The following is a guest post from Anne Gardon & Carlie Graves, two of PFP's founding members, in honor of Dan Guenther's recent passing.
It is probably safe to say that there would not have been a Poughkeepsie Farm Project without Dan Guenther's cheerful "So, when are we going to start a farm on your side of the river?”
Dan repeated this question most weeks in the summer of 1998 as we picked up our veggies at Phillies Bridge Farm CSA in Gardiner. By then Dan had spent a few years starting up Phillies Bridge and a decade homesteading with his family. His persistence, enthusiasm and inspiration were undeniable! Dan had a vision of the role of CSAs in promoting environmentally sustainable farming and food justice before these became as commonly understood as they are today.
In the late fall of 1998, after touring several possible sites in Dutchess County, Dan decreed that land that had been part of the old farm at Vassar Farm & Ecological Preserve was the best for the varied vegetable farming required for a CSA. Permission to farm was granted by Vassar College in the spring of 1999.
In his ever optimistic and indomitable way, by that time Dan had already set to work converting the old chicken coop to a hoop house and storage area and erecting a deer fence around the field perimeter, commuting over from New Paltz to spend 12-14 hours/day building and farming. He also lent his old red tractor to the enterprise as the community came together to lend capital and sweat equity to the new farm.
At this point Dan was in his mid-50s and outworked the rest of us without breaking a sweat.
Dan loved to teach, and if you were at the farm, you were learning something. PFP quickly made a name for itself, and interns were happy to come. PFP was a welcoming place for the community, although in the beginning it was a matter of treading carefully as Dan tried out different farming techniques such as creating permabeds, which permit foot traffic near but not in the vegetable beds.
Beyond teaching, Dan and the PFP quickly connected with Dutchess Outreach and produce which could be easily used in its Lunch Box program was specially grown.
By the end of the 2001 season it was clear that Dan had done the job he had set out to do three years earlier. The farm and community built around it were growing and thriving, PFP had become a place for many settled in the community as well as for college students to learn and to work, and the fields and hoop house were productive and well cared for. It was time to move on to the next project.
PFP has since become a strong and vital community resource "Linking Food, Farm, and Community" and has thrived for upwards of two decades. Thank you, Farmer Dan. We remember you with enormous respect, gratitude and affection.
Anne & Carlie, together with Mark Cladis and many others, are founding members of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project.