At Cold Brook Farm
Building a Sustainable Life
We believe that a sustainable life is not only worth building, but is vital to reversing some of the profound damage humans have done to the environment — the consequences of which we are only just beginning to understand. Our story is not only about land stewardship or the creation of and living in a zero-energy home, but rather it is about integration of both and learning to balance our needs with the needs of the thriving ecosystem and community that surrounds us.
As the proprietors of Cold Brook Farm, we strive to be leaders in sustainable living, learning every step along the way. The design of Cold Brook Farm began in earnest in August of 2019, and each day brings with it new, unexpected challenges and many new friends.
Making Our Home Sustainable
We charged WESKetch Architecture + Construction with designing our farmhouse to appear, at first glance, like a traditional, rustic Craftsman Farmhouse peeking over the rolling hills of Hunterdon County. After all, this part of New Jersey is steeped in history, and we wanted our home to look appropriate for the local, built environment.
State-of-the-Art Strategies in Practice
Cold Brook Farm is a zero-energy house that employs state-of-the-art construction techniques in virtually all areas. Through a combination of the way the building was sited on the land, an extremely tight, well-insulated "envelope" and the use of solar power, Cold Brook Farm generates all of the energy required by our household over the course of the year — including driving up to 30,000 miles per year in electric vehicles.
Minimal Footprint, Maximum Stewardship
Seventy-two 380-watt solar panels tied to an Enphase battery storage system, cellulose insulation and ground-source heating and cooling (often referred to as "geothermal") all play a role in the extraordinary energy efficiency of our zero-energy home. The building footprint for Cold Brook Farm was purposely designed to be small, leaving large parts of the land to remain in agriculture or their natural, beautiful state.
We didn’t expect to become farmers.
One of us (Deborah) grew up in upstate New York and New York City, and the other (Jason) grew up in suburban New Jersey. We met and married and raised our two children, Steven and Julia, in Montclair, NJ. We spent close to thirty years in that area all the while dreaming of one day retiring to a beautiful place and a piece of land we could call our own. Over the years, we noticed the changes in our community accelerating—more traffic, more noise, more people, and felt the need for less hectic surroundings more urgently.
In the summer of 2019, we finally decided that it was time to look for that quieter place, away from the fray of the city. With friends and relatives all over the NY Metro area from whom we were unwilling to be far away, finding such a place was a challenge. Fortunately, Jason had been biking the west-central area of New Jersey for decades and knew that despite being less than an hour from the center of Manhattan, many parts of it look and feel worlds away.
After considering nearly one hundred properties, we purchased Cold Brook Farm in northeast Hunterdon County in October 2019 and immediately took on the task of converting a conventionally farmed GMO corn and soybean field to a regenerative and organic farm.
Our homestead is planted entirely in permaculture and with native perennial flowers for pollinators. Although we have already learned so much over a very short period, we know that we’ll continue learning about farming, agriculture and land stewardship for the rest of our lives – especially given the changing climate. We also built a net-positive farmhouse and had to learn about that, as well.
All these incredible changes occurred during a global pandemic – a tremendously challenging and exciting time!
Deborah
I began my career in radio in New York. I was a traffic associate at 1010 WINS and then a traffic manager for Bloomberg, LP. When our son was close to a year old, I said goodbye to commuting and radio and became a stay-at-home mom. As the kids got bigger, I became a Master Gardener and an environmental educator, mainly focusing on birds and native plants. For a short period of time, I worked in a local tea shop as a baker. I currently sit on the Board of Trustees for the Raritan Headwaters Association, an organization protecting the 470-square mile watershed of the North and South branches of the Raritan River. I am also a member of the Executive Board of the Montclair Bird Club.
I earned a BA in English Literature and graduated Summa Cum Laude from CUNY Hunter College. I love bird watching, spending time with my kids, playing games, reading, baking, and am an avid naturalist.
Jason
Before becoming a Regenerative Farmer, I co-founded Strategic Outpatient Services, Inc. in 1995, a company specializing in the development and management of outpatient Positron Emission Tomography centers, and I still serve as the Company’s CEO. I have served on non-profit Boards including Ethos Farm Project (current), Coral Reef Alliance, Tewksbury Land Trust (current), Jazz House Kids and Hoop-A-Paluza; I also served as Vice Chairman of Montclair, New Jersey’s Planning Board while a resident there.
I earned my B.S. in Business Administration with Honors and Highest Distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and love to go for long runs and walks, explore farmer’s markets, bake exceptional bread, cook amazing meals for our family and take naps with our four cats.
Cold Brook Farm is part of a community that dates back to the 1700s. The property was also inhabited by members of the Lenape tribe before European settlers arrived. The history of this special place reminds us daily that we are merely temporary stewards of the land, which will remain long after we are gone. When we purchased this parcel of land, we committed to enhancing its biodiversity, revitalizing the cropland soil, and creating a healthy habitat for insects, birds and other wildlife. Our land stewardship initiatives include Permaculture in the area immediately surrounding our house, a forestry management program, regenerative organic farming on the main crop field and re-introducing native plant species while also reducing or removing invasive species.
Our land stewardship initiatives include Permaculture in the area immediately surrounding our house, a forestry management program, regenerative organic farming on the main crop field and re-introducing native plant species while also reducing or removing invasive species.
