing.
I’ve had less help than usual in the garden this year, and the fall garden cleanup has suffered as a result, but I’m grateful for all the things that are easier this year than they used to be. I remember the fall when the deer ate my cover crops right down to the soil. Now we have a fence so my living mulches flourish and I was able to cut mustard, oat grass, and clover from the garden to feed the rabbits right into November. In our first years here we struggled to figure out safe root cellar storage: we tried storing carrots in the cellar of the farmhouse, and basement flooding spoiled most of what the mice didn’t eat. Now we have rodent-proof containers in the well house, which stays damp enough to keep the vegetables fresh but which doesn’t flood.
We’re also grateful to the folks from Lyndon Lawn who showed up every week to pick up vegetables for their neighbors (see “Gift of Health” below). Their visits were cheering, and they were quite willing to use our odd lots. To our delight, they seemed pleased both with the mammoth potatoes which struck us as awkwardly large for baking (which they called “chef potatoes”) and with the tiny “salt potatoes” which we don’t have much use for. Over our time here the places where we’ve sent produce have kept changing, but we’ve always found ways to share fresh food and build community relationships.
We’re keeping the goats through the winter and will send them on to new homes before I leave in June. I’m just milking them through instead of breeding either, as this means more milk and cheese and less hassle for us.
I’m grateful for the work and the harvest, for this year and for the twenty years that are ending now. I’m alsorateful to have found other organizations that may be interestedin continuing to grow food on this land. I’m sure their ways of working will be different from ours, and some of the challenges they face will be different as well, but I hope that they also will enjoy the work and the goodness of the land.
Gift of Health by Kathy
Lyndon Lawn Senior Community is a mobile home community which has 73 lots and serves residents over 55 years of age. Our residents are living primarily on fixed incomes. We have 23 residents who are single and living on incomes of less than $1,000 per month. One of the concerns within our community is centered on healthy eating habits. Through the years, we have come to understand that healthy eating is often more costly and a little more involved in terms of cooking skills. The aging population we serve, and their limited skills and income, have often made eating healthy out of their reach.
However, this year, that challenge was removed by our friends at St. Francis Farm. Through a mutual contact with the Oswego County Office of the Aging, the Lyndon Lawn Homeowner’s Association was contacted by St. Francis Farm to see if we might be interested in receiving the excess produce from their gardens. All summer long, HOA officers would travel weekly to the farm to obtain boxes of fresh produce ranging from tomatoes and cucumbers in early summer to carrots and potatoes in the fall. The produce was placed on a table near the mailboxes of the park for all to enjoy. The response was wonderful! Every week the table would be cleared within the first day.
HOA officers received feedback of appreciation from residents who used the fresh produce to make tomato sauce, canned vegetables and much more. They looked forward to the fresh produce to enhance their evening meals and in some cases, the produce was their evening meal. The gratitude for the gift of healthy eating was expressed every week – what an amazing gift for our residents.
Thank you St. Francis Farm!
Fall visitors
We’ve enjoyed visits from friends and neighbors nearby and far away. Sam and Stella (top row) came up from Tennessee to visit family; they stopped in to have lunch with us, swap stories and book recommendations, play music, and have Zach alter Sam’s banjo (Sam has bought many of Zach’s instruments). Clara and David (bottom left), who we haven’t seen for many years though we’ve enjoyed Clara’s letters, came down from Camden , shared a meal, and helped us clean onions for winter storage. Marge has been visiting every week. When the weather’s good we go for chariot rides; when it isn’t, sometimes Zach shows her his shop projects. Bear also has often come to visit but I’ve failed to get pictures of him.
ST. FRANCIS FARM
136 Wart Road
Lacona, NY 13083
315-298-2844
stfrancisfarm@yahoo.com
www.stfrancisfarm.org