Lydia Francis did not necessarily intend to become a farmer when she started volunteering for Fernbrook Farm’s CSA program in 2005.
“I just like being outside,” Francis says. “I wanted to work on the farm to understand a little more about growing the food that we eat.”
Now, nearly two decades later, the Bordentown resident is the driving force behind The Shepherd’s Pasture, a small farming operation that raises animals and grows and sells produce, plants and other natural products at farmers markets throughout the region.
Francis started The Shepherd’s Pasture in 2007, when she and husband John purchased a greenhouse and started growing herbs and native plants. Her desire to start a farming operation grew from the positive experience she had with the Fernbrook CSA.
CSA stands for community-supported agriculture. In a typical CSA program, residents who live in the area of a local farm pay an upfront fee in exchange for a weekly share of that year’s harvest, spring through fall.
Back in 2005 farms like Fernbrook, in Chesterfield, offered members a workshare option. They could work at the farm, helping with the harvest, in exchange for a reduced CSA fee. That is how Francis came under the influence of Jeff Tober, who was the farm manager at Fernbrook for many years before starting a farm of his own.
“I learned a tremendous amount from Jeff, which is kind of why we took it on our own from there,” Francis says. “First, when you join a CSA, you want the good food, and then you realize there’s a lot to learn (about agriculture). Once you get hooked, it’s hard to go back to what you did before.”
Once the herbs and native plants were thriving in Francis’ greenhouse, she started selling them at local farmers markets. “That’s all we had,” Francis says. “We would take thousands of plants every year to a couple markets, and it kind of grew into other things.”
In 2008, Francis began raising animals as well. Today, she raises chickens, goats, lambs, pigs and cows. She gets eggs from some of the chickens and milk from some of the goats. The rest are raised for food.
“People would ask, ‘Do you have sheep? Do you sell lamb? Do you have pigs? Do you sell pork?’ From then, it just kind of grew and grew to where we are now,” she says.
Where they are now is at a variety of local weekly farmers markets: Pennington, Mount Holly, Burlington City, Marlton, Princeton and, starting this month, Robbinsville. They sell different things at different markets, depending on what other vendors are there and what agreements are in place with the markets. But they always have plants through July, and they always have goat’s milk soap and a variety of jams on offer.
One market where you won’t find The Shepherd’s Pasture is the Bordentown Farmers Market. “Bordentown is on Sunday. Sunday’s our family day,” Francis says.
The soap and jam are made at the house in Bordentown City, which the Francis family has owned since 1987.
Most of the produce that The Shepherd’s Pasture sells is grown on their 16-acre farm in Sussex County. Some of the produce that they sell at market comes from other local farms.
They grow a variety of popular herbs to sell, including mint, oregano, basil, chamomile, lemon balm, winter savory and catnip. They also grow a number of less commonly found herbs, including comfrey, horehound, spilanthes, valerian and wormwood.
The animals are pasture raised at Fernbrook Farm, per an agreement that Francis has with the Kuser family, which owns the farm. Francis is there every day to tend to the animals, and sometimes also to teach Fernbrook’s day or summer campers in the Children’s Garden at the farm.
Francis started making and selling jams and preserves last year, and she says that part of the business has really taken off. “Right now (in June, when we spoke), it’s the centerpiece of our stand, aside from the plants,” she says.
What’s available depends on what sells the most, as well as what’s in season. In June, jams available from The Shepherd’s Pasture included apple pie jam, blueberry jam, onion jam, carrot jam and orange marmalade.
If there is an abundance of a crop, Francis will look for ways to utilize it. Last year, for instance, the rhubarb crop came in strong. The Francises don’t grow strawberries, but they were able to procure some from a local farm to use in some strawberry rhubarb jam.
“We had an abundance of carrots last year, so we made some Mexican pickled carrots,” she says. “The demand was there, so we started to think outside the box, think, if we grow more of this we’ll have a little extra to make something canned out of it. And that definitely took off at most of the markets.”
Summer crops should start reaching maturity this month, which means The Shepherd’s Pasture will have many familiar Jersey favorites at the markets soon: zucchini, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower. They have planted some 30 fruit trees on the Sussex County farm, but they are not ready to bear edible fruit yet. In the meantime, Francis obtains locally grown fruit from other farms to sell at market.
Francis says that becoming a farmer has had a profound effect on the way her family lives today. “We eat differently,” she says. “We eat what’s in season and if we have extra, we preserve it. We have meat from our animals — I don’t think I’ve bought meat from a grocery store in 15 years. We have our chickens, we have our eggs — we really have a lot. Coffee and half and half. I have to go to the grocery store for that.
“When the winter comes, if we haven’t preserved it, there’s not a lot we would buy out of season. We grow a lot of our own food, but there are farms that have winter produce in New Jersey, too, and they’re not far away. A lot go to the markets that we go to, so we are still able to get local vegetables throughout the winter. It’s a lifestyle.”
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Francis grew up in Cream Ridge. She worked in the banking industry before opting to stay home with her children. She and John have three daughters — Heather DiLapo, Amanda Warden and Victoria Wicker — and son Jonathan, who is the youngest of the four. The Francis children were all homeschooled.
“My daughters give me a lot of support,” Francis says. “They do behind the scenes things. One daughter edits my newsletter. Another works in the greenhouse. She was an apprentice at Fernbrook. I get a huge amount of support from them.”
Among them, they have 11 children, the eldest of whom is 13. Sometimes even the grandchildren can be found helping Francis at the market.
Son Jonathan, 18, is a farmer in his own right, he spent many years working with the animals for The Shepherd’s Pasture before taking a job last fall with Spring Hill Farm in Hopewell Valley.
“I kind of lost him in the fall, which was very unfortunate. He was my best, he really was. Jonathan was on farm with the animals, always feeding, picking up hay et cetera,” Francis says.
John worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense before retiring last year. In the absence of Jonathan, he is picking up some of the slack both at home and at the Sussex County property.
“My husband is helping me,” Francis says. “He’s working on the organizational part, on the marketing, since he is very good at it. Since he started a couple months ago, he’s really pushing the marketing end for me and putting stuff online.”
John will also be flying solo at the Princeton and Robbinsville farmers markets this year, since Lydia will be at other markets on those same days of the week.
Farmer Jonathan Francis with one of the goats raised locally by The Shepherd’s Pasture.,
