Hawthorne Valley: A Sanctuary for Nourishment

Hawthorne Valley is a nurturing sanctuary nestled in the heart of New York’s Hudson Valley, where biodynamic farming principles, holistic education, and ecological sustainability converge in a vibrant community hub. Founded in 1972 by a group of educators, farmers, and artisans, it has grown into a multifaceted nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering deep connections between people, the land, and the food they produce. At its core, Hawthorne Valley is a supportive place where children, families, and adults alike experience the transformative power of nature, learning, and meaningful work. With over 500 acres of biodynamic farmland and a commitment to becoming a net-positive organization, Hawthorne Valley is a living model for ecological restoration and community resilience.

Beyond its scenic landscapes, Hawthorne Valley offers a unique educational approach that honors the interconnectedness of head, heart, and hands. Through its Waldorf School, visiting student programs, and community events, Hawthorne Valley invites people to engage with the world more intentionally and holistically. Whether it’s a child marveling at the cycles of growth during a farm stay or a resident participating in one of the many seasonal festivals, Hawthorne Valley offers a rare opportunity to slow down and reconnect with what truly matters. This community-driven initiative continues to inspire, with a vision of sustaining the land and actively giving back to it—transforming both the environment and the people who care for it in what feels like a rare oasis.

In response to the rise of industrial agriculture, Hawthorne Valley set out to create a resilient, biodynamic farm that nurtures the land while supporting the broader local economy. Embodying Rudolf Steiner’s concept of associative economics, Hawthorne Valley exemplifies what is possible when the roles of producer, distributor, retailer, and consumer are interconnected within a cooperative framework that promotes community and sustainability.

The founders’ original vision of connecting urban children with nature has led them far beyond that beautiful incentive–and on to cultivating fertile soils, adding value on-site through dairy production and a creamery, and directly connecting with consumers via models like Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Through direct retailing, distributing their goods regionally, and establishing their own vibrant store, they continue to celebrate the nourishing, sustainable beauty and wisdom of all things biodynamic, organic, handmade, and local.

Today, with 350 CSA members and collaborations with over 200 local businesses, as well as their own thriving shop, farm, school, camp, education programs, and more, Hawthorne Valley serves as a beacon of hope for small-scale farming and a hub for food access. It demonstrates that through the sowing of dreams and collective effort, a more just and sustainable food system is possible.

“There are few places like this, where such cooperative values and commitment to high-quality organic food production are so intrinsically linked. This sort of symbiotic relationship between humanism and the environment is the antidote for corporate America. We need more places like Hawthorne Valley.”
GREG S. – 5 STAR GOOGLE REVIEW

Want to know more about Hawthorne Valley? Read our exclusive interview below…

INSIDE+OUT: Whose vision was it originally to start Hawthorne Valley? Are they still involved?

Martin Ping, Executive Director: Hawthorne Valley was envisioned by a group of like-minded educators, farmers, and artisans who hoped to create a place that provided urban children with a place to experience meaningful work, connect with the natural world, and deepen their senses of self and community. It was incorporated in February 1971 as the Rudolf Steiner Education and Farming Association (later changed to Hawthorne Valley Association), and the farm was purchased from the Vincent family in July of 1972. Karl and Arvia Ege, Henry and Christy Barnes, Fentress and Hede Gardner, Jeanne and Brownell Bergen, and Harry and Almuth Kretz are just some of the many people who dedicated their time and energy to shaping Hawthorne Valley’s early years and setting us on a track to grow into what we are today. While these founders have either passed or moved on to other endeavors, their children and grandchildren have remained engaged in the work at various times over the decades.

Was the farm the first aspect that was implemented or was the school?

Martin Ping, Executive Director: The heart of Hawthorne Valley has always been its founding program—the Visiting Students Program (VSP). The first class from the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City arrived in the fall of 1972, and the program expanded in 1974 to include summer camp. Since then, the program has welcomed over 1,200 children yearly for week-long farm stays and summer camps. Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School was opened a year later, in September 1973, with 25 students from Kindergarten to 4th grade. These children came from Camphill Village in Copake, NY, and the surrounding communities.

The initiatives of Hawthorne Valley grew organically. By the late 1970s, the farm began to produce cheese on-site with milk from the dairy herd, and it also became a founding member of the Union Square Greenmarket. As the demand for local produce and creamery products grew, Hawthorne Valley built the original Farm Store and a Creamery to help meet that need and add value to the farm enterprise. A Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program was launched in the 1990s to directly sell farm produce to members locally in Harlemville and neighborhoods throughout New York City.

The school developed on a parallel track, adding grades as the students progressed through the grades and demand for Waldorf education grew. By 1983, the school had established grades K-12 and graduated their first class of seniors. It has grown over the years to now include over 300 students from Pre-K to Grade 12.

In the early 2000s, the Center for Social Research, the Farmscape Ecology Program, and the Alkion Center for Adult Education were created as Hawthorne Valley initiatives to meet the need for social and ecological research and Waldorf Teacher training, respectively. Lightforms Art Center in Hudson is the newest initiative, joining Hawthorne Valley in 2020.

In addition to these main initiatives, Hawthorne Valley has incubated numerous farming and food-related enterprises and cultural organizations. Today, we employ over 200 people throughout all our initiatives and are actively working to become a Net Positive organization that gives back more to our environment and community than we extract.

How much land was initially purchased?

Martin Ping, Executive Director: Originally, the farm was 340 acres. Over 52 years, Hawthorne Valley’s land holdings have increased to include 500 acres of certified Biodynamic® land, much of which is held in a conservation easement with Columbia Land Conservancy. The Farm also manages 400 acres of certified Biodynamic land through lease agreements with neighboring landowners.

Was it purchased by an individual or a cooperative?

Martin Ping, Executive Director: The Rudolf Steiner Education and Farming Association, Inc. (later renamed Hawthorne Valley Association) was the 501c3 nonprofit organization that purchased the Farm.

Was the land originally organic or was it soil that needed to be remediated?

Martin Ping, Executive Director: The Curtis Vincent Farm was a conventional dairy farm prior to ceasing operations in the late 1960’s. Hawthorne Valley did not begin production farming until 1975, so the land had been fallow with no application of chemical inputs for what is now the required time for organic certification (three years).

Biodynamic preparations are applied to the land and compost as standard practice to increase the microbial life in the soil and promote more robust, pest and disease-resistant plants.

Was there much resistance to your approaches when you first began?

Martin Ping, Executive Director: There was never severe resistance to Biodynamic Agriculture or Waldorf Education in the early years. However, there was a lack of understanding about both, sometimes leading to criticism from the surrounding community towards Hawthorne Valley. It highlighted the value of creating opportunities to build relationships with our neighbors, fellow farmers, and others to help foster a spirit of community and collaboration in our work. Even today, we strive to be a place where people can come together, whether to have lunch and conversation under our Farm Store pavilion in the warmer months or celebrate the seasons at our Harvest Festival, Yuletide Fair, and Spring Fair each year.

My understanding is that you have been working with biodynamic principles since you broke ground on your farm. Have the philosophies and actions you implemented greatly impacted neighboring growers who may have originally used more traditional farming methods?

Martin Ping, Executive Director: In the 52 years that Hawthorne Valley has been in the Hudson Valley, we have witnessed a proliferation of organic and biodynamic farms, many started by farmers who either worked or apprenticed at Hawthorne Valley. While Hawthorne Valley would never claim to be fully responsible for the growth in organic agriculture in the county and region, we have supported conventional farmers transitioning to organic and biodynamic. In 2024, our farm became an ambassador for the Real Organic Project. This program offers an add-on certification for organic farms that more accurately represents the spirit and intention behind the organic movement than the USDA symbol currently does. As part of this work, our farmers and Farm Store team advocate for other local producers to apply for this free certification.

Do you feel hopeful about the future of farming, at least locally or not at all?

Spencer Fenniman, Farm Director: Farming is a process that is very much dependent on hope tempered with flexibility. Our farmers plant in the spring, hoping for ideal weather—not too much rain, not too little rain—but then adjust to the realities of each day. The past several years of extreme weather—one summer fully saturated, the next incredibly dry—have taught us the need to build resilience by preparing our infrastructure and planning for these patterns. Our farm team is actively working to make improvements that will remediate standing water in pastures when there is excess rain, planting trees that will grow to provide needed shade for farmers and farm animals alike, and investing in greenhouses for growing crops in a more controlled environment.

Moreover, education is at the heart of our work, from training aspiring farmers to welcoming over 1,000 children annually to experience life on a working farm. Watching children and young people connect with the land and discover their relationship to the food they eat inspires us and fuels our hope for the future.

Your research team has been exploring the “interactions of people and ‘wild ecology’ in Columbia County” since you launched the program in 2003. Can you share any surprises and/or exciting findings?

The Farmscape Ecology Program Team: During the second half of the 1800s, Columbia County had only about 20% forest cover. Most land was opened for farming. Since then, the forest has returned and now covers around 60% of the area. This has had enormous consequences for wild-growing plants and animals, some of which have become rare due to the lack of suitable open land, while others have become more common (again) due to the return of the forest.

People have also had a notable, direct influence on certain species. For example, beavers were nearly extirpated in the entire Hudson Valley by the end of the 18th century due to trapping for the fur trade. Deer had almost disappeared from our landscape by the early 20th century due to hunting for meat. Both of these species have since returned. Beaver populations are still below pre-colonial numbers, but deer numbers are higher now than ever due to the lack of predators, plenty of edge habitat, and low hunting pressure.

One interesting observation from our decades of fieldwork is the presence of ecological nooks and crannies where rare species survive, often entirely unnoticed by the people and human systems around them. This is both encouraging (they’re still here!) and cautionary (it’s easy to destroy what you don’t know is there).

It is heartening and sometimes surprising to see the depth of ecological interest and knowledge that some people have, while equally surprising at times to see the lack of interest of others.

In general, we are repeatedly surprised by how much people directly or indirectly, wittingly or unwittingly, impact other species; and, conversely, by how resilient nature is.

What are your most significant ecological concerns for us in terms of our local farmscape in the Hudson Valley?

The Farmscape Ecology Program Team: We have three main concerns for the local farmscape. First is the fragmentation of forests and farmland from residential and other development. Large, contiguous forests and fields are essential to support declining native species, such as forest-interior and grassland breeding birds, while also protecting against incursions by non-native and invasive species and providing many ecological services.

The continued impact of climate change on our landscape is something that we are watching closely. For example, a lack of snow cover and colder temperatures lead to an increase in pest and disease pressure; prolonged droughts stress both vegetation and aquatic ecosystems, leading to increased wildfires; torrential rains and significant storm events causing flooding and soil erosion; and shifting conditions leading to shifts in species distributions, such as northern species retreating north and eventually disappearing from the county while southern species– including many that are invasive which move in from the south.

Finally, the continued widespread use of toxic substances like pesticides on farms, landscaping, and throughout the area can harm non-target organisms, contaminate the soils and vegetation where they are applied, and enter into the surface and groundwater, where they can spread and persist.

What kind of community events are you excited about offering in 2025?

The Farmscape Ecology Program Team: We have three main events each year: our May Day Celebration and Spring Fair (the first Saturday of May), the Harvest Festival (Indigenous People’s Weekend), and the Yuletide Fair (the first Saturday of December). These events are beautiful gatherings that really help to build and celebrate our community. We also offer educational programming throughout the year featuring guest speakers, film screenings, and volunteering opportunities on our farm, so readers should sign up for our News & Events newsletter or check out our calendar on our website.

Your teaching approach is honoring a balance of “head, heart and hands experiential learning.” Can you describe how this is different from conventional teaching and learning practices?

Karin Almquist, School Director: Waldorf Schools value academic achievement, artistic expression, and practical understanding equally. Instead of memorization and testing, we approach learning in an integrated way at Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School (HVS). We believe the best way to engage our students’ intellectual capacities and analytic skills is to engage their hearts and help them become more embodied in their physical bodies and open their senses to the world around them. Instead of handing them a book or showing them a video and asking them to memorize facts, we try to give them more first-hand experiences where they are seeing as well as thinking about what they are learning. With any given subject, teachers bring the material in a multifaceted way that meets students’ learning styles and needs in relation to these three values:

• What can students do to help them understand the subject (hands)?
• What can they create out of themselves to support their learning (heart)?
• How can we read and talk about the subject to enhance their knowledge?

Our goal is to create active learners by engaging them in an experiential way, requiring students to be present in the moment.

Another aspect that isn’t always considered in conventional learning is that we want our students to feel a sense of wonder. We don’t want our students to think that they have learned all there is to know about a subject. Our goal is to create a feeling of wondering what else there is for them to learn. Whether it be a difficult climb up a hill to study geological structures or learning the beauty of geometry by drawing in perspective, there are all these “ah-ha!” moments in a day that leave them feeling like there is something bigger than themselves.

Have you seen a big difference in kids since your school started regarding their attention span and engagement in the classroom?

Karin Almquist, School Director: We are finding that many children who come to our school have more anxiety and depression resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the overly stimulated world that we are living in. Many children have more screen time or overfilled days than in the past, which is a result of the fast culture we’re living in. One of the things our teachers are mindful of is the need to intentionally slow down to take a moment and breathe to help children relax and prepare to learn.

Do you offer farm tours to the public?

Heather Gibbons, Director of Marketing: Yes! We offer farm tours and love sharing our farm with the public. People can inquire about tour availability by completing this form.

Any wisdom you would like to share for people newly transplanted in the Hudson Valley in terms of how we can live in greater harmony with nature or have the greatest positive impact?

The Farmscape Ecology Program Team: Tune into the ecological rhythms that are happening around you and try to act on that knowledge. For example, avoid driving on the first warm, rainy nights in the early spring when many amphibians have to cross roads on their annual migration from their forest homes to their breeding pools. There are many local groups, including our Farmscape Ecology Program, that offer volunteer opportunities to help amphibians cross the road at those times.

Spend time getting to know the land you’re on and its inhabitants. Resist the temptation to modify ecologically valuable habitats that support a diversity of native species for aesthetic or even conservation purposes. For example, please don’t edit the understory out of a forest to make it more like a park or replace a functioning wetland with an ornamental pond. Similarly, installing a well-intended pollinator meadow “from scratch” might be ill-advised if it replaces a diverse old field that already supports a rich insect community. And the creation of young forest habitats to attract certain rare species might not warrant the cutting down of a mature forest that already supports a diversity of species.

In many situations, “doing nothing” or “doing less”—generally exercising restraint—can be ecologically beneficial and accessible. For example, reducing the area and/or frequency of mowing so that lawns transform into wild meadows; particularly not mowing around the edges of ponds, streams, or other waterbodies; limiting outdoor lighting; if building something new, choosing an already developed site rather than opening a new forest or field site for development; keeping cats from running free outside; and reducing plastic use, including in clothing, to reduce the amount of microplastics entering the environment.

In some situations, “doing more,” even in small steps, can be very helpful, such as choosing native instead of non-native plants for landscaping.

Overall, we recommend getting to know and thus be able to avoid disturbing some of our most ecologically distinct and vital habitats, such as “ancient forest” (i.e., forest which, while probably not old growth, has long been forested and so may harbor more native forest species than younger forest).

How can people support Hawthorne Valley?

Stacy Szymaszek, Development Director: Hawthorne Valley’s goal is to become a Net Positive organization, which means going beyond reducing our impact to actively improving the world around us—contributing more to the environment, society, and economy than we take. This transformative approach asks us to harmonize social, economic, and ecological needs, track and share our progress openly, and embrace practical solutions and the intangible qualities that help communities thrive: emergence, intuition, and beauty. We’ve already taken significant steps, from creating an Ecology Trail that invites deeper connections with nature to decarbonizing our educational building’s HVAC system for cleaner air, reducing electricity demand through campus solarization, and implementing a bio-filtration system to treat creamery wastewater sustainably. By taking bold steps, Hawthorne Valley strives to serve as a beacon for sustainability and a resource for our community as we navigate this uncertain but hopeful path together. Community support helps us balance immediate needs with long-term goals as we chart this course for a more positive future. Donate today!

*The Farmscape Ecology Team consists of Conrad Vispo, Claudia Knab-Vispo, Anna Duhon, Kyle Bradford, Kendrick Fowler, Josie Laing, and Laura Stark.

Photos by Hawthorne Valley + Lawrence Braun

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