Sean Perry '16 and Bari Zeiger '16 / Photograph by Keith Walters '11
At Healing Poem Farm in western New York, SUNY Geneseo grads Bari Zeiger ’16 and Sean Perry ’16 steward a small-acreage farm that yields nourishment for their community and the Earth.
“We are a human-scale ecological farm,” Zeiger explains. “That means we farm on a scale in which we can employ the use of our minds, our hands, our bodies, without reliance on fossil fuel-driven equipment like tractors.”
In contrast to industrial-scale farming systems that rely on chemical and synthetic inputs at the cost of long-term soil health, Healing Poem Farm focuses on nurturing the ecology in and above the soil with organic practices to grow flavorful, nutrient-dense foods. “If the farm is a poem, the soil is the poet,” Zeiger says.
Healing Poem Farm’s half acre of growing beds yield enough to feed more than 65 families through an 18-week farm-share program and local markets. They plant, tend, and harvest crops by hand, using simple garden tools like long-handled hoes and rakes and little to no automated machinery.
Zeiger says Geneseo’s broad curriculum gave her the freedom to explore without needing all the answers right away. Eventually majoring in philosophy, she says, allowed her to “almost specialize in agricultural ethics.” The agency to follow questions, rather than a single predetermined path, is what she now sees as the value of the liberal arts.
“I think that trying to know what you want to do from such an early age is not really compatible with the human experience,” Zeiger says. “So as much as you can let yourself learn about what it means to be a good human, a good citizen, all the better.”
As a student, Zeiger interned on an organic farm near Groveland Station, NY, and completed a directed study on the immigrant and migrant farm labor system. After graduating, she apprenticed on a North Carolina farm, managed a farm in the Catskills, and eventually purchased 11.5 acres in Western NY—now home to Healing Poem Farm.
Perry, who majored in political science, also wasn’t always on the farming track. “I got roped into it a little bit,” he jokes, recalling early visits to the farms where Zeiger worked after college. But over time, his appreciation for the practice grew.
While his full-time job is in renewable energy development, Perry says working alongside Zeiger on the farm connects him not only to his partner but also to the broader community their work creates. “Our shared passion and values are taking care of the earth and each other.”
“I think a fulfilling life is a life that's grounded in simplicity,” Zeiger says. “Finding joy in the daily work that you do, as well as being there and being of service to friends and family and our community is something we personally find a lot of fulfillment in.”