Tim “Red” Kirkman hails from Royal Oak, Michigan, just north of Detroit. In high school, he was voted “most likely to succeed,” which was proved true in October 2011 when he successfully leapt off of a tractor just seconds before it exploded… Red double-majored in English and Philosophy at Hope College in Holland, MI, where he studied abroad in England and India and fell in love with his wife, Nina. Red worked for two years as a counselor in wilderness therapy programs in New York and Utah before deciding to put his college degrees to good use as, naturally, an organic farmer. After working as an intern on farms in Wisconsin and Minnesota for three years, Red and Nina launched Fox and Fawn Farm in 2009.
Red earned notoriety as the first human being to ever consume a whole giant kohlrabi in one day (November 8, 2009) and the first organic farmer to ever read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and War and Peace in the course of one growing season (summer 2010). Red’s many talents include sweating more than anyone else on the pickleball court, playing capture the flag, and listening to old-fashioned music that no one else likes.
Nina Marie Healy Kirkman was born in Cambridge, MN, and lived briefly in St. Paul before moving to Northfield, MN, where she lived for 18 years. Nina also attended Hope College, where she earned a degree in teaching with a science composite. After graduation, Nina taught for two years in Westcliffe, CO, where she taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science, Health and Gym and was a co-director for the middle school play and coached volleyball (despite never having played herself). In 2007, she and Red married in Northfield and moved back to the midwest, eventually settling in New Germany. During the school year, Nina teaches 7th grade life science in Chaska’s Pioneer Ridge Middle School. But as soon as school lets out, Nina is a weeding- and picking-machine on the farm. Nina once harvest 127 pounds of strawberries in one day! Her many talents include playing violin, writing plays, gazing thru her telescope, hopping around, and baking pancakes on Saturday mornings.
Henry (aka John Henry Ford) is the farm dog. His responsibilities include chasing after the mailman, bringing mud from the fields into the house, and scaring off bunnies. Now thirteen years old, Henry is a Australian Shepherd/Irish Setter mix. When we first brought him home, in June of 2009, his first action was to bite a bean plant and rip the whole plant out of the ground. He also enjoys stealing beets, broccoli, Red’s straw hat, and peppers (although he hasn’t had one since he accidentally ate a VERY hot pepper instead of a sweet one).
Our son Nathan was born in February of 2012. Nathan can play with Legos for hours at a time but hasn’t yet realized the soul-filling benefits of weeding carrots in the hot sun all day. Nathan is in fourth grade in Watertown and loves puzzles, playing violin, and guinea pigs. This past summer he started helping with stuffing potatoes and carrots in our barrel washer and transporting cucumbers.
Adam was born in April of 2015 and is currently in 1st grade in Watertown. He has career ambitions of becoming a penguin. Adam loves digging in the dirt and eating cherry tomatoes from our high tunnel.
Fox & Fawn Farm 