Who We Are
The entity that hosts Feast & Field is called the Feast & Field Collective. We are a collective of farms that have joined forces in an attempt to sustain an agricultural-rural economy and culture. Embracing value-added processing, as well as diversifying income streams have been essential for small farms to find true economic sustainability. Fable Farm turns the fruit they grow into living wines and vinegars, Kiss The Cow Farm turns their milk into ice cream, and Eastman Farm’s beef and pork, together with Fable Farm’s vegetables, are the staple ingredients for our Feast & Field dinner offerings.
These three farms are also working cooperatively to steward the historic farms of Barnard’s idyllic Broad Brook Basin, keeping the land open and productive for generations to come. The collective is committed to real organic, regenerative agricultural practices with an emphasis on maintaining intimacy between people and the land. Our intention is to use our farming enterprises as a means to reconnect to the rhythms of Nature, not only for ourselves and our families, but for the community at large.
Meet Our Farms
Fable Farm Fermentory is a farm-based winery producing aged wines and vinegars, among other herbal elixirs. The fermentory is part of a larger family of organizations working together to steward farmland, develop rural businesses, and promote community experiences.
We began our journey as farmers back in 2008 when we initiated our vegetable CSA venture, Fable Farm. We’ve been growing vegetables and hosting festive community galas ever since. Using our CSA pick-up days as an opportunity for community to gather around local food and drink and the farm as a venue for musicians and artists to share their art, we set out to contribute to a thriving rural culture.
Moving to Barnard, Vermont to initiate a CSA vegetable farm brought us forth into a culture and place rich with apples and cider-making lore; and our vegetable farming business provided a financial and cultural incubation for our fermentory and wine-making skills to rise up. The CSA gatherings, initially held in the backyard of an historic farmhouse in downtown Barnard, has since blossomed into the event, now called Feast & Field.
Eastman Farm is a classic hill farm located in Barnard, Vermont. In 2007, Joseph Morel, a seventh generation Vermont Farmer, established a herd of hardy Belted Galloway cattle on the farm. Eastman raises 100% grass-fed and finished Belted Galloway beef and pastured heritage pork.
We are dedicated to building soil fertility. We believe that vibrant topsoil, full of a rich diversity of life, is key to farm productivity. When properly grazed, the grasses that grow in the midst of such life have deeper roots, resist droughts and pass on more energy to animals. Our cattle never eat grain. Instead we move them frequently so that they enhance rather than degrade the soil. We feed our pigs a diverse, organic diet.
We are blessed in Barnard to be working closely with this collective of farmers. Feast & Field is a big part of our family. During the season you will find our whole family at the event in some capacity. Joseph and our daughter Geneveive prepare our beef and pork as well as flatbreads, hummus, curry and other delights for the dinner menu, and our son Hugo and his girlfriend Madison make up the parking and greeting dream team at the entrance.
Kiss the Cow Farm, located in Barnard, VT, is an organic, grass-based dairy selling raw and pasteurized A2/A2 milk as well as ice cream from our small herd of Jersey and Normande cows.
Kiss the Cow Farm is owned and run by Randy and Lisa Robar. For the past several years we have been growing a dynamic, small, diversified farm operation focused on feeding our friends and neighbors delicious food.
Both Randy and Lisa work (more than) full-time on the farm. We host WWOOFers and interns throughout the season to help with chores and other work, which allows us to train a new generation of farmers.
Since beginning working on this farm, we have invested in soil improvements through nutrient amendments, intensive grazing, and clipping. We’ve also added additional infrastructure to the farm, including two greenhouses and additional equipment (waterlines, frost-free hydrants, high-tensile and single-strand fencing, and more). We also have a heated milk house, an ever-growing farm store, and a passion for welcoming our neighbors onto our farm.
Feast & Field History
The origins of Feast & Field began in 2008 at a farmhouse in the center of Barnard where Fable Farm hosted its vegetable CSA pick-up. Music and food followed until the event outgrew its village location. Fable joined with Eastman Farm, Heartwood Farm and Kiss the Cow Farm to create the next iteration of the gathering, known as Feast & Field, on the recently conserved Clark Farm. Barnard native, Chloe Powell, also joined our effort, cultivating connections with musicians near and far. Eventually Chloe joined Barnarts, a Barnard based arts non-profit, and together they produced the music offerings. In 2020, the event relocated again to its current site at Fable Farm.
Evolving over 10 years, our gathering has blossomed into a thriving event where people from all walks of life connect with each other and the land that sustains us– where local and visiting people can gather in community, networking and building connections much like the mycelium under the living ground that sustains us all.
BarnArts
BarnArts was founded in 2012 to create more opportunities for our rural community to engage in the arts. The vision of BarnArts is to foster and continuously support a community that views art as essential to social well-being. A community where a thriving arts culture and a thriving rural economy are mutually supportive. Where the careers of artist, teacher, and farmer are equally valued, and where time is set aside for the pursuit of creativity and shared learning.
BarnArts enriches the entire region by providing opportunities to engage with the arts as both a viewer and active participant. Our audience and our performers are willing to travel to be part of what we do! Luckily for all, Barnard is a beautiful place to find yourself listening to music, watching a play, or singing! Our cast and crew in recent theater productions came from Barnard, Woodstock, Vershire, Sharon, White River Junction, Pittsford, and Montpelier as well as three towns in New Hampshire!
We are putting Barnard on the map as an arts destination by continuing to present world-class artists in the league of larger arts organizations, while continuing to serve our rural community through community-based participatory arts programming.
Our slogan, “Building Community through Art,” reflects the essence of our goals and our success.
The Rumney Barn
This is a working farm and the big yellow barn is a core processing and storage facility shared by the Feast & Field Farmers.
The main barn is from Rumney, NH, pre 1800, likely 1770s. It’s frame was disassembled in Rumney, and reassembled here in Barnard in 2015.
The Rumney Barn may be the romantic heart of the barn complex, but its stomach is the kitchen on the lower level. The Kitchen is a shared resource for all of the farm operations, from a licensed creamery for Kiss the Cow, to freezer storage for Eastman Farm, to a food prep kitchen for Feast & Field.
The Barn represents the persistent act of farming in New England. It represents the desire to commit to a place and to have that place sustain us.