Welcoming the Agrihood

As you know we launched a Farm Cooperative project last April on Earth Day and here’s a short update:

We finished up working with the Food and Farm Business Law Clinic from Pace University in December. This was a program where we worked with students during the fall semester to help us draft up the legal considerations for the cooperative. We now have a working document specific to our requirements that gives us sound legal footing.

While we received a large flurry of activity once we launched the farm coop, that has since decreased and we unfortunately were left with few solid leads into the project.

The initial goal was hoping to find “me” from 16 years ago, as in someone looking for land, eager to start, have a simple shelter, and just be ready to dig in to build an agripreneurial enterprise.

Ever the optimist, I miscalculated on that part.

I did however get much needed feedback from potential members seeking more information.

What we need now is a way to allow for potential members to “try out” the farm for a season or two: so they can learn more about the community, see what the climate and work is like and be able to experience life here first.

• Based on recommendations from the Law Clinic, we need to develop some seasonal farm worker housing on the farm that we can rent (or room & board work exchange) to potential cooperative members.
• We’ve had some interest in leasing land for veggies. So this would be an opportunity for someone who may not need a house, but needs land to farm.
• Lastly, one interim step I have started promoting is to host WWOOFer’s again on the farm this season. More details on WWOOFing can be found here.

If you know of folks seeking agricultural pursuits, seeking land to farm cooperatively, or seeking to live among farming and food producers in an agrihood-type setting, please share our story.