Two decades after acquiring 150 acres for Roxbury Farm, we have completed a land swap which adds 43 acres of agricultural fields to the protected property. Some Farm Projects
Roxbury Farm expands its land base
Two decades after acquiring 150 acres for Roxbury Farm, we have completed a land swap which adds 43 acres of agricultural fields to the protected property. Still Light Farm
In May 2022, Lopez Community Land Trust and farmers Lena and Andrew Jones signed an ground lease for the 42-acre Lopez Sound Farm and Forest Preserve. Rooted Family Farm
The Presha, and Gonzalez families founded Rooted Family Farm to shift from being farm employees to own and operate their own farm business. Iron Ox Farm
In summer 2001, in eastern Massachusetts, Greenbelt and Iron Ox Farm signed a ground lease—Greenbelt's first—developed with Equity Trust's assistance. Lewis Waite Farm
Lewis Waite Farm produces grass-fed beef and pork and runs a “CSA Extras Program,” aggregating and distributing local farm products. Owners Nancy and Alan Brown... La Colmena Community Farm
From 2019 to 2021, Equity Trust aided the PV Workers’ Center and a group of its members in a successful effort to gain secure land for immigrant farmworkers... Lansing Farm
Lansing Farm is a 20-acre farm in the town of Colonie, in Albany County, New York. The farm has been in the same family for eight generations, and the current remnant of the once larger farm had been under threat of subdivision for development as it is in a residential area with little open land and significant development pressure. Protecting …
Hearty Roots Community Farm
Ben and Lindsey Shute operate Hearty Roots Community Farm on 70 acres in Clermont, NY, serving a 600-member CSA and using sustainable practices to improve the soil and ecosystem. They are also two of the founders of the National Young Farmers Coalition, where Lindsey served as Executive Director for ten years, and they have been strong public advocates for …
Hepatica Farm
Arthur Kraamwinkel and Melanie Seserman will launch their new business, Hepatica Farm, focused on direct sale of organic pastured meat and dairy products, on a 100-acre farm property in Greenwich, NY thanks to a project that has permanently protected the farm’s affordability for food production.
Arthur and Melanie plan to use biodynamic and organic practices to raise pastured chicken, pork, …
Thompson-Finch Farm
Thompson-Finch Farm is a 208-acre certified organic fruit and vegetable farm in Ancram, New York, that Equity Trust and our partners are in the process of protecting as an affordable working farm. Begun by Marnie and Don MacLean as a small market garden in 1982, on land that has been in Marnie’s family for five generations, the farm is now …
North Amherst Community Farm
Farm projects sometimes unfold so rapidly that they are hard to keep up with, but many take years to complete. Some require the sustained effort of a changing group for up to a decade! The creation of a permanently-protected North Amherst Community Farm has been years in the making, but all of the pieces have finally come together.
It started …
Walt’s Dairy
In June 2016, Walt’s Dairy, a family-owned fourth-generation dairy farm in Copake, NY run by Bill and Rosalie Kiernan and their two sons, Walter and David, was permanently protected with affordability restrictions. The Kiernans market through Cabot and Hudson Valley Fresh, a regional dairy cooperative that Bill helped start in 2005, that provides farmers a higher and more …
Farmer’s Daughter
Orange County Land Trust (OCLT) was awarded state funding in October 2016 to protect this 196-acre property in Mount Hope, NY and make its purchase affordable for the young farmers who have been leasing it from a farm-friendly landowner. Trish and Matt Southway produce livestock and vegetables for sale at their farm market, Farmer’s Daughter, in the nearby village …
Supporting a start-up in Saratoga County
In 2016, Tim Biello launched Featherbed Lane Farm, a unique horse-powered, year-round community supported agriculture enterprise with a mission to provide the Saratoga Springs community with year-round access to the highest quality food and meaningful on-farm experiences. Through this diversified, draft-powered farm business (including a free-choice vegetable CSA and pastured eggs), Tim hopes to earn a healthy and satisfying …
Collaborating to Protect a Hudson Valley Farm
Owned and operated by Chris and Katie Cashen, The Farm at Miller’s Crossing grows certified organic vegetables, plants, and flowers, and has a small grass-fed organic beef herd. The farm feeds 920 CSA member families each summer CSA season, and 440 families each winter, the majority of whom live in Brooklyn and Queens. Chris and Katie also market their produce …
Bridge Loan, Grant Aid Farm Transfer and Protection
Laughing Earth Farm produces vegetables for 100 CSA member families and raises pastured poultry and pork. Farmers Zack and Annie Metzger began their operation on 166 rented acres in Cropseyville as the previous farmers were retiring. Both couples hoped the Metzgers could buy the farm, and they worked with Agricultural Stewardship Association (ASA) to apply for New York State funding …
South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust
In 2013, South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust (SSCFLT) of Thurston County, WA completed the purchase of its first permanently affordable working farm. Together with Heernett Environmental Foundation Creekside Conservancy (HEF/CSC) and Kirsop Farm they acquired a 147-acre former dairy to establish the multi-use Scatter Creek Community Farm. Northampton Community Farm
When Northampton, MA, residents organized to protect a local farm from becoming athletic fields, Equity Trust supported them in many ways: from sharing farm preservation approaches and tools with City officials and the public, to providing fiscal agency for grants to the campaign, and later developing long-term farm leases. As with previous projects, our goal was to help balance community needs with needs of the farmers who work the land.
Out of the organizing emerged Grow Food Northampton (GFN), a grassroots nonprofit that successfully partnered with the City and Trust for Public Land and orgaized a massive volunteer-led fundraising campaign purchase the farm in February 2011, protecting 121 acres of farmland. Roxbury Farm
During the 1990s, Jean-Paul Courtens developed a large CSA farm on rented land in New York’s Hudson Valley. In 1999, altered circumstances caused him to look for a new, permanent home for Roxbury Farm, but despite the success of the farm, he was not in a position to purchase land with conventional financing, due to the high price of …
Live Power Community Farm
Live Power Community Farm is a 50-acre, biodynamic and organic Community Sustained Agriculture (CSA) farm that provides fresh, high-quality food for 160 households in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mendocino County.
With the support of a San Francisco-based CSA membership, Stephen and Gloria Decater had spent nearly 20 years developing this biodynamic farm on 40 acres of rented land …
Caretaker Farm
Equity Trust facilitated the permanent protection of Caretaker Farm, a 35-acre farm in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in partnership with retiring farmers Sam and Elizabeth Smith, incoming farmers Don Zasada and Bridget Spann, the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation (WRLF), and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. To ensure that the farm will always continue to produce food for the local community, title is …
Dimond Hill Farm
Dimond Hill Farm, a landmark property on the outskirts of Concord, New Hampshire, has been a working farm since the 1700s. In 2006, Equity Trust partnered with the Trust for Public Land, the Five Rivers Conservation Trust, the NH Preservation Alliance, and the City of Concord to permanently protect this 108-acre farm and make it affordable for future farmers.…
Making a Dairy Farm Affordable in NY
Dean Zapp, a third generation dairy farmer, and his wife Michele, wanted to protect the property where they operate Delapenta Farms — 83½ acres in Ancram, NY, in the central part of the Town of Taghkanic, in Columbia County — by adding conservation and affordability restrictions to their land, and to use proceeds from the sale of those restrictions to …
Protecting a Farm, Conserving a Rare Cattle Breed
Artemis Farm, in New Lebanon, a rural community located in the northeast corner of Columbia County, New York, is home to Cynthia Creech’s Randall cattle and her genetic preservation work to restore this hardy, historic breed. Randalls are a rare breed of purebred cattle developed in southern Vermont in the early 1900s, descended from the indigenous landrace cattle common in …
Good Humus Produce
Jeff and Annie Main have been developing their organic farm, Good Humus Produce, on 20 acres in Capay, CA, since 1976. When they arrived on the property northwest of Sacramento in Yolo County, there was a single olive tree. The Mains built a beautiful house, a barn, greenhouses, and other infrastructure and their plantings include hedgerows of native trees …
White Oak Farm and Education Center
White Oak Farm and Education Center is a small, non-profit farm-based education center located in the Siskiyou mountains of Southern Oregon. In 2002, Equity Trust assisted in the purchase of 62 acres of farm and forest land in the town of Williams, OR, with donated funds, and we supported the creation of a local nonprofit to which title was then …
The Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens
The Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens is a non-profit educational farm located in densely developed Goleta, California. Fairview Gardens was founded in 1895 and is considered by some to be the oldest organic farm in southern California. With support from Equity Trust, it has been preserved in perpetuity through an agricultural conservation easement.
The Chapman family had been …
