Farms Grow WithIn Red Hook Village To Cultivate Community
This spring, Four Corners Community Farm in Red Hook, New York is changing its name to Cultivar Community Farm and moving its popular slate of inclusive programming and events to a unique and highly visible property at the northern entrance to the Village of Red Hook.
In partnership with the land’s new owner, Hearty Roots Farm, Cultivar will continue to offer community garden plots, agricultural education classes, youth programs, internships and events like their popular Day of the Dead celebration in October. A major part of the organization’s mission will continue to center around connecting local English and Spanish speaking communities.
“Cultivar, as a name, is a nod to inclusion,” said founder Samuel Rose. “In Spanish cultivar means, literally, to cultivate and in English it’s a local variant. We want to cultivate community in a local, agricultural context."
Four Corners volunteer harvesters
Rose, who co-founded Four Corners on the farm of Frank and Liza Parker Migliorelli, has now partnered with Clermont-based Hearty Roots. This came after Four Corners purchased 45 acres of Red Hook land along Route 9 to expand its organic produce business. Rose thanked the Migliorellis for their partnership and the couple have stated their intention to continue their community farm after a year hiatus to renovate.
“The organization started out as an idea between the three of us. It was created to provide a community resource during the pandemic, and as a place to incubate programs and initiatives around food security and community access to farming,” said the Migliorellis. “We think we definitely hit the mark, providing thousands of pounds of food, and quite a few memorable community events and programs. This hiatus will allow us to do some major infrastructure work — improve the water distribution system, repair a number of buildings and create some improved public areas for supporting the community.”
The property purchased by Hearty Roots is just a piece of the 228-acre Cookingham Farm, purchased in recent months by the Town of Red Hook itself for $4.69 million through its Community Preservation Fund. The unique fund collects a transfer tax on real estate sales in the town above the median assessed property value and is authorized to use the funds for farmland conservation. Scenic Hudson and the Dutchess Land Conservancy also contributed funds to the Cookingham purchase, putting all but a 12-acre portion, just south of the Cultivar location in the Village of Red Hook, under an agricultural conservation easement. The excluded acreage is slated for new workforce housing, currently in development by Kingston-based nonprofit RUPCO.
“We are so grateful that Sam Rose has brought his focus on farming to the Red Hook community,” said Village of Red Hook Mayor Karen Smythe. “We are delighted with his move to the Cookingham property, making his programs and community farm more accessible by being in the Village. We look forward to seeing and participating in all the good things he and his team will do going forward.”
Rose said being more closely connected to the Village now and to all that is to come with the new development, is exciting. He had approached Hearty Roots owners Ben Shute and Lindsey Lusher Shute soon after he heard about their purchase and they were enthusiastic about the partnership opportunity. (The Shutes are no stranger to innovative, community minded agricultural enterprises. They co-founded the National Young Farmers Coalition over a decade ago and Lindsey is currently the CEO of Farm Generations Cooperative). Hearty Roots is using the new Red Hook acreage as cultivation expansion and will continue to be based in Clermont. Over the next few years the land will undergo the conversion process necessary to cultivate organic produce on property that was not previously farmed that way.
Rose said Cultivar’s programming will be largely similar to what he offered at Four Corners but infrastructure at the new site will allow for growth. A former farm office building will become a classroom. One of the many hats Rose wears is that of a certified science teacher. The new space will allow Rose to offer a wide variety of agricultural classes to youth and adults.
All the food produced at Cultivar will be donated, as was the case at Four Corners. Rose primarily donates produce to Red Hook Responds, a nonprofit started during the pandemic to bring meals to those in the community struggling with food insecurity. Rose also continues to work closely with Larry Anthony, food services director for the Red Hook, Rhinebeck and Hyde Park school districts, to get more locally farmed food into school cafeterias.
“We are extremely grateful and reliant to our partners,” Rose said. “Everyone has their bandwidth limits and that’s why we need a community. We help each other by doing as much as we are able.”
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