Introducing Our 2026 Farm Manager!
Hello! My name is Espoir and I am delighted to introduce myself as Farm Manager this upcoming season at Groundwork. I am a farmer, wilderness guide, educator and dance-maker. Over 5 seasons I have been lucky to work at a variety of different size organic farms across the country. From working on all kinds of farms I have developed a love for the relationship you can have to land, place, soil and the people you work it with, through growing food together. The relationships and trust I have gotten to develop, both with my own body, the land I work on, and those I do so with, have become sacred to me through the work of building community while growing food. The practice and process of growing and sharing food has become integral to how I relate to the world. In a world that is increasingly dystopian, it is a privilege to witness and cultivate such abundance even if the work it requires is equally as sizable.
Growing up bilingual in what is now known as Minnesota and being politicized in the youth climate movement organizing at local and state level throughout high school led to work both nationally and internationally in college. Attending the UN Climate Negotiations in Bonn Germany in 2018 I became jaded from formal venues for the needed paradigm shifts to ensure a livable future for all. As a way to stay rooted in what being alive means and feels like and witness growth again, I started working the blueberry harvest in the late summer at a farm near where my family lives on the south shore of Lake Superior. That experience sparked a continued curiosity for the real work of growing food. I then worked as a student farmer growing veggies through college, and apprenticed afterwards. This brought me to taking a break from farming to work leading educational programs abroad, and wilderness expedition guiding found me missing farming. Since then, over the last three years I’ve lived in the driftless region of southeastern MN and worked at a CSA/Market Farm operation and especially enjoyed working at the Wabasha Farmers market.
Now joining the team at Groundwork, I have a lot to learn and so much excitement and curiosity towards being present in a new place. I look forward to stewarding the values of a different type of operation where broader investigation of food systems are being made and the way we do things is approached as an embodiment of the values of reciprocal relationship to place, land, and community. I’m hungry to make a place where the venn diagram of both boots-on-the-ground scale work and larger levels pushing against our current paradigm are simultaneously happening. I arrive curious, humble and ready for the challenge and the task of trying to hold this while having a fun and productive farming season! I want to collectively cultivate a cohesive and supportive group dynamic, with collaboration and communication. We surely have our work cut out for us, but I am excited to work and learn with you all together and grow delicious food while cultivating community.