Persephone Farm's founder Jeff Falen died on December 4, 2020. Here is a little bit about him.

To see photos of Jeff throughout his life set to music he loved, please click on this link.

To watch a video of Jeff’s zoom memorial service, please click on this link.

Jeff was born in 1957 in Arkansas City, Kansas, to Ted and Marty Falen. He was the youngest of three children. The family soon moved to a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, where Jeff grew up. Jeff and his older brother Mike were born with a primary immune deficiency called x-linked agammaglobulinemia, and much of their childhood was spent in doctor's offices and sick beds. Despite being plagued by numerous infections each winter, they were able to enjoy summers of hiking and bicycling and other outdoor activities thanks to infusions of gamma globulin. The family often vacationed in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, a place which gave Jeff a life-long love for mountains and the sound of wind sighing through the trees.

Jeff's appreciation for nature and being outdoors deepened over time, especially after the first Earth Day in 1970, a formative event in his life. For many of his teen years Jeff refused to drive anywhere and instead bicycled or walked or used public transportation. He recalled shooting hoops in front of his family's house on a hot summer day. He was the only person outside and the only sounds were the ball bouncing on the pavement and the rumbling of air conditioners working overtime in the windows of neighborhood homes.

After a year studying at Northern Arizona University, Jeff transferred to Reed College in Portland. One summer break he hitchhiked east and found work on a large mint and wheat farm near Madras, Oregon. He moved irrigation hand lines and wheel lines all day, seven days a week. I think he had two hours off on Sunday afternoons. Amazingly this experience is what hooked him on agriculture and he went back for more. For several years he lived as an itinerant farm worker, traveling and working in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and in Washington State.

Jeff's parents had meanwhile moved to Portland, Oregon and were eager to entice him to settle nearby. Jeff and his father spent over a year looking at farms before his parents purchased the land which became Persephone Farm. Jeff moved to the farm in February, 1985, after his van inauspiciously broke down several times along the way. Right from the start Jeff got the farm certified organic with Oregon Tilth, and began selling crops to distributor Organically Grown Company, two key relationships which continue through today.

I moved to the farm to start work as an apprentice on April 1, 1990. Jeff and I quickly grew attached and decided to live and farm as partners. Year in and year out workers came and went, and Jeff and I would look at each other and say, "Well, we're still here."

Though he is no longer present, this place is imbued with the essence of Jeff's life and work. From the soil enriched by decades of intensive cover cropping and protected by crop rotation, to the solar arrays and electric tractor, to the files bulging with irrigation maps and diagrams and instructions, to the outlines and names of tools on the wall of the shop, to the screens which protect fish from getting caught up in our irrigation pump, to the intensive recycling of materials, to the many structures built and improved by his hands, to his words as remembered by generations of farm workers, Jeff is still here. I am thankful to everyone who has been sharing remembrances in the past two weeks.

Jeff's health was continuously challenged by his immune deficiency, which was a likely cause of liver disease and anemia and the numerous other stresses his body endured in his last few years. Despite these challenges he remained grateful for the generosity of plasma donors, Oregon voters (and their elected officials), which granted him years more of a good life than he ever expected or hoped for. Recently he felt his time coming to an end and began to say his goodbyes. In the last two weeks of his life he stopped all medications, treatments and therapies except for a few to keep him more comfortable, declining any further efforts to prolong his life. He was thoughtful until the end and he continues to inspire and guide us.

Thank you for listening to an important part of the Persephone story.