You probably don’t know this about us…but we want to sell our land. Well, that’s not entirely true. We want to sell part of our land. Sort of. Let us tell you more about this before you start thinking that we’ve lost our minds.
We first learned about this opportunity when Greg was doing his first farming apprenticeship in Albany back in the summer 2008. The Farmers were older and they had worked their 160 acre farm for years, raising organic veggies, pigs, beef, and chicken. They were nearing retirement and had to make some tough choices.
They could sell the land to the highest bidder – probably a developer who would likely pay beaucoup bucks and turn the pastures and vegetable fields into a housing development. Or, they could pursue what’s called a conservation easement, where they would sell off the development rights to a land trust, fend off the developers indefinitely, and have the peace of mind of knowing their fields, forests and rivers would stay farmland forever.
Like our farming mentors back in Albany, we can’t just think about how to grow the best pastures and raise the most delicious meat, eggs and speciality produce. I mean, that stuff is fun and we obsess about it all day long, but we’re also thinking about the big picture. How can we as farmers, make the biggest impact and do the most good for our community?
In our minds, being good farmers means that we’re being good stewards of our land. And for us, that means doing everything we can to make sure that this 56 acre slice of farmland in Henrietta is ready for all the generations of organic farmers that come up behind us.
This week, we took a major step toward preserving this land. With the help of the Genesee Land Trust, we received a grant that will allow us to take the first step forward in selling off the development rights of our farm (a lengthy expensive land appraisal process), and we are absolutely thrilled.
This will all take time, probably even more than we could imagine, and there are no guarantees. But if there’s one thing that farming has taught us, it’s that patience is a virtue.
Your Farmers,
Jenney and Greg