Farmer Jack post-retirement
It is now 16 months since I stepped back from my ~35 year role as Featherstone Farmer, turning over the day to day operation of Featherstone Farm to Nathan, Abby, James and a great team of veteran farmworkers. It’s high time for an update from the founder and owner!
These 16 months have been quite eventful in my life- in the lives of everyone in my family, really. I’ve done a lot of building (Jenni and I now have a fully functioning bathroom upstairs in our house!), gardening and community service/volunteering. Perhaps most significantly, I’ve done some soul searching as well.
For the first 4 decades of my adult life, I woke up every morning and went to work with a powerful sense of purpose: feeding people, stewarding a piece of land, and building a regional, organic food system that I believed (still believe!) could change the world.
When that daily purpose disappeared March 1 of last year, I went through a period of withdrawal and quite honestly, grief. Being an organic farmer, small business owner and employer was a privilege and a joy that is still difficult for me to describe (it was also a pain in the butt at times!). After “retirement” I missed the activity, the people, and especially the purpose.
Meanwhile, the news of 2025 made a deeper and darker impression on me every day; wars of choice overseas, a gutting of so many things I believe in nationally (clean energy, the rule of law and order), and the violence here in Minnesota (the Annunciation School shooting, the assassination of House Speaker Melissa Hortmann). What purpose or role could a semi-retired organic farmer serve in a world where this kind of chaos is the norm?? Questions like this haunted me for much of 2025.
In late February this year- in the midst of Operation Metro Surge- I finally decided: I am running for a seat in the Minnesota Senate. For what it’s worth, I am running as an old school, nuts and bolts, farmer / labor Democrat. As someone who still believes in the importance of integrity and transparency in public service, and in finding common ground among people of very different backgrounds (I’ve done this for 30+ years at FF!). If you are at all interested in reading more, please check my website and, while you’re there, please consider volunteering or contributing to my campaign …IF you agree with the issues I’m running on! If you don’t, thank you for at least reading this far! ☺
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Meanwhile: this past weekend Jenni and I attended the annual field day at Featherstone Farm, as guests rather than as hosts. This prompted another round of reflection for me.
Owning and operating a small business for 30 years brings with it an awesome opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the community in general, and to individual peoples’ lives- especially employees- in particular. I will never forget a fellow farmer I know in Pennsylvania, Mike Brownback, commenting on the sense of pride he felt when the first of his farmworkers bought a house and settled in the community, on the basis of their employment at Spiral Path Farm.
I’ve now seen at least four Featherstone employees buy homes in and around Rushford, most recently Ofelia earlier this year. And Mike was right… it is a powerful feeling of validation and energy that I feel, seeing young people settle in the area at least in part because of their commitment to Featherstone Farm.
We have also seen multiple marriages and families started among employees here. The first of these- Noah - is turning TEN years old this week!! (I got to piggy back him around the farm a bit on Saturday!) And this summer Abby is expecting her first son or daughter(?) to be born! The Featherstone Family grows and flourishes.
On top of all this, I was surprised yet again at Saturday’s field day, following along on field and facility tours led by Abby, Nathan and James. Hearing them describe what goes on in the process of growing, picking, washing, packing and shipping fresh produce, hearing them describe their roles in it all, with such clarity, confidence and purpose. I get emotional about it now, days later, just thinking about it.
This is not about me, as Featherstone founder and owner. This is about Featherstone Farm as a living, dynamic, community based institution / business, that reflects the combined minds, bodies and souls of so many people. It is humbling, and it is inspirational. And you too, CSA members, are a big part of this collaboration, this purpose, this answer to anyone who says our world is broken, that we cannot find common cause to live and work together. I am so grateful to have been part of this marvelous community with all of you.
