To date, Sky High Farm has donated 160,000 pounds of animal protein and produce to its partners, which include the Hungry Monk community outreach and rescue truck in New York City and the more local North East Community Center and Neighbors Helping Neighbors Association. Soon they’ll be able to grow and donate even more. In 2023, the farm purchased 560 acres nearby and is in the process of transitioning to this new property. Right now, says Bardfield, “we’re growing vegetables on a little over an acre of bed space, and we’re grazing currently on about 25 acres. One field within that 560-acre property is the size of this entire farm.” Sky High is supported by traditional grants and fundraising, but it also has a couple of not-so-secret weapons.
HEN COLEN MOVED TO ANCRAMDALE, New York, he’d imagined an idyllic, peaceful retreat where he’d be able to focus on his art. “But when I got here,” he told Upstate Diary in 2020, “I very quickly had the opposite experience, where I felt like the place that I had come to was wasteful, abandoned, and forgotten. Since my instinct as an artist is to participate and experience, I asked myself in which way could I be of service and not let these fields go to waste.” He established Sky High Farm in 2011; in 2016 it became a nonprofit. Today the farm continues its mission to make fresh, healthy food accessible to all by donating the meat, fruit, and vegetables it produces. Sky High is “committed to regenerative farming practices that steward the land, mitigate climate change, and produce nutrient-dense food with minimal inputs,” Joshua Bardfield, the farm’s co- executive director, tells The Rooted Journal. That means they practice no-till vegetable production to improve soil health and use intentional rotational grazing to make sure plants can regrow. (Sarah Workneh is also co-executive director, and the farm has almost a dozen employees, including a director of farm operations and a livestock manager.)
ABOVE: FELLOWS GET FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE IN “NO-TILL GARDEN MANAGEMENT, PROPAGATION, FOOD PROCESSING, LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY, AS WELL AS VEGETABLE WASHING AND PACKING.” RIGHT: LIVESTOCK AIDING IN THE REGENERATIVE NATURE OF THE FARM WITH ROTATIONAL GRAZING. BELOW: THE SKY HIGH FARM TEAM: JULIE MILLER, LIVESTOCK MANAGER; PHIL HAYNES, DIRECTOR OF FARM OPERATIONS; JOSHUA BARDFIELD, CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; SARAH WORKNEH, CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; NINA TUCKER, PROGRAMS COORDINATOR.
Colen’s reputation and involvement in the art scene has played a big part in getting the word out. In 2022, for instance, Sky High Farm hosted a trio of panels at the Judd Foundation in Manhattan on accessibility, artistic agency, and the farm’s work. And Sky High has tapped into the celebrity of Colen’s friends, like actors Chloë Sevigny and Tommy Dorfman, who have served on Sky High’s advisory board. Colen’s clout also fostered the creation of Sky High Farm Universe, a fashion and lifestyle company (read our story on page 20) that has increased the visibility of the farm’s work through collaborations with brands like Balenciaga and Converse. While Sevigny and Dorfman have lent their high profiles to promote the farm, others are working behind the scenes. For example, Carolina Saavedra, the sous chef at La Morada, the South Bronx Oaxacan restaurant she runs with her family, is a member of Sky High Farm’s board. “I come from a long lineage of farmers and people that work in the agricultural ecological system,” she says. “Essentially, my life has always been revolving around farming.”
To date, Sky High Farm has donated 160,000 pounds
of animal protein and produce to its partners.
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ISSUE 02
AN ARTIST’S HARVEST
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