Together with two other lay brothers and under the spiritual guidance of a team of monks at Plum Village Upper Hamlet in Thenac, France, we started in 2013 to lay the foundation for a market garden to supply fresh, organic produce to the monastic community. It was result of several conversations, I had had with Plum Village monks during mindfulness retreats in 2010 and 2011.
A lot of information about the Plum Village Happy Farm including information about apprenticeships, retreats and visiting the farm is posted online:
- At the official Plum Village Happy Farm website where you’ll find videos, podcasts and more about the Happy Farm.
- An article entitled “Our Earth, Our Self” that I wrote in 2016 for the Plum Village website.
- An article by Denisse Aguilar from 2016 “The Growth of Happy Farm“.
- One of the first write-ups about the Happy Farm entitled “Harvest is the Way” was written by Stuart Watson (Happy Farm co-founder) was published in 2013. in the Mindfulness Bell.
- A beautiful article from about 10 years in, “Happy Farmers Change the World” written by Mick McEnvoy, the current Happy Farm Manager.
- Happy Farmers (2018) a documentary by Czech filmmaker Barbora Kinkalová. Watch it for free here.
