February 24, 2017



"Seeds have Spirit, but they do not have a Voice..."  
~ Flordemayo, Indigenous Grandmother


Greetings! 

 
This year February 24th has been chosen as a countrywide CSA sign-up day. I have joined with friend farmers to create a CSA Charter to remember and to restate the principles that drew many of us together almost 30 years ago in a modest Waldorf school in the village of Kimberton, Pennsylvania.



No one there imagined that 3 decades later over 7,000 CSA's would be cultivating soil and community across these States. The practice of agriculture begins with a seed, and what a vital seed we held then in our hands, one we continue to sow throughout Turtle Island (and across the globe). We thank you for being a part of it all.
 


To celebrate this special day and plant the seed for 2017,

please join or renew your membership

with Quail Hill Farm today!  
   
You are most welcome to walk the land as the weather warms, though remember the winds of March have yet to begin! A good place to shelter will be our elegant new greenhouse: there you may find farmers, apprentices, and trays of those seeds filling up, and soon, plants destined for our Birch Hill fields.





In April we will sow potatoes (as we finish the last of those harvested in November and stored in our root cellar), transplant lettuce, onions, and scallions, and direct seed carrots, turnips, and greens into out silt loam. By early June it will be your turn once again to harvest, through until November.



 
We have returned from our winter travels bearing seeds. Cherokee Midnight Trail black beans, Hopi Magic beans, Nanticoke squash (diverse population of beautiful, delicious winter squash from the Nanticoke people), Otto File corn brought back from Italy by our friends from Mountain Dell Farm, Sweetmeat winter squash (25th generation from Mountain Dell), a pink beefsteak tomato with a most catchy name, Stump of the World, and a beautiful, shiny selection of pole beans from the California coast.



Add these varieties to other seed we have saved and to the roughly 500 varieties that are presently arriving by way of Fedco Seeds, Johnny's, High Mowing, Seed Savers Exchange, The Maine Potato Lady, Seeds from Italy, Territorial, Turtle Tree Seeds, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange...and it appears we are preparing to set forth to farm for another season.



 
 
Recently a potential Apprentice, applying for the 2017 season, began her letter of intent with this, "Objective: to provide honest labor..." This seems like an admirable place to begin, and just the right kind of promise that a farmer may make to those who have chosen to support the farm.



Years ago, attempting to define an ecological approach to agriculture, I entitled a chapter: "To Provide Some Harmony." Harmony and honest labor: good words to repeat (and provide) as we enter our 28th season of community agriculture in Amagansett.
 


"A seed, in essence, is a tiny plant in suspended animation sealed up in an environment-proof coat." Soon the life within the seeds we save and store will come forth in the fertile fields conserved by and for honest labor, and we hope to provide you some harmony for another year.
 
Yours,
  
Scott Chaskey



photos by Michael Halsband
About Quail Hill Farm:



Celebrating its 28th season, Quail Hill Farm is a stewardship project of the Peconic Land Trust. Among the original CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in the nation, Quail Hill Farm brings together growers and community members on fertile soil in a relationship of mutual support.



Published monthly. Contributions-- recipes, news and events, poems, photographs and drawings-- are welcomed. Send them to: [email protected] 
 
Producing over 500 varieties of organically grown vegetables, flowers, fruit and herbs,
Quail Hill Farm is located on 220 acres of land donated by Deborah Ann Light to
the Peconic Land Trust. Quail Hill Farm is located on Deep Lane in Amagansett, NY.


Summer harvest days are Saturday and Tuesday from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm.  
Winter harvest days are every other Friday and Saturday, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. 
 
Quail Hill Farm is a stewardship project of the Peconic Land Trust.  
For information concerning Quail Hill Farm, please contact:

Robin Harris at 631-283-3195  |  [email protected] 
    
The Peconic Land Trust conserves Long Island's working farms, natural lands,
and heritage for our communities, now and in the future.
 
For more information concerning the Trust, call us at 631.283.3195

or visit us online at www.PeconicLandTrust.org
 
STAY CONNECTED:

Financial Disclosure Statement: A copy of the last financial report filed with the New York State Attorney General may be obtained in writing to: New York State Attorney General's Charities Bureau, Attn: FOIL Officer, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271 or Peconic Land Trust, PO Box 1776, Southampton, NY 11969.



Peconic Land Trust | 296 Hampton Road | PO Box 1776 | Southampton | NY | 11969