Farm Fresh, September 2025
This month's highlights:
This month's highlights:
- Passing the Torch to The Farm's Next Generation - Part 2
- Book Review: First Boomer
- The Butterfly Pea Flower
- Market Day - September 13, October 11
Only 1 more to go!
Dear friends,
I received a number of nice responses to last month‘s issue highlighting the Next Generation taking on various roles of responsibility and carrying forward a commitment to making a difference in the world. And so this month I have a couple of more profiles to share with you.
On the other end of the spectrum, Peter Hoyt was one of our founding members all the way back to Monday Night Class in the 1960s San Francisco scene. This summer I caught up with him at a Farm Family Reunion on the West Coast. His book, First Boomer is a wonderful tale of stories from his personal life and provides insight into those early days of buses on the open road and the building of this community.
You won’t believe the hidden beauty of the Butterfly Pea. See my photo essay below to learn about this enchanting gift from the Plant world.
Peace,
Douglas
Douglas
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Vanessa Viavant is the daughter of Suzi Viavant (known as Suzi Jenkins in her Farm days). Suzi was a Plenty volunteer with Deborah and me in Guatemala back in the late 70s, working on soy nutrition and a production facility, which depended on clean water from the water system we set up for our village. Vanessa is bringing it full circle as a team member of a growing NGO called Water4LifeGuatemala. In her own words:
Our mission is to provide clean, safe drinking water for indigenous families in more than 50 villages in and around Guatemala. We distribute carbon-based water filters, offer education and women’s empowerment programs, and develop water solutions for communities around Lake Atitlán. Throughout the past six years, Water4LifeGuatemala has helped more than 30,000 people gain access to clean drinking water. Your support can help us reach even more families!
Vanessa explained her motivation beautifully:
I wanted to reach out to this community because my mother, Suzi, taught me about the profound impact doing this kind of service work can have on people’s lives. I grew up hearing her stories about Guatemala and the work she with did Plenty and alongside other Farm community members. That legacy continues to inspire me today.
I wanted to reach out to this community because my mother, Suzi, taught me about the profound impact doing this kind of service work can have on people’s lives. I grew up hearing her stories about Guatemala and the work she with did Plenty and alongside other Farm community members. That legacy continues to inspire me today.
More information about our goal and project can be found at our website:
https://water4lifeglobal.org/
(Note: the organization has changed its name to Water4LifeGuatemala, but the website domain still says Water4LifeGlobal)
Click here to make a donation: https://givebutter.com/waterislife4life
On Instagram: @water4lifeguatemal
On Facebook
https://water4lifeglobal.org/
(Note: the organization has changed its name to Water4LifeGuatemala, but the website domain still says Water4LifeGlobal)
Click here to make a donation: https://givebutter.com/waterislife4life
On Instagram: @water4lifeguatemal
On Facebook
Please let me know if you’d like to learn more and get involved!
Vanessa Viavant
Water4LifeGuatemala Team Member
Water4LifeGuatemala Team Member
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Lee Skinner is our next generation CEO of the community’s largest business, SE International (SEI). Founded by Farm members in the late 70s as a response to the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, SEI manufactures highly sensitive, handheld Geiger counters,respected worldwide by government services and private industry.
I’ve known Lee all his life. Deborah and I lived with his parents on a small commune in Kentucky back in 1975, and then went on to live together in various Farm multi-family households back in the day. In 1985 the four of us started sharing a duplex log cabin and watched all our kids grow up and transition to adulthood over the decades.
Susan and her husband Stephen took over SEI after The Changeover with Susan as CEO and Stephen as their chief engineer.
It’s been a privilege to watch the company’s evolution over the years and so gratifying to see Lee take the helm as Susan was ready to step back and focus on other things.
The company has long been a strong employer of our next generation, providing good jobs with benefits. My daughter Leah works there as one of their chief accountants.
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First Boomer - Tale of a Life Long Hippie
Cover design by the author
Paying homage to the 1948 film, “The Naked City,” I like to refer to its closing line, “There are 1 million stories on the naked Farm. This is one of them.”
If you want to know what life was like on the early Farm community during its heyday in the 1970s, there’s no better way than to read a book from the growing list of memoirs being published. Every person who has lived at The Farm has had their own unique experience. In the case of Peter Hoyt, he played a critical role in so many aspects of the community, from the design and construction of its iconic buildings, to the creation of the Earth logo for Plenty International, and much more.
The book's title, First Boomer, is drawn from the fact that he was one of the first babies born immediately after the end of World War II, right when the baby boom started.
Peter's memoir begins with his pre-Farm backstory, which illustrates how he developed the many different skills that made him unique among early Farm members, someone who actually knew how to do stuff. Upon arrival, he was already a skilled builder, mechanic, self-taught engineer, and the list goes on and on.
This also means he has story after story about his relationship with founder, Stephen Gaskin, and many of the powerful transitions throughout the Community's history.
Peter's engaging writing style, paired with his many artistic illustrations of life in the early community, makes the book both entertaining and easy to read.
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Butterfly Pea Flower
During our travels in Thailand a couple of years ago, we encountered the most beautiful tea brewed from the Butterfly Pea flower—Clitoria ternatea. When the flowers are steeped in hot water, they release a beautiful blue — the color drawn from its anthocyanin pigment called ternatin. Add a slice of lemon and it transforms the deep indigo into a delicate violet. When we added honey, it turned into a dark purple!
The flower itself has no flavor, so it is typically blended with a mild color tea like jasmine, enhancing both the appearance and the taste. You can even make blue rice by boiling the rice and blue tea water, or simply adding a few of the flowers when cooking a pot of rice.
Butterfly Pea tea also carries a host of potential wellness benefits. Rich in antioxidants, it works subtly to reduce inflammation, support healthy skin and hair, and nurture the body’s defenses against oxidative stress. Ayurvedic tradition regards it as a “brain herb,” believed to boost memory and calm the mind, while modern research—though mostly small‑scale studies—suggests it may help regulate blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, lower lipid spikes after meals, and even support cardiovascular health by helping relax blood vessels and reducing clot‑forming tendencies.
Deborah was able to find the seeds sold by a number of different companies, and this year we have successfully grown it in our garden. The plants are forming seedpods, so we are hopeful that we’ll have our own homegrown seed for next year.
You can also find packets of the dried flowers online at Amazon and from other distributors.
The vivid blue and violet hues are a delightful addition to your next tea party!!
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Thank you for your time and attention! Come visit us!
Douglas Stevenson
Douglas@villagemedia.com www.douglasstevenson.com www.villagemedia.com
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