My name is Joel Barr (white polo shirt on the left) and I started Abraham's Table Farm with my family 7 years ago. My wife Megan is in the pink shirt and our four daughters are scattered about in the photo above.  (Everyone else in the photo is our awesome team!)

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How this farm came to be is a long story that isn't finished. You can follow it in real time by subscribing to our email list.

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The quick version of WHO we are and WHY we farm is below. But a few paragraphs on a website isn't really who we are--it's just a pile of words. If you want to actually know us you'll have to come to the farm and spend time with us in person. 

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But if you have to know, here are a few things we believe:

 

We believe the body is extremely important. We also believe that how we live day to day is extremely important. We might be on a mission to do something world changing (that's what your supposed to write in these blurbs) but we mostly believe the way to do that is by concerning ourselves with living rightly today and tomorrow will take care of itself. And we believe in not just thinking or talking about this, but actually living it out in the body. 

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Therefore, we aspire to live quietly, and mind our own affairs, and to work with our hands, so that we may walk rightly before others and be less dependent.  

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By farming we are seeking to tend carefully to the smallest sphere possible with (sometimes faltering) confidence that this is what is required from us: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to live humbly. We believe that regenerative farming is humble, right, and merciful. As is showing hospitality, and feeding our neighbors and community. 

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Therefore, we're not so much concerned with saving the environment as we are concerned with feeding people food that heals while tending the land in ways that build it up. (But it just so happens that regenerative farming can also heal entire landscapes and what is a healthy environment except a series of healthy landscapes?)

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We're are also not so intent on fearfully hedging ourselves against some coming societal meltdown so much as building a place that produces and protects life. And perhaps through farming we will also be prepared to feed strangers and orphans and widows in time. (And what is a  just and stable society but a community where the weak and vulnerable are protected are cared for?)

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We also love eating really good food. Especially with friends. We think that eating with others is a sacred act. It reminds us of our humanity and dependence. It reminds us that life is a gift that can be enjoyed. It reminds us of our bodies and our limits. And fresh, seasonal food reminds us that we are in a particular place and moment in time. It also reminds us of death, and that something had to die for us to live. Which is something to think about.   

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And we think all of this points clearly to spiritual realities that are also worth thinking about. 

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We think conscious eating is incredibly important and we hope that through our farming many more people will slow down and take notice of their place and moment in time. We hope people will recognize their dependence. We hope people will think about what it means to be human and what it means to have a soul. 

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Farming also allows me (Joel) to work around my home, close to my wife, and among my children. That gives me life and it would be hard for me to give that up. 

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But like I said, this is just a pile of words. 

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We are also real flesh-and-blood people with bodies that ache and minds that wander and emotions that change.  We live and work in an actual place and if you really want to know us you'll  need to come out and spend time in this place with us. 

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Oh yeah, and along with word-piles and place, we're also defined by our stories.  sign up for our emails so you can get a glimpse of who we are from that angle too. 

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Thanks for reading!

Joel