
Meet the Farmers
Chris. Sarah. Hannah. Ariel. Sam.

Chris and Sarah Ficken are the farmers behind New Moon Farm. Whether it is milking the cows, cutting hay, weeding the garden, or balancing the checkbook, you will find one us behind each and every task. Since you are trusting us to grow your food, we thought we would introduce ourselves and share a little bit of our farm story.
Chris got his first goats - Mancha, Flashlight, Sweet Sunset, and Cookie - at six years old and has been farming ever since. He is able to fix anything with a pair of vice grips and can find an innovative solution for any situation. When not farming, Chris enjoys singing in a barbershop chorus, sketching building designs, and making corny jokes. Chris has a B.S. from Cornell University in Animal Science with a concentration in Dairy Science.
Prior to meeting Chris, Sarah hadn't spent much time in a barn. Over the past decade, she has learned to milk cows, drive a skidsteer, and always close the gate. When not farming, Sarah enjoys embroidery and reading. Sarah has a B.S. from Cornell University in Natural Resources with a concentration in Applied Ecology and an M.S. from Washington State University where she wrote her thesis on hops production in NYS.
Chris and Sarah with Twix, 2012
our farm story

We bought our first cows in 2012 and moved them to a rented farm just outside of Ithaca. In the months before our wedding, we began seriously looking for a farm. We went through all of New York and parts of Vermont before we decided that Madison County was where we wanted to settle. After a long day of looking at farms that weren't suited to us, a bit of serendipity and a wrong turn led us to the farm that we now call home.
The day after our wedding, we put an offer in on the farm, and a few months later it was ours. Since December of 2012, we have been working hard to rehabilitate the land and the buildings. Whether it is jacking up the old barn by hand, building our milking facility from bare ground, pounding posts and running fence for our cows, or reclaiming old fields with a chainsaw and some good friends, we strive to mold our farm to fit our dream of environmental, social, and financial sustainability.
We have grown our family alongside our farm over the past decade. Our three children spend their days roaming the fields, tending to the animals, and exploring the rich worlds of their imagination. They also really like to include a bit of artwork or a note in each of the boxes of farm goods we ship out.
We welcome you to join us in this endeavor.