Like A Mustard Seed Farm in Perkasie was named in part after the Biblical injunction that faith need be only as big as a mustard seed to move mountains. “We did not name our farm in vain,” says Kristin Jones. “We need faith every day to do what God has called us to.”
When the pandemic hit, Kevin Jones was working in management at a restaurant. Kristin was a stay-at-home mom to two children ages 2 and 4. Kevin hardly ever got to spend time with his family. Sometimes he was gone from 9:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. In the meantime, Kristin was alone at home with their young children. “It was a massive strain on our family.”
They started looking for a new way of life.
In one of those turning points when a curse turns out to be a blessing, Kevin was let go from his job. The couple was shocked, but Kristin admits, “It ended up being the impetus that brought us to our little farm.”
When the opportunity presented itself to move to a farm with a Perkasie address in East Rockhill Township in September 2020 and begin working together as a family, the couple felt called to take a leap of faith. Kristin had grown up in Bucks County in Hilltown Township and she loved the open spaces, natural beauty and charm it had to offer. Her background was in education. Kevin had a family legacy rich in farming.
Kristin describes herself as an avid researcher and she began to read about regenerative agriculture, a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. “In regenerative agriculture, diversity is king,” says Kristin. “So we needed to learn a lot about many different things very quickly. I inhaled books, podcasts, and documentaries on pastured chickens, pastured beef, flower farming, permaculture orchards, and organic gardening in a matter of months.”
“We did research on USDA regulations eagerly, hopeful that we could accomplish our short-term plans of having laying hens, meat chickens, flower farming, and a permaculture orchard. In my vision, we were going to be a children’s storybook kind of farm, all different animals, all different enterprises.”
Then Kristin came to realize a fact applying to every area of all our lives, “…but head knowledge and experiential knowledge are not the same.”
They suffered many hardships initially. “We lost chickens in freak rainstorms. We had a neighbor report us repeatedly to the police because she didn’t believe humans should eat animals.” In short, she says, “We had more failures than wins.”
Slowly and with faith in the eventual outcome, things began to turn around.
“About two years in, we discovered we could teach. We had shared a lot of what we were doing on social media, and a homeschool mother came to us and asked if her co-op could come and learn how we butchered chickens. It was a life-changing event for us. We loved it.” Kristin got to use her background in education and Kevin his history of leading teams.
“Our model slowly shifted away from production to education. Before we knew it, we were creating a new model that allowed us to practice everything we believed about ethical, small-scale farming without needing to depend on the income of production.”
Still, it is very difficult to make a living farming. Kristin and Kevin have had hindrances imposed by local government. But at a township meeting not long ago, the East Rockhill Board of Supervisors affirmed that they want to see farms stay in the county and they recently adapted some of their zoning ordinances to allow for more flexibility, which local farmers so desperately need.
Kristin says, “Despite its frustrations and hardships, this way of life is so meaningful. It’s invigorating and humbling, and we find that, at the end of the day, we would do it all over again.”
Check out their website for other goods and services offered, such as free story time events, soy-free and corn-free rainbow-colored eggs, raw honey, organically grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs, plants, flowers, and hand-made goods like beeswax candles, potpourri, and dolls.
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