Wild Carrot Farm
Vermont Food & Wine
Wild Carrot Farm
by Katherine P. Cox
When Caitlin Burlett and Jesse Kayen got married last September, all the food for 200 guests was locally produced — from the small farm that they run with their friend and partner, Max Madalinski, in Brookline.
Wild Carrot Farm has been all-consuming for the young couple since they joined forces with Max in 2010 to raise organic vegetables, chickens, turkeys and lambs for sale at their farmstand and through their CSA. Last summer was their first full season, and by all accounts, it was a success. They’re already fine-tuning and making plans for next season.
To be a successful farmer in Vermont is not easy, but these three young farmers have a distinct approach and a valuable resource — they reclaimed land that was donated to them by Norman and Laura Solomon, who run Windmill Hill Alpaca Farm. Without the financial burden of buying land, which can be prohibitively expensive in southern Vermont, Caitlin, Jesse and Max have a fight-ing chance to make a go at growing vegetables and raising livestock at a time when farms nationwide are going under and young people are turning to other work.
None of them grew up on a farm. Caitlin, 27, grew up near Buffalo, N.Y., and met Jesse at St. Mary’s College in Maryland. She was studying sociology and anthropology. Jesse, 27, who is from Northfield, Mass., was studying politics. Caitlin fell in love with farming during a summer job on a farm in Maryland and continued there after she graduated from college. She loved being outside, she said, and discovering vegetables she had never heard of before.
At the same time, she got involved with the politics of food and “what organic really meant,” she said. Jesse was not interested in farming at the time, so when they graduated from college in 2006, they decided to go south and ended up in New Orleans where they ran a shelter for women and children. By 2008 they were burned out; “ready to leave the city and have a garden,” Jesse said. They set down roots in Newfane.
Meanwhile Max, 25, who grew up in Chicago, attended Marlboro College, majoring in visual arts and Asian studies. During his college years, he said he had his own small gardens on rented property, but it wasn’t until after he graduated in 2009 that he decided he wanted to farm, and got a job at Peaked Mountain Farm, a sheep dairy farm in Townshend. There he learned to make cheese, bake artisanal bread and work with animals. Through a mutual friend, he met Jesse and Caitlin, who had spent a year apprenticing and working at Picadilly Farm in Winchester, N.H., learning about farming and CSAs.
“They were wonderful teachers,” she said. After a year there, “I felt like I could do it on my own, and decided to start my own CSA.” She tilled up a small plot of land — her landlord’s front lawn — and grew vegetables that she sold at the Neighborhood Market in Brattleboro, a CSA developed by Post Oil Solutions, a Brattleboro group that works to connect small farmers and communities, offering affordable food for low-income people.
Providing fresh, organic vegetables, eggs, and chicken an turkeys at affordable prices is one of the goals of Wild Carrot Farm, and is essentially made possible by using the land provided to Max, Jesse and Caitlin by the Solomons. “Buying land is the biggest impediment to farmers,” Jesse said.
Max, whose parents are neighbors of the Solomons, heard that they were looking for someone to farm their land. “I had been telling my parents I wanted my own farm,” he said, inspired by the book “One Straw Revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka, who advocated natural farming and a more spiritual, simpler way of life. Max thought “it would be nice to have some company,” so he approached Caitlin and Jesse about joining forces. They were in, and last summer, Wild Carrot Farm harvested their first crops, had 65 CSA members, and sold their produce at their farm stand at the Brookline farm and at the Neighborhood Market in Brattleboro.
They also created a buzz in the small town of Brookline. “A lot of people loved what we were doing,” Caitlin said. The farm stand became a spot for people to gather while picking up vegetables and eggs, Jesse said. “It’s wonderful to be part of this community that has been super positive” about what they are doing.
It hasn’t been easy. “It was a big learning curve,” Max acknowledged, adding that they were reclaiming land that hadn’t been farmed in a long time. “The weeds were really bad.”
That’s where the animals come in, another approach that distinguishes the approach of these three farmers. “The breed of poultry we raise is very important to us,” Caitlin said. “We choose animals that are known for being good foragers, so they will eat whatever is in the pasture rather than rely solely on grain.” At the same time, they are naturally fertilizing the fields. “We move the birds every day,” Jesse said. “They do an incredible job of eating weed seeds, breaking down crop residue, and spreading their own fertilizer.” An added benefit is healthier chickens and eggs.
With their free-range poultry and 100 different vegetables, “our goal is to provide a wide variety of food to provide a whole diet to our customers,” Jesse said. At the same time, Caitlin said, “our vision is to try to make our food affordable and accessible. We’re trying to reach out to bring more people to the farm.” Wild Carrot Farm offers scholarships for those who cannot afford the full price of a CSA share through the Farm Share Program established by Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.
With the lessons learned from their first summer, and a big new greenhouse built for a spring harvest, Max, Jesse and Caitlin are spending the winter looking at ways to perfect their operation while staying small and true to their commitment of “doing things with as little environmental impact as possible,” Jesse said. “We want to use as little equipment as possible. We want to be working in the dirt with our hands. It’s better for the air, the water, and the land.”
Sidebar: A Perfect Vermont Story
by Katherine P. Cox
“We wanted to bring this place to life,” is how Norman Solomon explains donating land on his Brookline property to the three young entrepreneurs of Wild Carrot Farm.
Norm and his wife, Laura, moved here 12 years ago and established Windmill Hill Alpaca Farm and Artisanry. But they don’t use all the land — some 90 acres, much of which was a farm many years ago — and when approached by Max Madalinski, Jesse Kayan and Caitlin Burlett about establishing a vegetable farm on part of the property, they jumped at the opportunity. “It’s a shame to let the land sit idle,” Norman said. “It’s high-potential land and this is an opportunity for us to bring it back to life.” It’s also a way for them to “recycle” the manure from their alpacas. “Now we can allocate their output to good use,” Norman joked.
The Solomons have become quite fond of the three farmers, whom they met through Max’s parents, their neighbors down the road. “For us it’s like an extension of the family. We call them ‘our kids,’” Norman said. He has high praise for their enthusiasm, dedication and per-severance. “Their ingenuity is impressive,” he added, citing how they recycled old doors and windows the Solomons had discarded and incorporated them in the farm stand they built.
As Wild Carrot Farm took root this summer and word got out about the enterprise, “people have said, ‘I wish I’d thought of that,’” Laura said.
“We’ve been meeting neighbors we didn’t know,” Norman added, as word of mouth spread and the CSA grew to include locals visiting the farm stand to get their fresh vegetables on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this,” said Jesse if it were not for the generous deal with the Solomons. “We needed to do this on a shoestring. Norman and Laura are the perfect landlords.”
For their part, the Solomons say it’s a “wonderful relationship” and feel Max, Caitlin and Jesse are as unique as the land deal. “These three young kids are dedicated, and believe that agriculture still offers excitement and is meaningful,” Norman said. “It reinforces the whole idea of being local, buying local and doing things locally. It’s a perfect demonstration of that. It’s exciting to see.”
