Farm Manager Jared Kimler Comes Home to Gaining Ground
We’re thrilled to introduce our new Farm Manager, Jared Kimler, who’s no stranger to Gaining Ground. He fell in love with Gaining Ground while attending a workshop on the farm, later joining us as an assistant grower before leaving us to help build several profitable no-till farms: Wild Flower Farm in Maryland; a market garden on Cape Cod; and Seven Seeds Farm near Asheville, N.C., where he and a friend ran a 100-member CSA, sold at markets, and maintained wholesale clients.
At Gaining Ground, we know our success is rooted in the incredible people who make up our community—past and present. We’re thrilled to have Jared on the farm once again. We recently caught up with Jared to learn about his favorite farm task, what he’s focused on during the off-season and his plans for the future.
Welcome back to Gaining Ground! Can you start by sharing what you’re responsible for as farm manager?
I’m responsible for making sure we continue to grow incredible food while taking care of the farm ecosystem. I have to stay on the cutting edge of best practices for small farming. I love reading about soil health, and new tools, looking up new techniques, participating in workshops and going to different farms. I can go to an apple orchard and learn something new that I can then take to Gaining Ground or I can visit a farm in the desert and translate new ideas from there to our farm. Really, I’m a nerd.
Where did your interest in farming come from?
I loved playing outside as a kid, and to this day, I feel more comfortable working outside than inside. After high school, I had a friend who started farming. After witnessing how fun, rewarding and difficult farming is I said I want to do that. I started reading about farming in college and just caught the farming bug.
Where is home and how did you find your way to Gaining Ground?
I grew up in Natick, Massachusetts, about 40 minutes south of Concord, but it wasn’t until after college that I discovered Gaining Ground. I was working on a farm and came to Gaining Ground for a workshop, I was so excited about how they were growing food that I went to the then-manager and asked if they could hire me for next summer right then and there. I spent two seasons working at Gaining Ground and zeroed in on the farming practices, such as intensive growing, no-till or low till systems and growing in hoop houses, that I had read about but hadn’t done.
How has it been coming back to Gaining Ground after a few years away?
It feels like coming home. It’s mostly new faces around but I know the land and the spirit of Gaining Ground feels the same.
Do you have a favorite farm task? What do you like about it?
Pruning tomatoes It’s artful. You trim the plants to be elegant forms that are super productive, increasing the value of plants, and it’s just enjoyable artistic work versus, say, the coarser work of dumping a wheelbarrow of compost or moving woodchips. That’s not to say that dumping compost can’t be enjoyable or isn’t important.
We are at the end of the farming season – what are you looking forward to in the next few months?
It’s really exciting to work with this crew that we have now. I’ve been able to ask them what worked well and what we should do differently, and I’m focused on really downloading as much as I can from them and then building the farm with efficient planning. Plus, there’s a lot of cleaning up: making sure all vegetables’ beds are covered either in tarps or cover crops or hay, leaves, wood chips, and then I’ll be spending a lot of time in the barn going through and sorting tools and things that we need for next year or don’t need. Last season, we built a new propagation house, so it’s going to be really fun this winter to set that up and start seeding in February.
And what about next season? Is there anything you’re really looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to being on a big team again. The last few years I worked alone or with a business partner and sometimes two employees. So I love coming back to Gaining Ground and getting to work with this incredible team of farmers and then the 3,700volunteers that come through in a season. I’m really happy to be back at Gaining Ground.