CLEMMONS FAMILY FARM
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      • Forest
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  • About
    • About Us >
      • Our Vision
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    • Who We Are >
      • Jack and Lydia's Living Legacy
      • How Jack and Lydia Found and Bought the Farm
      • Holding On to Our Legacies
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        • 2019 Visitors Survey: Sneak Preview
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  • The Storytelling Room
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    • 2018 To Sing of Common Things
    • Family Storytelling >
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        • Heritage, Farm & Family Stories >
          • Louisiana and Arkansas: 1800s - 1920s
          • From the South to the Mid-West: 1930s to 1950s
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  • Historic Buildings
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    • Six Historic Buildings
    • The Barn House >
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      • Stay with Us!
    • The Big Barn >
      • "Making History, Creating Place" Videos!
      • The Historic Water Cistern
    • The Main House >
      • About the Black Locust Trees
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Farm

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the physical farm is currently closed to the public                        until further notice.
Above:​ "Ready? Set? Go!" Aerial video of some of  the Clemmons Family Farm's meadows. Most of the Farm’s 148 acres are enrolled in Vermont’s Current Us​​e Program for agriculture and forestry. 
Above:  An educational video featuring Clemmons Family Farm and Soul Fire Farm describing the urgency of supporting Black-owned farms and Black farmers in the US. The video was produced by Senator Bernie Sanders' office (2019). 
WHY PRESERVING BLACK-OWNED FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES IS URGENT!
In the United States:
African-Americans have lost 93% of their land assets during this century due to systemic racism, discrimination, and violence against Black farmers. Today, less than half of one percent (0.4%) of all farms are African-American-owned.
Of the nearly one billion acres of agricultural land, only 3.8 million acres are African-American-owned.
In the state of Vermont:
 Of the 1.2 million acres of farmland in Vermont, only 3,960 acres (0.33%) are owned or principally operated by African-Americans.  Of the nearly 7000 farms in Vermont, only 17 are African-American-owned. 
The Clemmons Family Farm is one of the 0.4% of farms in the United States that remain ​
​African-American-owned.  

Source: US Agriculture Census, 2017.

About our Farm

​Nestled between the Green Mountains to the East, the Adirondack Mountains to the West, and minutes from beautiful Lake Champlain, are 148 acres of prime farm land, expansive open meadows, woodlands, forests, ponds, streams and historic buildings dating back to the late 1700's and early 1800's. This breathtaking place is the Clemmons Family Farm — one of the largest and oldest African-American-owned farms in the state of Vermont today.​ The Clemmons family has owned the Farm since 1962.
Above:​ "Meadow Meditations": Watch the progressive ripening, from green to gold, of the Summer 2016 crop of organic hay, alfalfa and wheat grown on the prime agricultural soils of the Clemmons Family Farm.  Video footage by Nancy Winship Milliken. 
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Above: Jack Clemmons and a grandson on the Farm, 1992.

​​​​​Agricultural produce
For more than fifty years, the Clemmons Family Farm's prime agricultural land has produced organic hay and alfalfa. More recently, the Farm has added wheat, soy, black beans and pinto beans to its organic produce.
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​​​​As part of its revitalization program, the Clemmons Family Farm is exploring collaboration with farmers in Vermont and neighboring states. We are in dialogue with the University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center, the Alabama A&M Forestry, Ecology and Wildlife Program, and others who are interested in sustainable agriculture and silviculture initiatives. Large-scale production and packaging of organic vegetables and grains that are part of traditional African-American and African cuisine, sheep, goats, bee hives, and an ​African diaspora farm-to-table enterprise are among the activities being planned for the revitalization of the Farm's agriculture program, beginning in 2017.
Listen to our Hoop House Anthem!
Clemmons Family Farm · Hoop House Anthem- And Still I Rise
In Fall 2019, we raised a new hoop house that will produce lemon grass, hibiscus for Jamaican sorrel, southern black eyed peas, African eggplant, okra, collard greens, ginger, turmeric, herbs, red peppers and other crops to provision our African-American/African diaspora culinary heritage programs.

We are currently forming a new joint venture with Zafa Wine Farms to offer opportunities for a network of Vermont's African-American/African Diaspora farmers and culinary artists to partner around the culinary heritage program and the hoop house operations in 2020.
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Our Farm program activities will also include:
  • opportunities for visitors to participate in the ongoing farming and rural life activities at the Farm;

  • ​learning opportunities through farming workshops, farm markets, farm “swaps”, and pop-up cafes that feature the fabulous foods and farm-to-table cuisines of the many cultures of the African diaspora.
OUR VISION
LEARN ABOUT OUR FOREST
Above: Ryan takes a break in the shade during his stay on the Farm with his parents this summer vacation. He accompanied his mother Donna Sherard, author of the children's book, The Splendiferous Adventures of Ryan Odongo, at her book reading in the historic Barn House in June 2017.
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ZAFA Wines | Krista Scruggs (@zafawines) on Jun 24, 2020 at 2:27pm PDT

Contact us at: contact@clemmonsfamilyfarm.org
​
Leave us a message at: 765-560-5445

© CLEMMONS FAMILY FARM. COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • What We Do
    • About Our Programs >
      • K-12 Ethnic Studies
      • Creating Healthy Communities >
        • Cancelling Miss Rona
        • A Sense of Place >
          • A Sense of Place at NEFA-CCX
      • The Agitators
      • Art >
        • A bit about the Art
        • Farm2Art Program
        • Culinary Heritage & Arts Program
      • Farm
      • Forest
      • Our Heritage
  • About
    • About Us >
      • Our Vision
      • Our Plans for the Center
    • Who We Are >
      • Jack and Lydia's Living Legacy
      • How Jack and Lydia Found and Bought the Farm
      • Holding On to Our Legacies
    • When Are We Open?
    • Press Coverage >
      • Other News >
        • 2019 Visitors Survey: Sneak Preview
        • 2018 Updates
        • 2017 Updates
        • 2016 Updates
    • What Our Community is Saying >
      • 2018 Visitor Survey Findings!
      • Feedback from other Vermont communities
    • Subscribe!
  • The Storytelling Room
    • Alone Together With Words That Heal
    • Juneteenth in the Air Program (2020)
    • 2018 To Sing of Common Things
    • Family Storytelling >
      • Farm Storytelling Channel
      • Our Storytelling >
        • Heritage, Farm & Family Stories >
          • Louisiana and Arkansas: 1800s - 1920s
          • From the South to the Mid-West: 1930s to 1950s
          • Finding and Buying the Farm
        • Vermont2Africa and Back Stories
  • Artists' Registry
    • Are You Looking for an Artist?
    • Why, Hello there, Artists!
  • Historic Buildings
    • Venue Rentals
    • Stay with Us!
    • Six Historic Buildings
    • The Barn House >
      • The Barn House Legacy
      • The Barn House Library
      • Stay with Us!
    • The Big Barn >
      • "Making History, Creating Place" Videos!
      • The Historic Water Cistern
    • The Main House >
      • About the Black Locust Trees
    • The Shop >
      • Shop Storytelling Videos
  • Please Donate!
    • Subscribe!