September 4, 2026

By Clementina Verge
Photographs by Rana Faure

For Jed Gracey, farming is more than growing vegetables; it is stewardship. On land once owned by his great-grandparents and worked by a father who died too young, every decision honors the ground that sustains the farm and the community that shaped him. ¶ Coltsfoot Cottage Farm sits on three acres in Cornwall—small by commercial standards, but highly productive. With a narrow growing window, beds stay productive and succession planting keeps carrots, beets, radishes, garlic, potatoes, and greens in rotation. Even mushrooms have found a place here, with shiitake logs soaking near wetlands before inoculation. After studying agricultural sustainability in college, Gracey returned home determined to build a regenerative organic farm rooted in the belief that caring for land is just as important as harvesting from it.

The connection between the Gracey family and this landscape goes back generations. The land was purchased “four grandfathers ago” by John C. Calhoun; the barn has stood for more than 200 years. Gracey believes he was named for Jedediah Calhoun, a farmer who settled in Cornwall in 1804. His ancestors’ view of the valley beneath Coltsfoot Mountain represented home and possibility for generations.

Gracey’s father, Dan, carried the connection forward. After meeting his wife in Rhode Island, they returned to Litchfield County in the 1990s to raise a family. Paralyzed following a logging accident, he continued working as a carpenter, and later raised cattle from his wheelchair, determined to recreate the Cornwall Valley of his childhood. When he died unexpectedly in 2015, cows were on pasture. Today, the legacy lives on in the small herd grazing across seasons, including on leased acres in the valley. The cows fuel the farm’s rhythm— pasture, compost, garden, harvest—and its ability to follow organic principles. No synthetic fertilizers or chemical sprays, only compost built slowly from manure rich with microorganisms. “They are the privileged children of the vegetable world,” Gracey laughs, referring to the produce, before seriously discussing minerals and vitamins. “We set up a closed-loop, symbiotic composting system where we are aware of everything that happens on the farm and put nutrients into the ground we rely on.” That approach requires labor shared by a dedicated team.

Jubilee Feist, co-manager and Gracey’s partner, left  a career in distilling to fully devote herself to the farm, overseeing daily operations with meticulous care, from weeding by hand to plucking potato beetles one by one. His brother, Angus Gracey, arrives after long days on the job to help with everything from haying and harvesting to native planting. “The farm wouldn’t be the same without him,” Gracey says, crediting the ecological knowledge Angus brings from his work with the Kent Land Trust.

Together, they’ve created “micropastures” of flowers— black-eyed Susans for the birds, coneflowers for pollinators– beautiful, yet serving a larger purpose. For Gracey, agriculture is as much about honoring the past as it is about striving for a regenerative future. The work is relentless, physically demanding, often unpredictable, and entirely absorbing. “It’s a deliberately chosen lifestyle,” Gracey says. “It’s rewarding because it gives satisfaction and purpose in life.”

Days begin early and end late, often marked by daily harvests of greens delivered to restaurants and markets, including Willa in Millerton, N.Y., Kent IGA, and the farm’s own stand on Pine St. For chefs and customers alike, the appeal is not only freshness but provenance—knowing that each bite comes from a carefully tended landscape. Coltsfoot Cottage may be growing “a little less tobacco than the original Jedediah did,” Gracey jokes, but the land is producing something even more valuable: a future where legacy and renewal grow side by side.

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