Retreat. Reconnect. Recreate.
Our Mission:
Gemstone Farm is a 160-acre working farm in Connecticut where people, purpose, and nature come together. Across our forests, fields, gardens, streams, lakes, and trails, adults with and without disabilities work side-by-side growing food and flowers, caring for animals, tapping maple trees, supporting pollinators, maintaining the land, protecting wildlife, and learning from one another.
We believe there is dignity in being needed, pride in getting your hands dirty, and joy in being able to point to something at the end of the day and say, “I did that.”
The mission of Gemstone Farm is to employ, educate, and increase quality of life through the operation of a working farm. We call our employees Gems, and they are at the heart of everything we do. Gems of all abilities work side-by-side, learning new skills, taking on real responsibilities, caring for the land, and contributing their individual talents to our shared success.
We believe meaningful employment is about more than having a job. Good work gives people purpose, confidence, independence, and the opportunity to contribute their talents to something bigger than themselves. At Gemstone, the Farm is our workplace and our classroom
Our Vision:
We envision a future where people of all abilities have the opportunity to find purpose through meaningful work, connect with the natural world, and contribute their talents to something bigger than themselves. At Gemstone, we believe a working farm can help create that future. That means looking differently at what a farm can be, what a workplace can be, and what becomes possible when employment, education, recreation, innovation, and nature all share the same 160 acres.
One word captures that idea for us: recreate. There is recreation in the familiar sense: walking a trail, casting a fishing line, working in the garden, getting outside, moving your body, breathing fresh air, and reconnecting with nature. But to recreate also means to create something again, differently. That’s what we’re doing at Gemstone. We’re recreating what a working farm can be. We’re exploring what the future of work can look like. We’re finding new ways for people of different abilities, experiences, and backgrounds to work and learn alongside one another. And we’re discovering how 160 acres can simultaneously become a workplace, classroom, laboratory, playground, retreat, and place of purpose.
Our History
Gemstone Farm began in 2018 when Valerie Jensen, Founder and Visionary of The Prospector Theater, purchased 160 acres in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Val had already seen what meaningful, competitive, and integrated employment could accomplish.
Since 2014, the Prospector Theater in Ridgefield has employed adults with and without disabilities through the operation of a first-run movie theater. The Prospector demonstrated that when people are given real responsibility, high expectations, appropriate support, and an opportunity to contribute their talents, they don’t simply participate in a workplace. They make that workplace better.
Gemstone presented a new question: could the same model work on a farm? Then, in 2020, that question suddenly became urgent. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Prospector Theater to close its doors, the organization was committed to keeping its employees, known as Prospects, actively employed. While Planet Earth experienced panic, pandemic, and pandemonium, Gemstone went to the maple trees for support.
Together, they tapped approximately 270 maple trees, collected thousands of gallons of sap, hauled it to the sugarhouse, fed the evaporator, and boiled it down into something remarkable. Liquid gold: Gemstone Maple Syrup. Maple sugaring did more than produce syrup. It proved something. Meaningful work wasn’t confined to a movie theater. The same model could travel from a concession stand to a sugarhouse, from auditoriums to gardens, from popping corn to planting seeds.
Our Commitment to the Land:
Before Gemstone can give anything to people, we have a responsibility to care for the land that makes it possible. Our 160 acres are alive with forests, fields, gardens, streams, lakes, trails, native plants, pollinators, fish, birds, wildlife, and animals. We work in harmony with the land. That means growing food and flowers, supporting bee populations and other pollinators, planting native species, caring for animals, maintaining forests and trails, protecting waterways, managing invasive species, and continually learning how our work affects the ecosystem around us.
Our commitment began before Gemstone became the working farm it is today. When Valerie Jensen purchased the property in 2018, years of neglect had taken their toll. Lakes were overtaken by invasive hydrilla. Fallen trees blocked trails. Buildings were in disrepair. The property needed care. So we embarked on a massive environmental restoration project.The lakes were dredged. Trails were reopened. Buildings were restored. Habitats began to recover. Slowly, life returned to the Farm.
That restoration continues today. We believe caring for land is meaningful work because the results outlive the workday. A tree planted today can provide shade decades from now. A restored waterway becomes habitat. A garden feeds a family. A maple tree gives sap each winter. A trail gives someone a place to reset after a difficult week. The land gives constantly. Our responsibility is to give something back.
