Fiacre Gardens Microfarm is a small, multi-campus organic farm in the Rochester NY area, and a small Catholic Worker agronomic university inspired by the teachings of Peter Maurin.  We are associated with 2 CW communities -- the St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality, and Bethany House, both in Rochester.  The hope is to build the microfarm business to the point that it can sustain a small intentional community of PRAYING FARMERS in a simple lifestyle with a healthily-balanced routine.  That community would set out to grow enough surplus food to help our sister CW Houses, their guests, suburban food pantries, and other inner city meal programs enjoy local produce in a sustainable fashion.

Beyond farming there is an emphasis on work & prayer, daily offices, and ongoing awareness practice.  There is morning or evening prayer, or both, on a regular basis.  We are considering ways to open up the house to share this routine with anyone from the community.  The farmer and a few volunteers keep an ongoing discussion about our spiritual life and incorporating ceaseless prayer into the farm work.

The farmer is Chris Phillips.  The microfarm grows vegetables, herbs, teas, cutflowers, berries and tree fruit for a fluctuating group of about 30 households.  Some are members of a CSA, others buy retail, and still others barter volunteer work for produce.  We operate 12 months a year by growing winter greens under protection and by root cellaring.  Without the means to buy land, Chris has made barter arrangements for garden space with supporters, and coordinates farm business and distribution from his house in the city.  This is the location of the future residential community.  Chris also adopts orchard trees in peoples’ backyards, over 30 to date.  The microfarm team prunes and cares for the trees.  In exchange the farm community receives a portion of the yield. 

We get together for a monthly study group on Peter Maurin and the Green Revolution.  This year we will undertake our first few cooperative educational events on local food sufficiency – e.g. canning, pickling, cheese-making, making tofu, baking bread with fresh ground local grain, . . .  The potential in this area is infinite, and the interest is strong amongst the microfarm's consumers and friends.   We have begun brainstorming free local food cooking classes for the neighborhood guests of the soup kitchen, “Slow Food at Saint Joe's” with Peg Gefell, the chef at Savory Thyme Catering.  We intend to hold First Monday Organic Farming Video Nights for social time and agronomic training.

In all this we feel that we are embodying important aspects of Peter Maurin's vision for agronomic universities.  The Ag U curriculum is broad.  It pertains to all of us on the planet today.  The challenges of the work are great, and its joys are many.  The learning curve is infinite.  But we can be thankful that the Entire Work is not up to us.  We must simply fall in with the Great Teacher, abandoning our selves to God on a regular basis, and recommitting our work each day.

The farmer paves the way as first student, and invites others to follow as student and teacher themselves.

An apprentice would receive:

- a household setting for small intentional community with shared prayer or meditation, with an inclusive interfaith overtone.  Friends and volunteers come and go regularly, with the larger circles nearby of other CW communities and local parishes

- hands-on experience growing intensively on limited space, with Biodynamic techniques,
instructions in “best management practices” for organic farming, and exposure to farm planning, design.  We will also focus on the daily decision-making and trade-offs of diverse smallfarm operations

- experience with consumers through CSA and direct retail, and perhaps farmers market sales
- experience growing a wide variety of vegetables, flowers, and herbs
- basic instruction on important harvest and handling techniques
- rudiments of pesticide-free orchard management
- skills of winter growing, storage and stocking up

Duties include
any aspect of farm operations, 35 hours per week, a share of household chores,
6 - 7 month commitment

Room and board in a household of 2 or 3.  No stipend.  Daily prayer/meditation.  Some shared Meals.

Volunteering 1 day/week to give a broader hands-on perspective on the Works of Mercy.
For the weekly volunteering Chris intends to offer a choice of 4 arrangements, to represent core social issues of the Rochester area – either 1) St Joe's Soup Kitchen & Homeless Shelter, 2) Bethany House Women's Shelter, 3) anti-racism work, 4) organizing with migrant farm workers in Wayne County.  Chris is lining up the potential volunteer experiences, and it will be the apprentice's choice of which one experience they will do.

The apprentice will be expected to maintain involvement with one congregation or spiritual community outside of agronomic university circles, since farmlife can be all-consuming, isolating and overwhelming.  Contact with other communities keeps life fresh.

For more information contact Jo-Anne Wilson, 585-427-7711,
or  Chris Phillips, #585-288-1073; email: fiacregardens@yahoo.com