In Ehrenfried Pfeiffer's Footsteps: A Walk Around Kimberton Farms School

Kimberton Farms School is bisected by French Creek, and walking around the whole property involves crossing the creek twice.

Twelve miles in space and 163 years in time from Valley Forge, the next stop on my Pennsylvania trip was Kimberton Farms School. That’s what it was called in December 1940 when Ehrenfried Pfeiffer arrived to start America’s first biodynamic training school.

The sun had already set by the time I left Valley Forge, and it was dark by the time I drove into Camphill Village Kimberton Hills. My host, Sherry, had a delicious dinner ready for me when I arrived. After the long drive—made longer by my stop at Valley Forge—I was too tired to do anything after dinner except head upstairs to bed. Meanwhile, Sherry was busy down in the kitchen making some huge cheesecakes for the next day’s dinner after the conference.

After weeks of frigid weather back home in Michigan, I was so excited when I woke up on Thursday morning and saw that it was warm and sunny that I decided to go on a walk. At 7:00 a.m. I put on my boots and coat, tiptoed out the door, and headed off at a brisk pace through Camphill Village. I walked past Pfeiffer’s orchard, Alarik Myrin’s mansion, and the auditorium where the conference would be later in the day. Soon I reached the vegetable farm and greenhouses, which marked the end of Camphill Village. But it was still early. So I kept going.

The sun was still rising when I walked past Alarik Myrin's mansion, at the heart of Camphill Village .

I crossed French Creek on a grated bridge, took a sharp right, walked past a few houses, and kept going until I got to Seven Stars Road. It was so pleasant to be able to walk without my face freezing that, before I knew it, I was passing Beaver Farm. It was just a little farther to Seven Stars Farm—home of the best creamline yogurt I’ve ever tasted. And just across the street was the beautiful colonnaded building that once housed Kimberton Farms School.

Sherry used yogurt from Seven Stars Farm to make her yummy cheesecakes.

This is the building where Ehrenfried Pfeiffer taught at Kimberton Farms School. It's now part of Kimberton Waldorf School.

There’s still a school there—the Kimberton Waldorf School—and I suddenly ran into a steady stream of cars turning into the driveway to drop off kids. That made it tricky to cross the one-lane covered bridge back over French Creek. I’d read accounts of Pfeiffer riding across that bridge on horseback, hooves drumming on the wooden planks, and had a vague notion of standing in the middle of the bridge and trying to imagine him riding by. But when the cars on both sides stopped and patiently waited for me to walk across, I hurried over as fast as I could.

Traffic was heavy on the one-lane covered bridge over French Creek at 8:00 a.m. on a school day.

By now I knew that it would be quicker to continue around the loop back to Camphill Village than to retrace my steps. But it was already almost 8:00, which was when Sherry had told me to be ready for breakfast. I’d neglected to bring my phone, so I just kept walking and hoped she wasn’t worrying about me too much. As I went down a narrow road past an old stone mill and then cut through a development, I realized why Pfeiffer had to ride a horse to get from one side of the farm to the other. Eight hundred acres is a lot of land—my little morning walk around the farm ended up being five and a half miles.

It was almost 8:40 when I finally made it back to Sherry’s house. I apologized profusely for being so late for breakfast, but she said she wasn’t too worried. I still had time to eat and make it over to the auditorium in plenty of time for the conference, and walking so far in the fresh air and sunshine gave me lots of energy for my lecture on Pfeiffer’s contributions to organic farming. (I’ve posted a recorded version on YouTube if you’d like to see it). It was cool to be able to literally walk in Pfeiffer’s footsteps before giving a talk about him in the place where he operated the first biodynamic/organic farming school in the United States.