Farming connects people with disabilities to nature, community and a sense of purpose

Summer mornings start peacefully at 21 Roots Farm. When the youth farmers arrive, it’s possible to hear their footsteps as they crunch their way up the gravel road. The broiler chickens are quietly cackling to themselves, and a gentle breeze rustles through the tops of the trees. It’s already warm, and the farmers gather under a maple tree. Each one gets a mini clipboard, a pen and a laminated checklist of the day’s activities, which start with a welcoming exercise.

“What’s your favorite artist?” Farmer Jenny asks the group. “I’ll go last, you start us off.” She points to Farmer Heather, who has pulled her whole body into her plastic chair and wrapped her arms around her knees. She shakes her head and hides under her mini clipboard. (Note: Youth names have been changed to protect their identity.)

The question continues around the circle: Farmer Robby says George Strait, Farmer Steve says Bear Hunt, and so it goes until we get back to Jenny, who says Pink, Lady Gaga and Led Zeppelin.

Youth farmers move one of the farm’s chicken tractors, a daily task that ensures the chickens have fresh grass and bugs. Photo courtesy of 21 Roots Farm.

Next up, farm rounds: The farmers head up to the apple orchard to visit the laying hens in their chicken tractors, or moveable coops. There are lots of chores to be done: With a mighty cry of, “Ready, set, push!”, they move the chicken tractors, giving the ground they’re been on time to recover — and the chickens fresh grass and insects to forage. They gather and count eggs. They mix up a bucket of water and vinegar for the chickens to drink — and learn how it will help their digestive systems. Farmer Sarah volunteers to feed the chickens and steps into the doorway of the coop with a cupcake tin full of farmer-made treats. But the chickens are rowdy, and Sarah teeters there, looking back at her fellows as if for support.

Farm leader Molly steps up and says, “Let’s work together to take them out.” She gamely tosses a treat at the hens, and then Sarah laughs and does the same. 

“Oh cute,” says Robby. “Oh, my heart.”

Heather stays on the edges of the crowd, watching everything with wide, curious eyes. When a volunteer is needed to walk a basket of pale brown eggs down to the kitchen, she says, “I can do it.”

All of these farmers are part of this summer’s Youth Farm Club, one of the many programs at 21 Roots Farm, a nonprofit in Grant, Minnesota. 21 Roots uses farming to connect youth and adults with developmental disabilities to community, a sense of purpose — and the transformative benefits of spending time outdoors in nature.

When Brittany Wiitala and Amy Peterson founded 21 Roots Farm in 2019, it had been a long time coming. The two met during college, while working as counselors with the Minnesota Autism Society, where they staffed a week-long overnight camp. They each had experience working as personal care assistants, and Wiitala had worked in a group home, but both say the camp was a pivotal moment for them. “After experiencing a full week outdoors with adolescents with autism, we kind of left going, ‘Wow, that felt like a month, how do parents do it, day in and day out?’” 

Peterson and Wiitala felt drawn to creating a program of their own someday, one that might offer respite for parents of people with developmental disabilities. In the meantime, Peterson went to live in Northern Minnesota and Wiitala to the Ukraine, but they wrote to one another:

“It would be like, ‘Oh, I have an idea for our thing,’” says Peterson. 

“We had all these elements of things we wanted,” says Wiitala. “Nature was probably the first because of the experience with the camp, and we both love being outside.”

“And then gardens and the idea of where food comes from because that’s a passion …”

“Yeah, I grew up in a farming community and I grew a lot of the food I was eating. I realized that I’d taken that for granted: In the group home, no one had any choice about what they ate, much less where it was grown,” adds Wiitala.

“And then I wanted animals,” Peterson laughs. “So in one of our back-and-forths, we drew up a silly map — we’d have prairies, woods, an orchard, and a barn. It was this beautiful thing. Then, in 2018, we found a venture capitalist to help us look for property and found this place —”

“It had everything,” says Wiitala.

“Then it was like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to try to do this, who wants to come along?’”

Peterson and Wiitala called the farm “21 Roots” because it initially had 21 acres — they’ve since added five more — and because many of the people they work with have Down syndrome, a genetic disorder in which a person has an extra copy of chromosome 21. Today, about 270 people with developmental disabilities, including adults ages 20 and up and youth ages 12 to 18, participate in programming at the farm. In the summer Community Garden program, adult farmers tend the veggies, herbs and flowers growing in wheelchair-accessible raised beds. On Farm Enrichment Days, farmers of all ages can visit the farm with their friends and families, spend time getting to know the animals, and participate in seasonal agricultural activities, like pressing fresh apple cider.

During Youth Farm Club, the farmers get to touch nearly every part of the farm. Molly, an adult farmer and alumni of the program, helps Wiitala lead youth farmers through the maze-like paths of restored prairie on a nature-noticing expedition — “I saw a blue flower, I saw dead sticks, I saw clouds,” they call out. In the barn, they use giant forks to give Tiny Bean, the farm’s very furry, floppy-eared Mangalica pig, a back scratch. In the kitchen, they make fresh nectar for the hummingbirds. They climb the play structures in the goat pen, and Sarah hugs Buckwheat, a Nigerian dwarf goat, for a good fifteen minutes, whispering into his droopy, contented ears.

The farmers also take time to relax: In the shade of the big maple, Molly leads them through 21 different stretches that she put together in a yoga-like flow. As a fluffy farm cat wanders between the mats, mewing for scratches, Molly helps the farmers stay focused with directions, like “Reach for the stars,” and reminders to breathe deeply. Afterwards, she asks, “What do you guys think? Feeling good?”

The youth check “Stretching” off their laminated checklists and get out their snacks. Farmers Amelia and Lily decide to eat together at a picnic table, chatting as they unpack their lunch boxes. 

“Guess she didn’t pack any crackers today, sorry, hon,” Lily says. “Where’d you get those strawberries from?”

“My house,” answers Amelia. “Want some?”

“No thanks, hon.”

21 Roots Farms is not alone in using the farm setting to connect people with disabilities to the benefits of nature, community and opportunities for autonomy. In fact, the farm is a part of the Care Farming Network, which aims to offer support to its growing network of care farms, share expertise and technical support, and build awareness about the transformative power of care farming. The network defines care farming as the use of “therapeutic farming to promote health, well-being and belonging.” There are 300+ care farms in the network. Located across the U.S., they provide a diverse range of experiences, primarily for people with cognitive and developmental disabilities: Mandy’s Farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, features an Adaptive Horsemanship Program in which kids and adults with disabilities develop trusting relationships with horses, building physical strength, coordination and confidence, as well as patience and self-esteem, along the way. A Farm Less Ordinary in Purcellville, Virginia, hires teens and adults as “Growers” who learn about agriculture and practice the skills needed for meaningful employment, like using a time card, team building and learning to use new tools.

For 21 Roots Farm, Peterson says, care farming comes down to the idea of a safe place — to make mistakes, to build friendships and to be a leader. “On a care farm, you’re caring for people’s well being and safety,” she adds, “whether it’s physical, emotional or spiritual. And nature is therapeutic, being outside is super healing — for any population of people. ”

As part of the Work Experience & Leadership Training program at 21 Roots Farm, farm leaders assist with youth programs, garden maintenance, harvesting produce for the farm’s CSA and caring for the animals. Photo courtesy of Susan Pagani.

Six years into their work, Peterson and Wiitala say that programming on the farm is shifting to recognize and support people like Molly, who want to take a leadership role. “From the start,” Peterson says, “our mission was to be farmer-centered, and we were like, ‘We’d love for the farmers to be the experts on the farm.’ So when people visit, they know the apple trees and all the goat things, and we’re just in the background, helping them shine. But we didn’t know if that could actually happen. Now, we’re seeing it.”

In 2023, 21 Roots Farm piloted a summer Work Experience Program, which employed a group of farmers to help assist with the Youth Farm Club, garden maintenance, harvesting produce and caring for the animals. The program participants also helped facilitate the farm’s CSA, which provides a mixed box of fruit, veggies and flowers for 22 families during the growing season. This year, the team is expanding the Work Experience Program to include leadership training for a handful of last year’s participants. Those who undergo leadership training will in turn help to train this summer’s batch of new leaders.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to be better leaders for their peers — for anyone who steps on the farm, really,” Peterson says of the farmers in the Work Experience Training program, “and the exploration time to figure out what they like to do on the farm. We’re pushing a few of them to try new things that might not be as comfortable, so it’s also about learning together that failure is okay, and we can grow.”

“There’s a whole world out there,” adds Wiitala. “Giving people a safe place to gain the confidence to be employed outside the farm is really important to us, as well.”

“I want to have my own farm some day,” farm leader Molly says. “It’s fun growing crops.” Photo courtesy of Susan Pagani.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the Work Experience Group is out harvesting vegetables for the week’s CSA boxes. Wiitala takes farm leaders Ellen, Molly, Chad and Garrett up through the apple orchard to a sunny strip of land. 

“What do we have here?” she asks.

“Potatoes,” Molly answers. A few rows of potato greens are much taller than the others, and Wiitala tells the team she’s worried they might be putting all their energy into stalks rather than potatoes. How can they find out?

“Pull them up,” Molly says. 

“I’m the fork man!” Garrett chimes in. 

“That’s right,” says Wiitala, “Pull first, then dig. Where should we start pulling?”

“At this end,” answers Molly. Stepping into the garden bed, she bends down and confidently pulls up on the potato greens, revealing what looks like a little cluster of red rocks.

“They’re growing!” says Garrett. Wiitala reminds him how to gently turn over the dirt patch left behind with a hand cultivator — also known as a fork — thus unearthing more potatoes. He puts the good ones in a basket, and tosses any greens or rotten potatoes to Chad, who drops them in the compost bin.

As the farm leaders pull, shake and dig, efficiently filling their potato baskets, Ellen stands nearby, watching. When Garrett holds up a large, brown potato, she says, “That’s disgusting.”

“Ugh, rotten potato,” Chad says.

“That’s the seed potato we used to start the new potatoes,” Wiitala explains. “It won’t taste good.”

Garrett chucks it into the compost bin and throws his arms up. “It’s good!”

It’s time to change jobs: Molly offers to show Ellen how to pull up the potato greens. She says, “Seriously? Right now?” and wanders off — and then back again. When Molly pulls the next handful of greens, Garrett makes space for Ellen to squat down, and then shows her how to use the cultivator. She doesn’t take the tool from him, but she does pull a couple potatoes out of the dirt, gently dusting them off and looking around for a basket. 

“Here you go,” says Molly, offering a basket. 

“Thanks, Molly.”

“Let’s see if there’s more,” says Molly, rummaging through the dirt and holding up a pea-size potato. “Look, it’s a tiny little baby,” she says, and they all crack up.

Later, as the group carries the potatoes to the farm’s pole barn to be weighed and put into CSA shares by their colleagues, Ellen leans into Garrett, saying, “I’m bad. I’m not a part of the farm today.”

“You’re doing great,” he says.

Farm leader Garrett shows Ellen how to prep the herb bags — a step that makes harvesting the herbs for the week’s CSA more efficient. Photo courtesy of Susan Pagani.

When we ask what’s next for 21 Roots Farm, Wiitala and Peterson talk about expansion. They hope to have more funding for the Work Experience Program so they can include more of their existing farmers and start the program earlier in the growing season. There are also things they’d like to add to the farm; for example, Wiitala dreams of a rotational grazing plan for the goats, cows and, potentially, pigs. 

What about the number of farmers? While farmers come and go, their numbers stay pretty steady, and Wiitala and Peterson have no plans to grow. “In order for our programming to be meaningful, we can’t have an unlimited number — it’s so important for us to know our farmers,” Wiitala explains. “What we do is based on who they are, they’re leading and guiding.”

The team’s challenge is to continue to grow the depth of their programs to meet farmer interest. It’s also their superpower. One example is Farmer Josh. His parents brought him to 21 Roots Farm because he dreamed of being a farmer. “But when we met him, he was a guy who moved slowly and didn’t like a speck of hay on him,” says Wiitala. “So I watched him, and he really had fun playing with the cows. He’d yell at everybody, ‘Be nice to the cows!’ So I said, ‘What if we did showmanship?’” 

In the showmanship program, Farmer Josh and other participants learned everything from handling steer to grooming — and then put on personal shows at the farm for their families. “It was way more meaningful than we could have imagined,” Wiitala says. “He was able to do all the steps, to use his cleaning skills and make his cow meticulous. We were all crying because he hand-over-hand got his cow into the chute, and his mom was like, ‘He won’t even put his dishes in the sink.’” 

“Peterson and Wiitala are definitely not afraid to pivot,” says Mariana Giovino, the farm’s development director, “and that means that, over the years, they’ve fully designed and tested — do we even know how many? — pilot programs that are not in use now because there’s no farmer interest.”

“So now we’re wondering if that’s part of what growth means for the farm — intellectual property growth, creating programs for other organizations,” she adds. “That might be the kind of thing that could help sustain us, but also allow us to stay small and intentional and keep our one staff to five farmer ratio.”

In the meantime, the team says their proudest moments are just watching what the farm leaders are doing this summer. 

“Watching Molly lead stretching makes me so happy,” says Peterson. “All of our farm leaders do, but Molly … she’s been doing a lot of reading and she comes to the farm with pages of notes on our processes.”

“Yeah, I’ve learned a lot — there were things I had to research. She spurred me on,” agrees Wiitala.

“In my mind, this is the pinnacle of what the program can be,” says Peterson, “but who knows, maybe there is a whole other level that we just haven’t gotten to yet.”

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