6/8/06
year:
2006
Aston, PA—A TV documentary featuring Red Hill Farm, a community-supported agriculture farm operated by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, will air on Philadelphia television station WYBE on Wednesday, June 21, at 9 P.M. (rebroadcast on Saturday, June 24, at 10 P.M.). The documentary, Fridays at the Farm, shows one full growing season at the farm through the eyes of one of its members, Richard Hoffmann, who created the film. His personal diary explores our human connection to the land.
That “connection” or relationship is the focal point of the environmental initiatives of the Sisters of St. Francis. It is from that commitment to the environment that Red Hill Farm, an example of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), became a reality five years ago. The six-acre organic farm, located on some of the last undeveloped land in Delaware County and managed by husband-and-wife team, Amy Johnson and Christopher McNichol, provides food for the sisters living at the congregation’s motherhouse in Aston as well as for 100 CSA shareholders. Kitchen scraps from the convent are collected each day (approximately five tons a year) and processed into organic fertilizer for the farm.
Richard Hoffmann, who created Fridays on the Farm, is president of the Philadelphia Film and Video Association. Other achievements include:
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awards from NYU’s First Run Festival for his thesis film, Amelia
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2002 screenwriting fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 2003 DV Film Festival Best Feature Award, and 2005 PCA media arts fellowship for his film Invisible Mountains
