Jack’s Update
August, 2025
Greetings CSA Members-
September 1 will mark 6 months since I stepped back from daily operation of Featherstone Farm, turning the farm business over to the great team of managers who are running the place now. Seems as good a time as any for an update on what I’ve done since, and what I’m doing now!
First of all, what I’m not doing is regretting one bit the decision to “retire.” Or being tempted to poke my nose into day-to-day decisions around the farm. I can’t tell you how happy and inspired I am by Nathan and Abby, James and Tanya, Nicole and all of the veteran field leads and employees that I observe at Featherstone, now from a bit of a distance. There is no doubt in my mind that the entire Featherstone Farm community- including you, dear CSA member!- is in the right hands for the coming 30 years. What a blessing for a business founder like myself, to find such inspired, capable and dedicated successors!!
The spring and early summer saw me spending quite a bit of time at the farm, following through on a series of projects that we’d undertaken last year. Some of these involved “cleaning up old messes” –the new operators deserve a clean slate in every sense- but others were (and are) more topical. These include (a) standing up a new Advisory Board to help me govern the business in the new era (b) ongoing work in employee housing (renovating the last 2 kitchens in the Rushford apartments, yahoo!) and (c) new construction in and around produce storage coolers.
This last project in particular consumed most of the months of April and May, only wrapping up sometime early July. This was the installation of a truly state-of-the-art climate and air quality control system in our largest winter root storage facility. Suffice it to say that I firmly believe this new system will improve the eating quality of Featherstone winter carrots a great deal, and make the weeks and weeks of effort that Tyler and I invested in construction, pay off many times over.
Pictured left: Mote and Kai helping Tyler and me with steel ceiling in the new storage cooler area
I’ve done a handful of farewell-type farm interviews this summer: a short video produced by a reporter from the Washington Post, in which Mote and I speak about farm labor in an era of ICE raids and federal upheaval. And a long form interview for the farm podcast Growing for Market, in which Abby and I describe just what FF is all about at this moment of transition.
What else have I been up to? Well, I’ve been working on tree plantings and oak woodland restorations near the farm. I’ve played a bit of golf (my brother, older 2 sons and I tied for 4th place in the annual Ridgeway School scramble fundraiser, with an 11 under 61!). And I’ve spent a good deal of time helping the Great River Shakespeare Festival company (I’m on the Board) move into a new home at the historic Masonic Temple theater in Winona.
Pictured right: Working a controlled burn in April, in an area where we’ve been clearing buckthorn out of old oaks for 4+ years
Pictured above: One of the Featherstone delivery trucks with one of seven loads of office equipment, costumes and theater gear we moved into the historic Masonic theater this summer (and me goofing around with cool Shakespearean props!).
Also- because old habits like 70+ hour farm work weeks die hard(!)- the day after completing work on the storage cooler I (over)loaded my poor Prius with tools and returned to our home in Winona, where Jasper and I gutted half the upstairs of our house and began construction of a small bathroom that we can use into old age(!). Six weeks later we passed the last rough-in electrical inspection last week, and laid floor tile; the end is near!! I genuinely enjoy construction and trades work, particularly when done with one (or more) of our sons. And having a bathroom within 20’ of our bedroom in retirement… yahoo!
Pictured left: Plaster and lathe demolition is plain nasty. But way more tolerable with good cheerful help like my son Jasper
Finally, I made the decision in late July to run for the 26A seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives next year (26A is roughly 85% of Winona County). I will be running as a nuts-and-bolts Democrat, focused on “kitchen table” issues like the local economy and housing, public education and healthcare access. If you are interested in learning more about this, you can visit my new campaign website (official site up soon), or you can come join me for the official campaign launch event in Winona this Sunday, August 24 2025.
All in all, the first 6 months of "retirement" have been a very welcome change for me, even if the amount of work I'm doing every day has not changed much. I'll also admit however, that I've felt a bit of bittersweet letdown, almost melancholy, at times. Founding, growing and operating a small farm business was a remarkably purposeful undertaking for ~35 years, one that engaged me in vitally important issues, from climate change and immigration reform, right down to daily challenges like getting a handful of CSA boxes to a new dropsite to serve members(!). This work was a joy and an inspiration much, if not most, of the time. I do miss it in some powerful ways, even if I do not regret the decision to retire from it at all. It's an ambiguous, liminal state. And I suspect it will be for the foreseeable future.
Thank you all for supporting Featherstone Farm as you have, so vigorously and enthusiastically, for so many years.
Serving you and the broader community of organic food consumers in the upper midwest, has been the privilege of a lifetime.
Gratefully- Jack