October 2, 2025
“It's really fun to get to engage with interested and passionate farmers at an earlier stage in their farming career,” says Ryan Fitzbeauchamp of Evening Song Farm. Fitzbeauchamp is serving as a yearlong mentor to Jessica Purks and Connor Self through NOFA-VT’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). Together, they’ve explored everything from soil fertility and crop planning to team dynamics and marketing – practical building blocks for running a successful, diversified organic farm. Starting a farm business from scratch is no small endeavor. There are skills to develop, infrastructure to fund and build, markets to grow, systems to establish, and priorities to balance. Luckily, Vermont is a fertile place for farm dreams to take root.
Connor and Jess own and operate Stone’s Throw Farmstead in Shrewsbury, where they grow vegetables and flowers, and raise a small flock of sheep. They sell through their farm stand, the Rutland and Ludlow farmers markets, the ACORN food hub, and a few local stores. Now in their third season, the couple moved to Vermont from Maryland after a decade of farming across the country and abroad. They chose Vermont for its vibrant food culture and supportive community, and have been intentional about building a farm family that includes neighbors, fellow farmers, hikers, sheep, alpacas, soil microbes, and more.
On an early summer day, I visited Jess and Connor on their farm to talk about their farming philosophy, their peer-to-peer learning experiences, and the lessons they’re carrying forward.
Q: Tell us a bit about your farm and philosophy.
A: Our farm is small on purpose – a stone’s throw! We aim to grow food in ways that are good for the planet, our community, and the future of the land. We center the earth first, and in practice, that means a lot of things, like increasing biodiversity with intentional wild spaces, interplantings, rotating crops, and hedgerows. It also means using mulches, compost, living roots, low tillage, cover crops, and our sheep to restore soil health and fertility to the land, which was previously an old hay farm.
We minimize our fossil fuel use by being human-powered and are working toward relying on renewable energy for our farm by 2027. We are invested in the whole ecology of our farm, which includes insects and bees. Flowers are a big piece of this for us – beautiful, vital for pollinators, and even part of our organic certification, which helps us stand out. Each season, we have evolved, fine-tuned our crops and markets, and taken on new projects as we grow.
Q: You have embraced the resources that NOFA-VT offers to help new farms succeed. Tell us what that has looked like from your perspective.
A: NOFA-VT’s programs have been a lifeline in these early years, providing opportunities for skill-building, mentorships, and funding. We have found these easy to access…a Google Form, and I’m there!
We received the June 2025 Vermont Family Farmer of the Month award, which gave us $12,000 to remodel our barn into a farm stand with expanded cold storage (our third time applying – we’re glad we kept at it!). We’re also grateful to have received Resilience and Adaptation Grants for flood mitigation and water-related projects on our farm, including a fertigation system and UV filter.
In addition to these grants, we participated in NOFA-VT’s Journey Farmer program, which included mentorship. Our participation was tremendously helpful, and we took full advantage of the online and in-person skill-building sessions and farm visits. We’ve also been certified organic through VOF since 2023 and are now enrolled in TOPP organic mentorship to continue our learning and growth. When we’re ready, the Farm Viability program will be next!
Q: Have you had any “aha” moments while participating in any of these programs – something that really shifted your thinking or farm trajectory?
A: We’ve been really grateful to be connected with Ryan and Kara at Evening Song Farm. They’ve helped us navigate crucial decision-making and center our core values. Additionally, we found the Journey Farmer program valuable as a space to talk shop with other farmers, covering day-to-day realities and details. The cohort model was great because the participating farmers were all at a similar level of experience, and it felt like group therapy! Seeing other farms during the field trips helped temper some of our desire for too much diversity in what we produce.
A sort of “aha” moment for us was that our farm doesn’t need to be everything for everyone. Farmers who model success are the ones who find their niche and play to their strengths, while honoring the beliefs and values that brought them to farming in the first place. The ability to build relationships and gain advice from peer growers rekindled our own spirit and is keeping us on track. For example, we now grow to the climate here, which can be a little cooler, and we focus on sugar snap peas, herbs, and amazing greens. Customers love how clean, tasty, and long-lasting our greens are!
Q: How is your mentorship with Evening Song Farm structured? How have you connected with your mentors, and what do you focus on during your time together?
A: We find Ryan and Kara inspiring, as they lead first and foremost with their environmental values, which closely align with our own. They are generous with their time and knowledge, and have been in the community for ten years, so they have much to share. Our relationship with Ryan began during the Journey Farmer program and has continued for another year, thanks to the TOPP mentorship. We set goals at the beginning and are steadily working on them together. Our participation is free, and Ryan is compensated for his time. We have a regular monthly in-person meeting and most often plan an agenda, though sometimes we intentionally keep it casual to see what comes up organically. It’s always productive, and the in-person aspect allows us to see their methods first-hand, compare crops, and experience the flow of their systems. We always glean something valuable from our time together. Our farm is in a phase of expansion, both for production and our team, and Ryan’s guidance has been vital. We enjoyed a winter deep dive on labor, team dynamics, and strategies to build capacity as we grow our business. We definitely recommend peer-to-peer mentorship.
Q: What other factors have contributed to your success?
A: In addition to NOFA-VT’s support, we attribute our success to the incredibly supportive local community. It was clear to us through the vibrance of Vermont’s farmers markets, co-ops, food hubs, and farmer support organizations that the Vermont community was eager to celebrate and support local food and farming endeavors. We immediately felt welcomed and chose this property, in part, for its proximity to the Appalachian Trail, recognizing an opportunity to support a different community of eaters – hungry through hikers, who have been a significant part of our farm stand’s viability.
We were fortunate to gain our footing in our first year at what we consider one of the state’s best farmers markets—the Vermont Farmers Market in Rutland—which helped us build a customer base eager for certified organic products while strengthening our connections with fellow producers in the community. We now find ourselves surrounded by other growers willing to share and support one another.
In our first three years, we were recipients of NOFA-VT’s Resilience Grants, a Vermont Council on Rural Development Climate Catalysts award, and financial support through NRCS, enabling us to make timely investments in critical infrastructure projects. These included a dignified wash pack room, high tunnels, a rocket stove for our greenhouse (no propane here!), water pumps, and filters. We also both work part-time off-farm – Jess at the ACORN Food Hub and Connor at Pierce’s Store – which keeps us financially balanced and connected to the community.
Q: Why have you chosen to pursue organic certification, and can you share your reflections on the process?
A: We’ve farmed organically for over ten years on other farms, so certification felt like a natural step. Farming this way is our worldview; we see it as a solution to some of our environmental concerns, and being certified is a key way we can demonstrate this commitment to our customers. The recordkeeping makes us better farmers, though, initially, we admittedly kept more information than VOF requires. With Ryan’s help, we’re streamlining our over-engineered records. While the certification fee can feel burdensome, we believe in the movement and want to lift up the organic label. We’re also Real Organic Certified (an add-on label), which helps highlight the ways in which we go beyond USDA standards.
As Connor and Jess have discovered, NOFA-VT offers a wide variety of opportunities for Vermont growers and strives to make them accessible and relevant to the diverse array of folks stewarding the land. Whether you’re working toward business, ecological, or quality-of-life goals, our offerings are free, low-cost, or come with funding to help you complete projects:
- One-on-one assistance for business planning, organic practices, climate adaptation planning, marketing, and organic certification.
- Opportunities to work with an organic mentor for a year through the Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP) – sign up this fall!
- Funding through the Vermont Family Farmer of the Month program, with applications accepted on a quarterly basis – the next round is open in January. All farmers are encouraged to apply!
- Funding through our annual Resilience Grant applications, which open in December, and offer grant awards in the spring.
- Peer support and shared learning through the Journey Farmer program, for which applications open in late winter – please fill out the short form to be notified.
Reach out to engage with our team!