Kirsten Owen Farming in Vermont by Alex Webb for Vogue US October 2020

1990s British-born Canadian model icon Kirsten Owen, a 1990s fav of avante-garde, fashion industry creatives like Ann Demeulemeester, Helmut Lang, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, shares stories of her Vermont blueberry harvest in the October 2020 issue of Vogue US.

Tonne Goodman styles Owen with daughter Billie Rose in ‘Counting on the Country’, lensed by Alex Webb (IG) / Hair by Lucas Wilson; makeup by Grace Ahn

Lilah Ramzi writes the interview: Inside the Country Life of Model Turned Organic Farmer Kirsten Owen.

“I’d never worked so hard in my life before taking on this farm,” Owen says. “It forces you to stay strong physically.”

Owen’s spring farming duties were interrupted, requiring her and her family to return to Toronto to care for her mother. Neighbors and locals stepped in to look after the harvest, undertaking all the arduous spring work Owen couldn’t. To her surprise, “they were all happy to do it—in trade for blueberries.”

Her blueberry harvest was so abundant that the mother of two daughters turned to Salvation Farms, to take some of the bumper crop off her hands.

A local state organization Salvation Farms works to distribute a significant portion of the Vermont farm surplus exceeding two million pounds annually.

The organization writes that only about 12% of this bounty is captured each year — in spite of Vermont’s 14% food insecurity rate. Salvation Farms currently serve 54,000 school meals daily and more than 600,000 meals in Vermont hospitals annually.