Twenty two years ago, some people got together with a goal of starting a farm in Poughkeepsie. They gathered support from the community, people interested in supporting fresh food grown in their city. They got permission to use 3 acres of land --and an old chicken coop-- at Vassar College. All they needed next was a farmer.
That farmer was Dan Guenther.
On February 1, Dan passed away unexpectedly while shoveling snow at his home in New Paltz. In today’s post, we are taking some time to remember Dan, and to hold some space and gratitude for his legacy.
Dan Guenther, the “Johnny Appleseed of CSAs”, started Poughkeepsie Farm Project in 1999. Prior to starting PFP in 1999, Dan had started Phillies Bridge Farm in New Paltz. It was through Phillies Bridge CSA that he met people who would go on to help start Poughkeepsie Farm Project -- people like Georgette Weir and Carlie Graves.
In this clip from Vassar’s newspaper and magazine archives from April 1999, Dan recalls his early interactions with Georgette, Carlie and others:
"Some of the Vassar people came over and joined |Phillies Bridge|." said Guenther, who is now the grower for the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. "Half in jest, half-seriously. I said that they could join for a year and then start their own, so they did."
Subsequent excerpts from this same archived article shows Dan’s motivation and the enthusiasm that he and founding members shared for the future of PFP:
"The whole project has a lot of different facets, particularly a concern for what we're doing in agriculture in general." said Guenther. "For me, this is a reaction to what is happening to farms nationally and globally: getting bigger and bigger and farther away from the consumer."
Graves, who is a member of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project's core group and heads the project's finance committee, has similar feelings. "I think that it is certainly going to be successful. It is impossible for it not to be," she said. "It is going to be a big hit, and in the future we will probably not have enough shares for people who want them." Graves was a member of the Phillies Bridge farm before the Poughkeepsie Farm Project began.
"We are hoping to have the success Phillies Bridge has had," said Weir. "[Phillies Bridge] now has over 100 members, and I don't see why we can't have that kind of success."
PFP's grew from a 70-member CSA to one with 500+ members today.
Twenty years later, with 15 acres and over 500 members, PFP has surpassed the dreams of its founders -- and continues to grow with the values and vision Dan set out for us.
Georgette Weir, a founding member of PFP, remembers the early days with Dan:
I met Dan in the organizing days of the founding of the PFP. He and a small core group were already making plans and scouting sites for a CSA in the Poughkeepsie area. The concept was new to me, but I was eager to support the group’s efforts.
Dan brought a wide range of skills and talents to the project, as well as intensity, commitment, smarts, boundless energy, and high expectations. What he didn’t already know, he learned. We learned too, with him and from him. From starting seeds to constructing that first greenhouse to harvesting and distributing veggies and growing our community. Dan had what it took to move from plans on paper to plants in the field and vegetables in our baskets. As a founder of four farms (that I know of) I came to think of Dan as a venture agriculturalist. Dan left so much good in his wake. He was one of a kind. Irreplaceable. We are all his beneficiaries.
Wendy and Asher Burkhart-Spiegel, the farmers to whom Dan passed on the PFP reins, remember Dan with these words:
Dan was a visionary, a social person, a builder and a do-er so he was well positioned to be in the role of a "starter of community farms" in the Hudson Valley and he was happily doing so. He enthusiastically oriented us to the workings of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project: the outbuildings and greenhouse they had created out of abandoned farm structures, the farm plans created and equipment procured, and all of the community relationships that had been nurtured to involve a large number of people in the work and bounty of the farm. It clearly gave him great joy to connect people to the land and to each other, and to create better alternatives together at the community level, and to be putting in stepping stones for future farmers, gardeners, eaters, educators and lovers of the Earth who came behind him to continue that work.
We are grateful for his vision, his work, his love of community farming and the example he set for us all to work to make the world a better place.
Phillies Bridge and PFP aren’t Dan’s only success stories -- far from it. In the past twenty years, many young farmers who found their farming feet under the tutelage of Dan Guenther have also gone on to prosper and grow.
Dan’s son Mark Kimball runs Essex Farm with his wife Kristin. Kristin, an author herself, shared some beautiful words in memory of her father-in-law Dan, including these:
“Dan lived his conviction in all parts of his life. He and Ann continually organized, marched, spoke and made art about our collective responsibility to care for the environment and do what we can to stop climate change. He believed that community action was the path to positive change…. Sometimes, for those closest to him, his passion could be maddening, but there’s no doubt he achieved his goal, and nudged the world in a better direction. I’m so grateful to Dan not only for creating and raising my husband but for the work he did in this life, and for what he leaves behind.”
Caroline Fanning, who is now farmer-founder at Restoration Farm on Long Island, started her farming career as an intern at PFP in 2002. Caroline remembers Dan in a recent blog post, which include these words:
“He set an unbelievably high bar for himself and for the people he worked with…. Whatever he asked of others, he was willing to do (or had already done) himself. And no matter how demanding he could be, there was no question it came from a deep well of love.”
Dan’s reach was far and wide; the people and land he touched are better for it; and the mark he left on this earth is soil-deep and sky-high. In celebration of his life and legacy, we at PFP will continue our work: engaging our community in the positive change of climate and food justice, and doing so from a deep well of love.
