Roots In The Ground: The New Farmers

Agricultural land on the East End continues to shrink, and the average age of a farmer is 55, but one pair of unlikely upstarts are bucking the trend.“I am not a native. But I feel so local because I have my boots on the Amagansett soil every day. It is a funny thing,” said Katie Baldwin, who is one half of the duo behind Amber Waves, an organic farm whose namesake crop is, you guessed it, wheat.

Half-Californian, half-Texan, Ms. Baldwin met her now-business partner, Amanda Merrow, through the Quail Hill Farms apprenticeship in 2008. The first farm on the South Fork to reintroduce wheat, Amber Waves now works closely with other wheat-producing farms in the area, including Mecox Bay Dairy and Balsam Farms.

“We saw that wheat was a crop that we could add to our local food bed,” said Ms. Baldwin. “It was grown out here in the past, so we knew it was possible.”

The pair got their start as farmers when 7.7 acres became available for leasing through the Peconic Land Trust in 2008. Bought by a conservationist who wanted to preserve the use of the land—which had been farmed by the Struk family since 1954—it was part of a larger parcel of land that included the site of the Amagansett Farmers Market. John v.H. Halsey, President of the Peconic Land Trust, said in an email that, “had someone else purchased it, it might be four house sites today.”

“It is a hybrid, it is a new and progressive way of doing business,” said Ms. Baldwin when explaining that, in addition to producing crops that are sold to local restaurants, at the Montauk Farmers Market and through their weekly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), the farm is an education-driven initiative.

Last year, the farm hosted 100 field trips from local schools, and it is currently kicking off summer programming that includes the Amagansett School enrichment program, family workshops and an apprenticeship program for young farmers.

“Amanda always likes to say, the most important crop we grow is our crop of new farmers,” Ms. Baldwin said. Going into its fifth year, the apprenticeship program now receives hundreds of applications for a handful of spots, making it difficult for Amber Waves to narrow down the playing field. The defining characteristic that they look for in applicants? Gusto.

“You can teach someone how to pick a radish,” Ms. Baldwin said. “You can’t really teach someone to be happy and upbeat.”

Structured as a 501c3, the farm grows more than 300 varieties of fruits and vegetables, which in addition to providing crop diversity, helps educate.

“We are trying to grow a rainbow of a range of colors, shapes and sizes so that kids associate that a tomato is not always red. A tomato can have stripes. A tomato can be purple,” Ms. Baldwin explained.

“Consumers don’t see these specialty foods available in the supermarket, so they come to farms where we are growing things like fairy tale eggplants,” said Ms. Baldwin, who believes that farmers and chefs drove the meteoric popularity of the now-ubiquitous kale.

Their only complaint about the trendy green? They wish that all leafy vegetables were as fashionable.

“We are good at growing collard greens, but we still struggle to convince the eaters that they are delicious,” Ms. Baldwin said. When it is mentioned that collard greens are rumored to be the new kale, she laughed and said that “whoever said that is wanting to sell a lot of collards.”

Outside of selling collard greens, two of their biggest struggles are weed management and building the quality of the soil, which takes years and years of work. It is especially difficult for the pair because they are leasing all 25 acres of their land. “Ideally, every farmer wants to own their land. They want to be the primary and consistent land steward and have that security,” Ms. Baldwin said. However, “it wouldn’t have been possible for us to start farming without the ability to lease.”

Part of a group of young locals—farmers, fishermen, artists—who host potluck dinners throughout the year, Ms. Baldwin and Ms. Merrow also provide motivation with their fields. One East End resident ended up creating her fledgling business, Madeline Picnic Co., after joining the Amber Waves CSA two summers ago.

“It was a key moment for me in terms of how inspired I was through food and through farming,” said Madeline McLean. “When I came up with my idea for a picnic business, I went to them first and asked them what they thought.”

“I think it is our responsibility to try to show other young people that you can start a business here and make it work,” Ms. Baldwin said. “You have to navigate your way though the most expensive real estate in the country to grow a tomato.”

Despite the high costs of living and the struggles of operating an organic farm, Ms. Baldwin said she and Ms. Merrow always focus on having fun.

“That is what we always say to each other, this is supposed to be fun. Let’s just make sure it is fun.”