Poultry in Motion: Jefferson Munroe and The GOOD Farm

Edited by Marina Crouse

Tranquil Momentum

Jefferson Munroe does not appear to be a restless person. As he sits back in his lawn chair and cradles one of his cats that affectionately climbed onto his lap, the founder of The GOOD Farm (Gardens Of Our Descent) and creator of the abundantly popular Komrade Chicken truck seems at ease. 

He speaks with passion about his agricultural philosophy, sustainability, and fried chicken, but he doesn’t become overly animated. The farmer contemplates his words, articulating his ideas in a way that suggests they were cultivated from tremendous research and ethical deliberation. 

With his welcoming demeanor and serene mannerisms, he could easily be defined as chill. And yet, as he details the logistics of his business, it becomes clear that Jefferson is constantly in motion. 

“I kind of view farming on Martha’s Vineyard as being similar to an urban farm in that the market is right here.” Jefferson explains, pausing for a moment as the chirping of birds echoes throughout the seating area just beyond his house. “Unlike a lot of farms where you’re trucking to cities or you have to bring people from long distances, everybody’s just here. Now, they’re only here for a hot second, generally, so you have to kind of figure out how to make that work.” 

Being a vendor, and perhaps also a resident, on Martha’s Vineyard entails a certain comfort with transience. Even though this year’s events have lengthened it somewhat, the island’s peak season remains Gatsby-like in its intensity, indulgence, and impermanence. For a few months, the 87 square miles feel keenly relevant and coveted by visitors. The estimated 200,000 occupants swarm the ferries, beaches, and stores, then leave a strikingly sudden lull in their post-Labor Day wake. Catering to this population as a business owner, as Jefferson does, likely means making adjustments throughout the high-velocity summer while keeping an eye towards local business throughout the off-season. Consequently, Jefferson has adapted.

“Over the years I’ve segued from almost entirely being wholesale-based to being more and more retail and even more valued-added as time has gone on, because it’s kind of what people want.” 

Housing Friend and Fowl

Like the ever-evolving atmosphere of the island, Jefferson’s own story has been mobile in nature. An early career in hostelling took him to San Diego, Boulder, and Boston, before drawing him to the Cape and islands in 2007. There were four hostels in the region at the time, one of which was located in West Tisbury. Jefferson encountered an eclectic mix of people while managing the hostel, everyone from bicycling folks to Girl Scout groups, all eager to capitalize on a brief window of island time.

“It was an interesting way to land on the island, because there’s a ton of people that live here now who had either stayed at the hostel at some point, or knew somebody who had,” Jefferson recalls, noting that the industry was a “nice way to plug into the community.” 

His decision to stay on the Vineyard beyond the summer made Jefferson “fall in love with the place” and eventually pointed him in the direction of farming. During his second year at the hostel, Jefferson introduced a flock of chickens to the property. Around the same time, his friend, Doug Brush of Flat Point Farm, helped develop a mobile processing unit - a slaughtering station ideal for remote areas - through the Island Grown Initiative, an organization that has strived to promote food equity on Martha’s Vineyard since 2006. Once Doug and Jefferson began raising chickens together, an opportunity soon followed.

“It became clear that the processing unit would get licensed so you could sell chickens you had slaughtered with it.” Jefferson says, “I had been running the hostel for about three years at that point and kind of didn’t want to do it anymore. I wanted to start farming.”

Jefferson points to a former stint at a Colorado farm with a knowledgeable, “awesome” employer as a motivating factor to delve deeper into agriculture. Farming also simply seems conducive to his lifestyle and interests, as he’s thrilled to “get to work outside, work with animals, and really just be active.”

 This agricultural passion shifted Jefferson from a career promoting travel and movement to one that literally and figuratively establishes roots, resulting in The GOOD Farm’s launch in 2010. Starting out at the Tisbury Meadow Preserve in Vineyard Haven, the farm now resides further down State Road and one mile from its storefront, The Larder. While these celebrated establishments have grown visible ties in the community since their conception - The GOOD Farm’s products can be found in restaurants, shops, and family fridges - Jefferson’s operation is far from stationary.

Grazing New Trails

Much of Jefferson’s day is spent moving birds. In order to provide his fowl with an exceptional life - which, in turn, yields exceptional meat - the farmer utilizes chicken tractors. He describes the contraptions as “basically bottomless pens,” explaining that “the density in those is really high, as opposed to day ranging, which is more like an egg-lay, a barn on wheels.” 

By relocating regularly within these “8x10’ boxes,” as Jefferson calls them, the chickens reap the benefits of stimulation, sunshine, and a feast of bugs. Their existence in the chicken tractors lets them experience more of the island than they would otherwise see, suggesting that their quality of life is a central priority for Jefferson. Unsurprising, perhaps, is that Jefferson possesses an encyclopedic understanding of chicken behavior.

“Chickens are easily trained,” Jefferson claims, “so they grow up in a brooder and you put them out in the field and they’re like ‘OK, this is my home.’” 

When moved, however, chickens tend to panic a bit before adjusting. They’re also not exempt from the trials and tribulations of adolescence. 

“There’s sort of an age, a friend of mine calls it the ‘dumb-dumb age,’ where they finally realize that everything can kill them,” Jefferson observes, adding that chickens are fairly easy to corral until they go through this phase. 

“They get really worried and run around all the time. I guess you can call it a ‘cat stage’ where they just run everywhere.”

Jefferson’s friend who has joined the conversation in anticipation of after-work drinks chuckles and nods emphatically. Amusement crosses Jefferson’s face as some particularly boisterous guinea hens march across the lawn behind him. The cat in his arms is unfazed and has assumed a belly-up position.

Coordinating the moving pens can lend itself to some entertaining moments, as the ‘dumb-dumb’ behavior isn’t limited to the birds. When transporting chicken tractors in wet conditions, treading on fowl feces is a hazard with which Jefferson is familiar. 

“In terms of physical comedy, there’s just something about seeing someone when their feet fly out from under them,” Jefferson laughs, “you’re up in the air before you even know it.” 

Maintaining this system has provided Jefferson with anecdotes, but additionally some valuable perspective. He believes that his profession deals primarily with “risk mitigation” at its core, requiring him to do what he can “without killing the thing that you’re trying to care for, whether that’s predator or environmental, or otherwise.”

“In a way there’s been, like, a letting go. That’s been a really important lesson for me. You can do a lot of things, but you can’t sit in the coop with the chickens every minute of every day. And you can’t do everything.”

Cycling

The chicken tractors are part of a much larger system that Jefferson has utilized as a means of sustainability and responsible farming, permaculture. An agricultural philosophy that grew out of the Back-to-the-Land Movement of the 1970’s, permaculture aims to increase the amount of water cycled in a landscape to create a “more resilient and less fire-prone location,” which, Jefferson asserts, is crucial in the time of climate change. This indigenous-inspired approach to fertility consists of several principles that vary according to the aspect of land maintenance. 

“In terms of this farm, a lot of what we try to do is make sure that the animals are always moving and, by doing that, we’re kind of helping the ground cycle carbon into it by pulsing it in terms of cutting the grass down and adding fertility.” 

Jefferson explains that the activity will cause the roots of the grass to die back, thus feeding the soil, “then the soil increases carbon, which increases fertility, which is sort of a virtuous cycle.” 

The GOOD Farm’s team planted a number of fruit and berry trees around the property to contribute to the cycle. Jefferson describes one variety as “improved oak” trees that could drop as many as half a ton of acorns annually when fully grown. Mulberry trees populate the property as well, serving as a crucial part of the ecosystem.

“New England is kind of a weird place to do permaculture because we have so much water here. The version of permaculture that tends to get described is what’s called a ‘food forest’, so in that setting you’ve got multiple layers of production in a single zone.” The trees create a protective cover, under which “you could plant blueberry bushes and then a ground cover as well. So then you have different levels in the landscape that are being used.” 

Trial-and-error, combined with no shortage of determination, has shaped Jefferson into a maestro of sorts. He helps orchestrate the flow of matter through each apparatus, utilizing their properties to feed a prolific and intricate ecosystem, all while keeping his chickens content. As he supervises every moving piece, he must also anticipate obstacles that could bring everything to a halt.

Like droughts, to which Martha’s Vineyard is prone. To combat this, Jefferson says he tries to “always make sure that we have organic matter on top of (the soil). Grazing our sheep in the fields, we make sure that we pull them off of an area before they’ve really eaten everything, because basically it’s like self-mulching.” 

It is evident that Jefferson takes great pride in each level of the cycle, from the grand, stoic mulberry trees, to the lush soil nourishing it deep beneath the ground. Every detail of the farm seems intentional, the result of “a million mistakes and challenges” from the farm’s early years, Jefferson insists. His willingness to invest in such a labor-intensive process stems from a desire to benefit the environment, though Jefferson admits he also has to reconcile competing interests.

“Many of the goals of permaculture are operating within a space that is not fossil-fuel based. It grew out of a homesteading mindset: enough for you and your family, not so much for market.” Jefferson admits that finding a balance between those two aspects “has always been a working point for me. It feels really good to know that the fields are more fertile and that we’re storing carbon in the soil, but it’s also challenging just to pay all your bills. So it’s a little bit of finding a way to do both.”

Even if financial stability weren’t a factor, sustainable farming still comes with a myriad of ethical decisions folks like Jefferson weigh regularly. There is no perfect solution, no immaculate method of lessening one’s carbon footprint in agriculture. 

“The funny thing about Sustainable Ag as a thing is that there’s a lot of different levels that you can hit. Organic production is great, but you’re still pounding the soil into dust and maybe not cover cropping. And no-till is great, but a lot of places that went no-till just used pesticides to kill all their pests.” 

To execute any sort of responsible farming is to regularly shift between numerous techniques knowing that all come with some cost. This challenging reality likely informs most decisions Jefferson makes on behalf of The GOOD Farm, which could be exhausting. But he seems undeterred, willing to keep adjusting, cycling, moving.

Privjet, Komrade!

One would think that Jefferson’s time, energy, and creativity would be monopolized by the demands of sustainable farming. But the man who moves pens and water found a way to put wheels to yet another important part of his life: fried chicken. 

Komrade Chicken, Jefferson’s dynamic food truck, can be found weekly at the West Tisbury Farmers Market and The Larder. Bearing a cartoon chicken wing in orbit - a radio antenna protruding from its crispy skin - the “movable feast” is often surrounded by people eager for some delicious propaganda. Customers can choose from Tchaikovsky-caliber masterpieces like The Sputnik and The Laika for a hearty sandwich, The Vostok for a box of gluten-free select cuts, and some international creations such as The Overthrow Batista. 

Jefferson is keen on making the portable poultry fun for those who feel a gravitational pull to the truck. 

“I feel like food trailers should be silly, just in general. Like, you’re driving around and you’ve got a kitchen, why wouldn’t it be absurd?”

An idea for the truck’s motif struck when Jefferson and his fiancée, Erin, were watching a Chernobyl documentary. Inspiration came in the form of gamma rays, as Jefferson recalls. 

“We were like ‘we should really do some sort of hot sauce for hot fried chicken and we’ll say it’s Chernobyl hot.’ Then everything grew out of that. We got excited about the Soviet propaganda posters and that whole thing.” 

Erin jumped into designing the graphics for the truck and website, creating a playful array of chickens in spacesuits and food trucks in liftoff. The artwork could easily adorn bottles of signature sauce, but Jefferson laughs about the fact that the hot sauce hasn’t come to fruition yet. If he were to do a hot sauce, he says, the Chernobyl reference sets the bar high.

“It would have to be very hot, possibly burning through the roof of your mouth.”  

Pausing, Not Stopping

“Living on Martha’s Vineyard, the best place to eat is your own kitchen,” Jefferson observes, “and you can do that by buying some high quality ingredients when you’re here. You don’t have to do as much to them.”

Even if the customer is simply passing through the island, Jefferson envisions them using his products in a family-style meal, “preferably one container that has a multitude of elements. They’re all just in that one space.” 

As the imagined platter gets passed around the table, there is a clear story embedded in the ingredients. Narratives of people in transit, exploring new territory. Cultivated energy from an elaborate, calculated symphony of regeneration. Sustenance that has roamed and soaked up the benefits of that system (some of it delivered in its purest form, some of it fried and turned communist). There is comfort to be found in mobility. 

“We’re really lucky that the markets exist and that the farmers are more concerned with the quality of what they’re producing over quantity in most cases.” Jefferson reflects, “Everybody’s operating on different metrics, but we’re all trying, more or less, to get to the same place.” 

You can find Jefferson’s products at The Larder in Vineyard Haven, as well as the Komrade Chicken food truck at West Tisbury Farmers Market. The GOOD Farm’s meats are also featured in many of the island’s restaurants. Go visit Jefferson and his komrades!