Ecologically Grown Food
Waterpenny Farm is a 10-acre vegetable farm in Rappahannock County, VA. Since our first growing season in 2000, we’ve been committed to running our farm in harmony with the environment, using sustainable farming methods, with all Organic inputs and no chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
We produce healthful, pesticide-free vegetables, herbs, and flowers primarily for farmers markets in Arlington VA and Takoma Park, MD, a CSA subscription program, and local on-farm customers. Our CSA serves people who pick up their shares on our farm in Sperryville, Virginia.
We were honored to be selected as “Farmer of the Foodshed” in January 2024 by the Future Harvest Chesapeake Area Sustainable Agriculture Conference. We were nominated by our peers based on criteria of environmental stewardship, longevity, profitability, and willingness to share knowledge with others. Read about it in the Rappahannock News here.
The Waterpenny Farmers
We are the people who own and run Waterpenny Farm. In 2005, after five years of farming here, we signed a 40-year lease on the land that we farm, and have built ourselves a permanent home on the land we rent. We love farming here in Sperryville, and are happy to have the job security that signing a 40-year lease gives us. Please see this NewFarm.org article to learn more.
Rachel Bynum Graduated from Carleton College with an Environmental Studies major in 1995. Farming since 1997, She also has extensive experience in environmental education and teaching about sustainable agriculture. She volunteers with the RLEP Watershed field days, and leads school visits. Before starting the farm, she taught at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Clagett Farm.
She is currently a member of the Rappahannock County School Board, representing the Piedmont District since 2018. Rachel is also the Director, since 2023, of Rappahannock Nature Camp
Read more about Rachel in the Rappahannock News
Eric Plaksin has worked in sustainable farming since 1993. He helped establish and manage a one-acre organic farm at Carleton College while attending college there in Minnesota. Before starting Waterpenny Farm, Eric spent four years working on and as a manager at Wheatland Vegetable Farms, a 45-acre pesticide-free vegetable farm in northern Virginia.
Eric is also the Commissioner of our youth soccer league, the Rappahannock County Soccer Association
