Christa Barfield, the founder of Farmer Jawn, in the Westtown barn where her team discovered a spray-painted swastika this month.
Built in the 18th century and abandoned for decades, the dairy barn tucked behind a rolling Chester County field feels untouched by time — besides the paint that covers up the racist graffiti.
Christa Barfield, a Black farmer who traded her city lifestyle to open FarmerJawn in semirural Westtown, took broad strokes of brown paint to the hateful messages splayed across the barn’s walls after discovering them in May. One message included the N-word; another said “Jews,” slashed through with a large X.
It wouldn’t be the last incident of harassment.
Earlier this month, Barfield’s staff discovered an 8-foot by 8-foot swastika spray-painted across the FarmerJawn barn’s second floor, steps from the still-fresh paint from the recent vandalism.
Officials with the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department declined to comment, citing an active investigation.
The James Beard award winner knew that her community-supported agriculture business on the 123-acre expanse behind the prestigious Westtown School was a change for the area; FarmerJawn’s mission is to teach members of marginalized groups about an agriculture industry in which they are vastly underrepresented, she said. Many on Barfield’s 16-member team are people of color, women, or Jewish.
The discoveries have shaken Barfield’s small farming operation, a nontraditional, organic-minded outfit that was already unsure about its place in Chester County, where around 6% of residents are Black and other races are even less represented.
“Change is not something that people love,” Barfield said. “Jewish, Black, Asian, queer — the list really does go on of what FarmerJawn represents. I think that’s really what the pushback is.”
‘No room for hate’
FarmerJawn’s sprawling plot, with rows of crops, flower beds, and a roadside produce market, is just the latest addition to Barfield’s growing portfolio of efforts to support Black and brown farmers.
Around 2020, news outlets lauded the Germantown native’s budding network of urban greenhouses in Elkins Park and throughout Philadelphia, where scores of volunteers learned about urban farming. Since then, FarmerJawn has grown to include a Germantown gardening storefront and an East Kensington apartment complex where Barfield’s team will install an indoor growing space.
In addition to turning the Chester County plot into an organic-certified farm, Barfield’s aim is to transform the property’s vacant, 18,000 square-foot dairy barn into an agricultural education center, complete with aquaponic tanks for fish farming, space for seed development, and avian research.
So far, the only development at the building this summer is the addition of security cameras, which Barfield said the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department offered to help install after a detective visited the farm last week.
A news release said that the department was working alongside both Barfield and the Westtown School’s security team, and that officers would increase patrols in the area following the Aug. 4 swastika discovery.
“I was shocked, disgusted, I was shaking,” said Armen Caravantes, FarmerJawn’s livestock manager, who first came across the symbol while tending to chickens.
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D., Pa.), whose district covers Westtown Township and whose office announced a $675,000 grant for FarmerJawn’s barn restoration in May, has since offered Barfield words of support.
The congresswoman said through a spokesperson Monday that she was “sickened” by the swastika.
“There is absolutely no room for hate or vandalism in Chester County, our commonwealth, or our country,” Houlahan said. “We talked with Christa on Friday and again today, and made it clear that she and the FarmerJawn team have our support as they work with Chester County officials and law enforcement on the investigation.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro offered his support for Barfield and FarmerJawn late Tuesday on X, saying “racist, antisemitic vandalism has no place in Pennsylvania.”
“Each time I’ve visited with Christa and her team at @FarmerJawn, I came away with a new appreciation for her work — and the barriers Black farmers are still forced to overcome,” Shapiro said in the post.
Chris Benbow, head of the Westtown School, released a message to the campus community Monday condemning the “hateful, racist, antisemitic” symbol on its property. The school is cooperating with the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department in its investigation, he said.
“This hateful act stands in stark contrast to the values of respect, inclusion, community, and belonging that our school upholds,” Benbow said. “We remain committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment across our entire campus and unequivocally condemn acts of hate.”
Many Chester County neighbors have embraced FarmerJawn since it took over the plot and replaced Pete’s Produce Farm, a well-regarded farmers market that closed in 2022.
But a small yet vocal group of social media detractors are reminding Barfield that her business’ reception isn’t universal. A post from Houlahan’s office in May announcing the six-figure grant generated a flurry of negative reactions.
Some users were upset that FarmerJawn’s storefront wasn’t living up to the reputation of Pete’s. Others criticized the physical condition of the farm, where Barfield is letting weeds grow over in order to rid the soil of chemicals; it’s a three-year process that will end in her farm being certified organic, she said.
Then came the vandalism. Barfield now hopes to change the conversation at her “Only Love Grows Here” pop-up later this month, where neighbors can meet FarmerJawn’s staff, ask questions, and tour the farm.
“Farming is as essential and fundamental as it gets for our society, and it’s also not something that’s very easy,” said Caravantes, Barfield’s livestock manager. “It’s hard enough as it is without hate.”
jbunch@inquirer.com
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