Amagansett's Quail Hill Farm Gets New Director

Changes are afoot at the Peconic Land Trust’s Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, where Layton Guenther, a graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food System, has been named the new director, replacing Scott Chaskey, who retired in January.

Although the announcement was made earlier this month, Guenther, who has served as the farm’s manager since 2013, actually assumed the position last July and worked side by side with Mr. Chaskey, the farm’s founding director, through that season.

“I really wanted to have last year as a transition year for me to get my feet wet as the director of the farm, but also to acknowledge and give ample space to Scott for his legacy on the farm,” Guenther said.

Mr. Chaskey, who was the farm’s founding director, said he looked forward to having the time he needed to devote to his second career, writing. “I’ve never had the time to devote all day to it, so that is that’s what I’m doing,” he said this week.

He said he expected Guenther — who prefers gender-neutral pronouns — to do fine in their new role.

“I think the important thing about this is we actually worked on the transition, and Layton has been with me for seven years,” Mr. Chaskey said. “It’s good timing.”

“To say that I have big shoes to fill would be an understatement,” Guenther said. “Luckily, I already have deep relationships with many in the South Fork’s farming community, and many members of Quail Hill Community Farm. I’m honored to get to deepen those relationships, and to help usher the farm into a new era.”

In 1990, at a time when tillable land was getting hard to find in East Hampton, Quail Hill Farm was founded as one of the first Community Supported Agriculture farms in the state. The farm, on 35 acres donated to the trust by Deborah Ann Light, is nestled between Old Stone Highway and Deep Lane north of the Amagansett business district.

The Quail Hill summer share season begins in early June and runs through October. Farm members get to get harvest from among more than 500 varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers twice each week. Box shares are also available

Today, with the coronavirus causing panic at shopping at grocery stores and putting the national food distribution at risk, providing people with the means to help produce their own food may resonate even more with East Enders.

“I think that many people out here for the foreseeable future will turn to local farms to supply produce while the grocery stores are ravaged and restaurants closed,” Guenther said. “It’s my hope that CSAs, and local farms more broadly, can continue to thrive and what we love: growing food for our community.”

Guenther said this year the farm will offer a limited number of shares for pickup on Thursday afternoons at the trust’s Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton.

Also this year, a team of AmeriCorps volunteers has been helping clear invasive species from a portion of the farm. The long-term goal is to put in trails and a picnic area, allowing the farm to be enjoyed by more people, Guenther said.

“There’s been a huge blanket of community support for the farm, and it’s my hope and dream to really listen and help the community farm grow into the next 30 years,” they said.

Guenther was born and raised in suburban Pelham, just north of New York City, and studied critical social thought at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. They were introduced to the world of farming thanks to a summer job at Red Fire Farm, a 70-acre CSA farm serving restaurants, markets, and 1,500 members in Granby, Massachusetts, where they worked for four years.

Besides an affinity for the physical labor that was required, “the thing that captured me about it was the fact that every single day felt like I was being asked to use new parts of my brain and employ new skill sets,” they said.

Joining Guenther at the farm this year are farm manager Brendan McMullan and production manager Dorian Payán. Both are former Quail Hill Farm apprentices:

More information about Quail Hill Farm, including events and programs, can be found at www.QuailHillFarm.org.