Martin Ping is the Executive Director of Hawthorne Valley Association, a nonprofit corporation promoting
social and cultural renewal through the integration of education, agriculture and the arts.
The Hawthorne Valley Association is located in Columbia County in New York's Hudson Valley and includes Hawthorne Valley Farm, a 400-acre biodynamic farm. A holistic approach to sustainable living, biodynamic farming develops the earth, plants, and animals in concert to create a self-nourishing system that produces no unused waste and employs no artificial chemicals.
The Hawthorne Valley Farm encompasses a full dairy herd, with onsite dairy processing, CSA and market garden; GreenMarket stands at Union Square and Inwood Markets, as well as a lacto-fermented vegetable processing kitchen, organic bakery, and full-line organic grocery store. It operates the Visiting Students Program and Summer Camps, a residential program welcoming classes of school children during the academic year, as well as children during the summer, for a week or more on the farm; the Farmscape Ecology Program, conducting on farm research, education, and outreach combining an understanding and appreciation of the natural world with a realistic approach to agriculture; and the Farm Learning Center, offering farm apprentice and training programs through Farm Beginnings®.
The Association also oversees the Hawthorne Valley School, an independent day school offering Waldorf education grades Nursery through Twelve; the Center for Social and Environmental Responsibility, researching new social and economic forms that foster social responsibility and environmental sustainability; and Free Columbia, a quest into the heart of artistic action and the relationship between money and art.
Martin has been at Hawthorne Valley for more than 20 years. For much of that time he taught practical arts in the High School and for 14 years was director of facilities and served as project manager on several million dollars of new construction projects. For the past seven years as Executive Director, he has balanced his time developing the working relationships amongst the Association's diverse enterprises (and the 150 co-workers who carry out those initiatives) with cultivating collaborative relationships between Hawthorne Valley and other organizations in the Upper Hudson/Berkshire region as well as like-minded initiatives nationally and globally.
The Hawthorne Valley Association is located in Columbia County in New York's Hudson Valley and includes Hawthorne Valley Farm, a 400-acre biodynamic farm. A holistic approach to sustainable living, biodynamic farming develops the earth, plants, and animals in concert to create a self-nourishing system that produces no unused waste and employs no artificial chemicals.
The Hawthorne Valley Farm encompasses a full dairy herd, with onsite dairy processing, CSA and market garden; GreenMarket stands at Union Square and Inwood Markets, as well as a lacto-fermented vegetable processing kitchen, organic bakery, and full-line organic grocery store. It operates the Visiting Students Program and Summer Camps, a residential program welcoming classes of school children during the academic year, as well as children during the summer, for a week or more on the farm; the Farmscape Ecology Program, conducting on farm research, education, and outreach combining an understanding and appreciation of the natural world with a realistic approach to agriculture; and the Farm Learning Center, offering farm apprentice and training programs through Farm Beginnings®.
The Association also oversees the Hawthorne Valley School, an independent day school offering Waldorf education grades Nursery through Twelve; the Center for Social and Environmental Responsibility, researching new social and economic forms that foster social responsibility and environmental sustainability; and Free Columbia, a quest into the heart of artistic action and the relationship between money and art.
Martin has been at Hawthorne Valley for more than 20 years. For much of that time he taught practical arts in the High School and for 14 years was director of facilities and served as project manager on several million dollars of new construction projects. For the past seven years as Executive Director, he has balanced his time developing the working relationships amongst the Association's diverse enterprises (and the 150 co-workers who carry out those initiatives) with cultivating collaborative relationships between Hawthorne Valley and other organizations in the Upper Hudson/Berkshire region as well as like-minded initiatives nationally and globally.
On the Web
- Website: Hawthorne Valley Farm
