Scarborough Land Trust signs a 30-year deal with
acclaimed tenants.
SCARBOROUGH — The
Scarborough Land Trust has signed a new 30-year lease with John Bliss and Stacy
Brenner to stay on at the Broadturn Farm property they have run since 2006. The
couple will farm more than half of the 434-acre parcel, the largest single lot
in land trust’s 1,000-acre portfolio, which it bought in 2004 and promotes as
the “gateway property on the west end of town.”
"John
and Stacy are developing a dynamic and diversified farming business at
Broadturn Farm, and are good stewards of the land,” said Jack Anderson, the
land trust’s president. “We are delighted to establish a long-term relationship
with them, and look forward to many seasons of bounty from the farm,"
Since
signing on as the site’s first tenant farmers, Bliss and Brenner have won
acclaim for their management. In 2009, they received the grand prize at
ecoMaine's “eco-Excellence” awards. The following year, they won the
Conservation Farm of the Year award from the Cumberland County Soil and Water
Conservation District.
Kathy
Mills, executive director of the land trust, said both awards, as well as the
long-term lease, are significant recognition for the job done by Bliss and
Brenner, a pair of suburbanites who have been actively farming for just 10
years.
"John
and I are very excited about our new, long-term lease," said Brenner.
"Thoughtful partnerships between land trusts and local farms can help
first-generation farmers to grow viable farm businesses that increase local
food production and benefit the local economy.
We are committed to organic farming and sustainable land stewardship
that builds community and promotes the legacy of agriculture in Maine."
Bliss
and Brenner have leased 275 acres of the farm, primarily the agricultural land,
buildings, and woodlands bounded by Broadturn and Hansen roads.
“Technically,
we were leasing the whole thing before,” said Bliss, “but now we are just
leasing the area that’s defined as agricultural land in the easement. The rest
is defined as public access areas, for hiking and things like that.”
The
property is permanently protected by an agricultural conservation easement held
by the Maine Department of Agriculture.
Bliss
and Brenner serve more than 150 families through a Community Supported
Agriculture program, in which members pay a fee at the start of the growing
season for a weekly share of the farm’s produce in organic vegetables and
fresh-cut flowers.
The
farm also supports a wedding business and an on-site store, Flora*Bliss, named
after the youngest of the couple’s two daughters. Bliss and Brenner also
recently launched the nonprofit Long Barn Educational Initiative, which
supports a children’s agricultural summer camp.
They
will continue to sublet 20 acres of Broadturn Farm to Snell Family Farm of
Buxton to grow organic vegetables, while Andy Townsend, also of Buxton, retains
rights to harvest hay on 50 acres of the farm property off Hansen Road.
The
land trust bought the Broadturn Farm property, then known as the Meserve Farm,
for $2.7 million in 2004, using funds supplied by the town of
Scarborough's Land Bond ($1.2 million) and grants from the federal Farm and
Ranch Lands Protection Program ($785,000), the Land for Maine's Future Program
($650,000) and $100,000 in donations from individuals, corporations, and
foundations.
The
property includes a farmhouse, barns, cropland, pasture, hayfields, woods, and
several brooks and streams. The land trust owns both the land and buildings,
for which fundraising for “extensive renovations” is ongoing.
"The
Scarborough Land Trust, and our local, state and federal partners, took a major
step for land conservation in Scarborough when we purchased the Broadturn Farm
property," said Anderson. "In addition to its beautiful coast,
Scarborough is known for its prime farmland, and helping to protect it and
support local farming is a great way to conserve open space, while also
benefiting the community in many other ways.”
No comments:
Post a Comment