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Locally-grown food is all the rage among the cognoscenti. The Journal News has a story today (here) that sketches out the trend and profiles a handful of farms in Westchester. Here are the nut grafs (newspaper lingo for the summary paragraphs, that is):
While the Lower Hudson Valley is best known for its long-standing apple orchards and horse farms, the entrepreneurial farmsteads are tiny oases of food production within easy reach of an affluent customer base primed to embrace local agriculture.
The locally grown food movement - aided by best-sellers like Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" and the new documentary "Food Inc." - has created a market for small farms among people who value food quality and a personal connection to the farmer, said Annie Farrell of Yorktown Heights, a member of the Westchester County Agriculture & Farmland Protection Board and a consultant who advises farms on their operations.
"These businesses are emerging because of demand. Everybody's talking about having healthy local food. It's all the rage. It used to be one or two fringe people like myself; now it's mainstream," she said. "More and more people want to grow their own food or get it from somewhere nearby."
Westchester Land Trust, by the way, has conservation easements on at least two properties currently under cultivation: Raymond Farm and Tanrackin Farm, both on Guard Hill Road, in Bedford. Produce and flowers from Raymond Farm are sold at a farmstand somewhere in lower Westchester (I believe) but Louisa Purcell is operating a farmstand right at Tanrackin to sell the produce she is growing there.
We also worked with the county, local towns and the state to help get farmland protection grants for Stuart’s Farm in the Granite Springs section of Somers and for Hemlock Hill Farm, on the Cortlandt-Yorktown border.
Westchester Land Trust, by the way, is about to start discussions with local partners in some of Westchester’s cities, to see how we can held their community gardens work.