Edgar Hayes

Edgar is one of  Freedom Farm’s co-founders.  He loves the farming aspect of all the many tasks that need to be done.  “I can do this all day.”  I think he coined that phrase before Captain America, if you ask me.  Edgar loves re-connecting with creation.  He spends lots of his time outdoors listening to the birds singing,  growing food, homesteading, cutting the grass, watching and feeling the life around him, and hugging trees.  Yes, he is a tree hugger!  He also loves making his own granola too. :)

Ann Rader

Ann co-founded Freedom Farm Community after dreaming about it since she was in her teens. Ann and Edgar moved full time to the farm from the Bronx in 2005, with 2 y.o. Josiah and pregnant with Micah. Ann’s work at Freedom Farm Community is informed by many experiences, including her education at Earlham College and Wesley Theological Seminary, and previous job at Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice in the Bronx.

Will Summers

Will hails from El Paso, Texas near the Rio Grande River and the Franklin Mountains in the territory of the Mescalero Apache. His farming journey began in 2007 in Austin, Texas and led him to stops in Waco and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas before coming to New York. Will and Sarah married in 2011 and now have two children, Leland (5) and Robin (3). His spiritual roots in Quaker and Mennonite congregations in Texas merged into participation in Presbyterian churches upon moving to New York. Will's previous experiences living and farming in community have been his most formative, learning from the land and the people he encountered along the way. Will joined Freedom Farm Community in 2021.

Sarah Henkel

Sarah grew up in Secaucus, New Jersey, the "Jewel of the Meadowlands" in the territory of the Munsee Lenape where her grandparents raised pigs for many years. She moved to Austin, Texas after graduating from Earlham College (Fight, fight, Inner Light!) in 2003. Through her work in Austin at Manos de Cristo, a Presbyterian non-profit serving people caught in cycles of poverty, Sarah was led to join the Presbyterian Church though she has some deep roots in the Mennonite tradition as well. She attended Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained as Presbyterian Minister in 2012. All the family facts in Will's bio are true and she feels incredibly grateful to share in life with Will, Leland, Robin, and the whole Freedom Farm Community family. In addition to the rhythms of work and life at Freedom Farm, Sarah is currently serving part-time as Pastor for United Church of Middletown.