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Buck Cochran, executive director of Peacehaven Community Farm, said he is interested not only in growing tomatoes but also in growing relationships. In fact, Cochran suggests that both of the goals of Peacehaven — the farming and the relating — are inextricably linked.

Several years ago, Cochran, a Presbyterian pastor, visited a L’Arche Community in Washington while on sabbatical. He was curious about this community model where people live and work alongside developmentally handicapped adults.

Cochran and cofounders Tim and Susan Elliott wanted to create a similar place in Guilford County and found the perfect rural setting in an 89-acre property just outside Burlington on N.C. 61, overlooking Lake McIntosh.

Then Cochran met Ben Wright, a horticulture major at N.C. State, at a community gardening workshop. Cochran asked Wright and his friend, Chas Edens, to create a design for Peacehaven as their senior project — including space for livestock grazing, a community garden and housing for intellectually and physically disabled residents.

This plan for a working farm put the theories they had learned at State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences into practice and, upon their graduation in 2009, Cochran invited the young men to come live on the farm and make their collective dream for Peacehaven into reality.

The mission of Peacehaven Community Farm states that everyone is valued and can contribute. It emphasizes that each individual can become the person they were meant to be when in a nurturing, supportive environment. This is something Will Moore has learned firsthand.

Moore has a type of autism spectrum disorder known as Asperger’s syndrome. He is challenged in social situations, has difficulty understanding nonverbal communication and has restricted interests. He also has behavior issues that can be difficult to manage.

Moore wants to be around people his own age and has felt isolated now that the structure of high school and all of its activities are gone.
“Peacehaven Farm has become a place where Will can find acceptance and support and friendship from people of all ages,” Liz Schumacher, Moore’s mom, said. “A teenage girl from one of the nearby farm families heard that Will had a hard time at the farm on Thursday last week, and she painted Will a picture and brought it to him Saturday. He was thrilled.”

Schumacher said Moore is beginning to look at Peacehaven Farm as his extended family. Moore celebrated his birthday a week ago with cake at the shared lunch following the workday. He also invited a couple of the young adult farm managers and their girlfriends for pizza and cosmic bowling on a recent Saturday night.
“We really depend on Will,” Cochran said. “He has been a tremendous help to us out here.”

“I have lots of friends here. What I do is important,” Moore said. On a recent visit Moore led the way to the vegetable garden and picked a ripe yellow squash, part of a crop now ready for harvest that he helped to plant, weed and grow.

On Peacehaven’s Saturday work days, 9 a.m. to noon and open to the public, volunteers learn about the day’s work, which could range from harvesting vegetables in the garden to completing a building project.

After work, everyone shares a meal. Cochran said that work days “allow people to come together and simply work side-by-side weeding, planting, harvesting or working with the animals. Relationships develop and grow just like the plants.”

The plants in turn are given back to the community — those who work on the farm are encouraged to take what they need home. Cochran said any surplus will be given to food pantries to meet rural hunger needs.

The next phase of development at Peacehaven Farm will be the construction of housing for adults with disabilities, like Moore. The 5,000 square feet houses will house six to eight residents and will have front porches and communal dining spaces to encourage close relationships.

Cochran also hopes to build a worship center on the property that could double as a local meeting space for groups like the Boy Scouts.

Already a strong community has developed at Peacehaven, in its first year of operation. Wright and Edens have reached out to their rural neighbors, including an Amish family, whose farming expertise is much appreciated, and a church down the road. This exchange is evident in the growing relationships and ripe tomatoes that Peacehaven is harvesting in its very first season.

Ruth D. Anderson is executive director of The Servant Leadership School of Greensboro and chairwoman of programming for the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium.