This article appeared in the March 2014 issue of Organic Hudson Valley.

The Hawthorne Valley Association (HVA) was formed in 1972 by what Karen Preuss, the marketing director for HVA, described as “a few pioneering educators and farmers.”  The web site sums up the purpose of the HVA nicely, describing the association as, “producing high quality, Biodynamic and organic foods while providing farm-based learning experiences for children and adults.”  It continues on to say, “Our work revolves around cultivating relationships: with the earth, our surrounding communities and landscape, and with one another” and “requires a radically enlarged context of sound farming principles, new economic forms and parameters, and renewed recognition of the role of agriculture and agriculturists in our culture and society.”

“They were looking to buy a farm that could offer families a hands-on experience,” Preuss said of the founders’ decision to purchase land in Ghent, New York.  The following year, they opened a Waldorf school, with a curriculum that is very much tied to agriculture.  Today, the HVA is an “umbrella that encompasses a number of very distinct branches,” Preuss said.  “We have the farm, which is kind of the foundation of everything.  We are a dairy farm primarily, but we also grow vegetables.  We also, within the farm, have a wonderful farm store.”  The store is 3500 square feet and is a full-line natural grocery store with a bakery, a creamery, cheeses, yogurts, raw milk, and artisan food areas.  Products from the farm and the lacto fermentation center, which is located on the farm, are sold both at the farm store and at three different green markets in New York City, including the Green Market at Union Square.

Today, the HVA promotes a mission of “social and cultural renewal through the integration of education, agriculture and the art and is committed to environmentally sound land management as the basis for sustainable economic success,” according to Karen Preuss.  The HVA today is an umbrella that consists of the Hawthorne Valley Farm, the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School, which has 260 students, and the Center for Social Research.  They offer programs in farming, including a farmscape ecology program that is “a research and outreach program that is about ecology, making that connection between human culture and agriculture, what is the human impact on the environment,” Preuss said.  The Center for Social Research works at “promoting social health, whether through economics, education, cultural life, looking at modern day social problems and how we implement solutions to them,” according to Preuss.  There is also the Alkion Center, which is a teacher-training program for people interested in becoming certified in the Waldorf teaching method.  They also offer visual arts courses for anyone interested that are separate from the classes in the Waldorf teaching method.

The programs at the HVA draw people from all over, including some international students, though it is mostly a day program that serves and supports the local community.  “We offer workshops in various kinds of cheese making,” Preuss said, citing that example as one of the many classes they offer.  “The store supports the community and the community supports the store.”

The part of the HVA that is most important to its members is the connection to the community.  “Human relationships, connecting to nature, good food, is a huge part of what we do, everything that goes with that, creating a sustainable landscape here so we can keep producing good food,” Preuss said.  “We welcome people to the farm, to go back and visit our barn.  People can come and have a picnic lunch.”