Jefferson and Erin Munroe

In 2005 Jefferson was traveling in Senegal when a shaman proclaimed that he would not find happiness until he found a way to work with the dirt. Over the next several years Jefferson moved from one part of the US to another, working in coffee shops, hostels and the occasional farm.

By chance he and Zephir Plume moved to Martha’s Vineyard to manage the Youth Hostel in West Tisbury. Year one at the hostel saw a garden installed, year two a flock of chickens and ducks and by season three a pig on the neighbor’s property.

Itching to get closer to the land Jefferson raised close to 600 broiler chickens with Doug Brush at Flat Point Farm, hiring Island Grown Initiative’s processing crew to slaughter the birds. If you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join them, which Jefferson did in 2009 when he took the reins as IGI’s Poultry Crew Leader. A year of processing other people’s birds (OPB) and running some numbers made it clear that raising chickens could make one a little scratch.

In 2010 Jefferson started the GOOD Farm with his friend Justin Myers on a few acres of rented Landbank pasture with a desire to raise chickens on pasture. It was a fortuitous collection of circumstances – the former lessees had fled the island under embezzlement charges, IGI had managed to secure an umbrella license for island poultry producers and Down Island Farm was willing to lend a hand with the brooding of chicks. That first year was not without difficulties but was successful enough that Jefferson was able to expand the next year into raising turkeys with Richard Andre and try his hand at raising a few pigs in a pen fenced in with 48 pallets and a couple of trees.

Kristen Henshaw Kingsbury called out of the blue and asked Jefferson if he might be interested in a little plot of land across the street from the Scottish Bakehouse. Kingsbury Fields were available and Jefferson and Zephir arrived in 2012 and continued expanding production. Fruit trees, hazelnuts, more than a few oaks and a field of raspberries appeared, pigs cleared underbrush and chickens covered the land as Jefferson and Zephir settled in. This year Jefferson plans on expanding his farming practices into the kitchen at the Larder so that all his happiness doesn't need to come from working in the dirt. 

2024 update!

Well, the last 9 years have been quite the trip - more chickens, fewer chickens, more trees in pasture, more grass in the woods. The Larder came and went and was wonderful and challenging. The most important updates are the human ones, because farms are, if nothing else, the hopes and dreams of the people who run them. Jefferson and Zephir had an amicable split and both found other partners - Zephir now has a lovely family with farm alum Alex Peterson in Mansfield, CT. Spoilers, Jefferson lives 20 minutes away with his wife, Erin.

While running the Larder, one of our farm employees, CC, suggested we serve fried chicken. We had a pop-up, plenty of happy customers and now, well, that’s more or less all we do. The business is called Twin Beaks Fried Chicken (an ode to Erin’s love of David Lynch and Jefferson love of a decent pun). It’s a moveable feast that allows us to focus on ensuring the highest quality of ingredients (we raise them), preparation (we do it!) and cooking (to order, more or less every time!). So while we still have turkeys and pigs and laying hens and ducks and sheep and goats, the broiler chickens stay central to what we do.

Well, central to our business, but in many ways what is most central to what we do is steward the land. This means intensively managing our livestock - moving them daily if not more frequently, feeding them biochar to help make their manure more available to underground roots and critters and making sure the land has time to heal. Our hope is to trod lightly and leave the land better than when we stepped foot onto it.