We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kerri Meyer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kerri below.

Hi Kerri, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Here on our regenerative farm, we grow scores of varieties of delicious fruit. In our first few seasons of farming, we went to the finest farmers markets in the Twin Cities and would regularly sell out of our beautiful produce, with hard-to-find flavors fetching a very good price. Now, as the home of a faith-based ministry, we’re transitioning toward giving as much food away as possible. Words can’t describe the satisfaction we felt the first time that we delivered heirloom dessert grapes, grown with only organic practices and packaged just as beautifully as we would for any customer — only to our food pantry partners. Every Minnesotan should have access to healthful, beautiful, incredibly delicious produce. Our faith is inspired by Jesus’ teaching that in God’s commonwealth of peace, those who’ve been made to be last will be put first. Now our farming is inspired by that same hope. This season, dozens of neighbors are joining us in tending the vines, anticipating a harvest that will be shared with so many people, cultivating a gift ecology that reaches outward from this sweet farm.

Kerri, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As much as we didn’t ever plan to become farmers, looking back on our lives, it’s clear that nearly all our experience to date was preparing us for this project at the intersection of food, farming and faith. Jen’s an academic with a focus on the geography of agriculture and food systems, and has grown fruit in every corner of all the backyards we’ve ever had. I’m an Episcopal priest now, but was an educator before this, and I mostly love teaching and preaching in the metaphors and colors of ecological theologies.

We were living a pretty satisfying life in the San Francisco Bay Area when we learned about this organic fruit farm that was in transition and we could imagine creating a space for community that integrates growing food and deepening spiritual practice. In 2019, we made a spectacular leap and moved here to rural Minnesota. The pandemic radically altered how we landed, but we’ve found ways to connect with people from our community and the Twin Cities through outdoor gatherings.

Now, we find ourselves in the second year of life within our new nonprofit, which offers space for song, prayer, hard work and sharing good food. We’re delighted at the permeable community that has converged around our weekly “Pie + Prayer” gatherings. Making pie from the fruit we grow and from other local ingredients has become my own spiritual – even sacramental – practice. Folks from all over the area and from unexpectedly far places have a slice of pie each Wednesday and then we sing evening prayer in our silo. The silo chapel space is so important to our community. There’s no roof, so the birdsong and sky are our canopy. Iconography, scripture and music weave together in that circular space. It’s such a place apart, so unusually beautiful and sacred, that even our atheist friends and our six-year-old friends love to join in Pie + Prayer.

The name of the farm is Good Courage, and that’s the most fitting thing we’ve done. Courage is what it takes every single morning for farmers everywhere to get out of bed and pick up the work of growing food in the midst of the climate crisis. Our prayer each day is that we and everyone who works the land will find courage to keep up the good work.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In a sense, this whole project is a pivot from church as usual. Many people are no longer finding life-giving religious connection to one another or to the Holy inside the walls of mainstream, traditional Christian church buildings. The Christian tradition has largely disconnected itself from this good Earth and has contributed mightily to the current ecological crises (through poor theology and complicit cooperation with empire and capitalism). At Good Courage Farm, we’re trying to bring people and practice back into communion with the rest of Creation.

It’s also fair to say that we’re in the midst of an internal pivot right now. It took a lot of shared reflection with our staff and our stakeholders to figure this course correction out.

During the pandemic, we settled into a model of programmed, event-based hospitality. Individuals and communities were looking for outdoor places to gather and for meaningful learning. Now that life is settled into normal-with-a-vengeance, people are programmed out, overwhelmed by the invitations and event options on their calendars. People still want to connect with Good Courage and are passionate about the place and its purpose, but they can’t fit as many planned, on-farm experiences into their calendar.

So we’re downshifting. We’re planning fewer curated encounters with the farm and trying to make our daily operations steadily welcoming to a few people at a time. We’re waiting for groups to reach out to us with the date and time and works for them, and instead of planning something thematic or unique, we’re just incorporating them into what’s already happening on the farm. We’re drawing inspiration from monastic communities that welcome pilgrims into their own existing rhythm.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’m constantly calling to mind the work of Priya Parker on the art of meaningful gatherings. We’re also really inspired by Lean Farming as a philosophy, but find it challenging to implement!      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goodcourage.farm
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodcouragefarm/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/goodcouragefarm/