Neighbor News
Local Family Launches Kickstarter Campaign in Hopes of Reviving Local Farm
A Bernardsville family of three seeks crowdfunding to bring their project, "Restoring An Organic Homestead Built in 1800" to life.
BERNARDSVILLE, NJ - The goal is to raise $60,000 in just 30 days using Kickstarter. The project? To restore a home built in 1800 in Bedminster on 10 acres and to once again bring the farm to life. The Kickstarter page reads, “Our family has to move our homestead. Now we’ve found a foreclosed farmstead from 1800. It needs work--and we really want to do it.”
The local family of three moved to Bernardsville in 2012 and turned their .67-acre property into a tiny homestead. “I want my son to know and appreciate where his food comes from. We currently grow over 65 different varieties of produce, keep ducks for eggs and tap sugar maples for syrup,” says Angela Ferraro-Fanning. “We even had two dwarf goats for a bit for a truly local milk source.”
Upon looking for a new house and land for homesteading, Shawn Fanning and
Angela Ferraro-Fanning came across a home built in 1800. The property includes two barns, over ten acres (eight of which are farm assessed) and several outbuildings. Ferraro-Fanning says, “In my head, this place is picture perfect and I can see it clearly for what it will become. Currently, however, it's in rough shape. The home is a bank-owned foreclosure that simply needs to be restored and brought back to life. After that’s done, we see a small vineyard of New Jersey-climate tolerant grapes, loads of vegetables, and even a farm stand to sell our fresh produce.”
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Wood has rotted away on just about every railing and banister on the exterior. Many of the shutters that remain hang lopsided and lazily from the windows. While the roof is fairly new, water has seeped its way into the home, pooling above ceilings and literally causing them to collapse onto the old wooden floors. One of the two barns is held together by tension cables; the other barn can, hopefully, be salvaged and restored eventually. “In its current state this farmstead is far from being able to provide us with approval for a Certificate of Occupancy. And we want to restore and repair it ourselves.”
Sounds amazing, right? Yes, but without the funds in place to acquire the property and pay for the repairs, it might take years before the couple could find another small-scale farming opportunity like this one. Plus, there’s an additional cause for a swift relocation.
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“Somewhere along our family's journey, our neighbors decided our eco-friendly lifestyle wasn't a good fit for our spread out, wooded development. For the past four months my stomach has been in knots as we were forced to give up the goats, have had to tear down our duck house (though we are allowed to keep the ducks), and have had to deal with complaints about our hosting a local organic farm CSA box share program. As neighbors walk passed our home they point, stare and even take photos of what we're doing here. We just want to be left alone.”
As the family continues to fight to live a lifestyle they believe is right and environmentally responsible, their morale is dwindling. “We no longer like being outside. We check our windows every morning to see if neighbors are taking pictures of our home/animals/property. We are constantly in fear of what we'll have to defend or what will be taken away next.”
This is why they’ve decided upon running a Kickstarter campaign to try crowdsourcing the $60,000.00 necessary to make a down payment on the Bedminster property, to fix the highest priority repairs, and to start planting crops.
Kickstarter campaigns operate on an “all-or-nothing” funding basis so if the Fanning family project doesn’t reach its intended base goal at the end of the 30-day period, then the family goes home empty handed. Be sure to follow them on Instagram @AxeAndRootHomestead and their Kickstarter page to watch their progress and be sure to spread the word on your own social media networks.
“We firmly believe that a farm-to-table lifestyle and way of eating is right for us, our family, and for future generations to come. We strive to grow as much of our own food as we can and to share our knowledge and our passion with those that surround us. That said, growing our own food, sharing local produce with the community and trying to be self-sufficient is a major part of our value system.”
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Kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/965993805/restoring-an-organic-farmstead-built-in-1800
