Poetry Farm
On the Farm
Our 12-acre (uncertified) organic fruit & vegetable farm is open to poets willing to work for four good hours a day in exchange for room, board, and a new environment in which to write. There are no workshops, no formal or official feedback on poems, no academic credit, and no money exchanged. The purpose of these “residencies†is to provide time and a unique place to write in a fair degree of solitude. Our own availability for talk, work-sharing, socializing, etc., is often (unfortunately) limited by the demands of the farm, child and writing. Additionally, work in Chicago sometimes demands the presence of Lisa Fishman and Richard Meier there. The farm work is hard, physical, monotonous, and dirty. Lodgings are primitive, as described below; it is very far from a bed and breakfast. While food is provided and meals can be as communal as people wish, so will be the process of preparation and clean-up. Vegetarian meals are common and vegetarians easily accommodated, though some of us eat meat occasionally. The only internet access is a mile away at the village library (open 12-7, M-F). Some cell phone services work here (U.S. cellular seems the best bet), others don’t. We are conscious of water and energy use and ask that laundry be consolidated when possible (cold water, line dry), and that, despite hot & sweaty work, showers be limited to one a day.
Throughout the summer and fall, continuous work includes weeding with hoes, watering plants and trees with buckets of water, “grubbing†fruit trees (a hard task with hoes and shovels), picking destructive insects off plants and killing them, staking and tying new fruit trees, painting stakes for trees, harvesting fruits and vegetables, working farmers’ markets, weeding, weeding, weeding. There are sometimes small building projects such setting up or fixing the hoop house, green house, or chicken coop.
Lisa Fishman and Henry Morren will not be hosting poetry residencies at their farm this summer (2008). They are fully staffed with family and local labor for the coming season.
Description of lodgings:
Each accommodates one person, for a total of two in residence at any given time. If you wish to attend with another person (as collaborators, friends, couple, some combination), you will have use of both spaces. We cannot accommodate pets.
The Coop: A converted and (formerly) mobile steel chicken coop. Very small space (8 x 12) but lovely site in the pine trees on a hill overlooking the grapes and the peach orchard. No electricity, water, plumbing, etc. Just a double mattress on the floor (the mattress is shorter than standard), a desk with chair, and one sitting chair. It's a short hike--about 400 feet--to/from the house, through the yard, past the barn, up a small hill.
The New Space (name to be determined): The new space is in the planning stages and will be constructed in the early spring. It will be located in a shady area at the edge of apple and cherry orchards and the strawberry patch. It will be similar to the coop and may end up looking something like this.
Where we are located: Two miles north of Orfordville, Wisconsin, population 1,382. Madison is 40 miles north, an easy drive on the state highway. Milwaukee is 75 miles east. Chicago is 110 miles south. Southern Wisconsin, which can get very hot and humid, is landlocked, but we sometimes swim in a small lake (called “the cow pondâ€) ten miles away, when the weeds and algae are not too off-putting.
Madison is the site of the largest & oldest farmer's market in the country, the Dane County Farmer's Market. On Saturday market-days, we leave the house before 5 a.m.; the market ends at 1. We also try to sell at markets on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday afternoons in Madison and may be able to do another market on Saturdays in Beloit (15 miles south).
A note on where we live: Our young orchards and fields are beautiful, not visible from the road. The setting for farmwork is ideal, since the land is not along the highway and the views from the back are pastoral and bucolic. (Horses next door, cows behind, with gently rolling hills and farms surrounding.) Our house, however, is on the state highway, so the setting does not appear immediately enticing. All of the beauty is out back. We live in a small old farmhouse, built in the 1890’s by Swedish immigrants, cozy but plain.
Who we are:
Henry Morren (full-time farmer), Lisa Fishman (author of Dear, Read, The Deep Heart’s Core Is a Suitcase, and, forthcoming from Ahsahta Press, The Happiness Experiment), Richard Meier (author of Terrain Vague and Shelley Gave Jane a Guitar), and James Fishman-Morren, age 3. We have one female dog and two male cats. We hope to restock chickens this summer in order to have fresh eggs.
How to apply:
Lisa Fishman and Henry Morren will not be hosting poetry residencies at their farm this summer (2008). They are fully staffed with family and local labor for the coming season.