About Us

Avodah Farm is the home of Martha OrHai Black and W. Geoffrey OrHai Black, along with Geoffrey's parents Bryce Black and Kathleen Plunkett-Black. Our son Elijah Joseph was born January 26th, 2013, and we welcome him as the third generation to call this farm home.

Farming is our livelihood and our passion, and we come to it with eager hands, inquisitive minds, and compassionate hearts. We see this work as a way to live out the Jewish principle of Tikkun Olam, Repairing the World—by rebuilding our topsoil, our local economy, and the connections between rural and urban areas.

Before starting Avodah Farm CSA in 2012, we completed three in-depth sustainable farming internships together, and between the two of us we have worked, studied and volunteered on more than fifteen farms in five different states, as well as Italy and Israel/Palestine. In 2012, we returned to apply the skills we had learned on land that has been in Geoffrey’s family for nearly forty years. We are the second generation to tend this soil and grow vegetables on it, following in the footsteps of Geoffrey’s mother, Kathleen Plunkett-Black, whose large garden produces food for the family and seeds for her small seed catalog, Plum Creek Seeds.

We farm using no chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides, controlling pests and diseases and maintaining soil fertility through crop rotation and cover-cropping. Our practices are informed by Permaculture, a method of designing agricultural systems that emulate natural ecosystems.

As we begin our second season farming this land, we look forward to being your farmer!