Last week one of Jim's golfing partners was Nate Stuckey, the manager of Princeton Seminary's Farminary, a 21 acre farm a few miles outside of Princeton. The goal of the Farminary is to be a "place where theological education is integrated with small scale regenerative agriculture to train faith leaders who are conversant in the areas of ecology, sustainability, and food justice." Nate asked Jim if we would like to tour the Farminary and of course, Jim said Yes.
As Nate told us about the history and goals of the Farminary, we could see two herons on the farm pond. We walked around the property and saw the hen houses (now producing over three dozen eggs daily), the vegetable garden and the bee hives. Nate stood next to a large compost pile made up of vegetable scraps and leaves raked from seminary grounds and told us it was a good symbol of theological understanding about death and life, renewal and regeneration.
Nate was raised on a farm and at one time was a farmer himself in Kansas. He decided that was not right for him and came to the seminary where he got his degrees, never dreaming that one day he would incorporate both his vocations into one. The seminary too probably didn't envision this use for the land it purchased in 2010 as an investment or possibly a place for more student housing. We appreciated the vision others had for a lovely and useful place. Plus we came home with a jar of honey that we knew was "farm to table."
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