A New Generation of Farmers Comes to New City's Cropsey Farm

Sitting on the side porch of their landmark family farmhouse on Little Tor Road in New City, Jim and Pat Cropsey have a front-row view into Rockland's agricultural history and its future.

The Cropsey family has farmed in New City for more than 100 years, but since Jim Cropsey's retirement, only a small family garden remains on 25 acres of what was once a busy commercial farm in the center of Rockland County. Because of a unique arrangement that has preserved Cropsey Farm as open space, Jim and Pat will soon be able to watch a new generation of farmers at work in the fields they once nurtured.

"If it all works out, I'll be thrilled," said Cropsey, the grandson of a Brooklyn lawyer  who in 1893 bought the land for Cropsey Farm as a real estate investment and started a the business that went on to supply produce to markets in New York City for many years.

On Tuesday, Rockland County and the Town of Clarkstown formally signed an agreement with the Rockland Farm Alliance to actively cultivate Cropsey Farm.

In return for the no-cost lease of five acres of the 25-acre farm, the Farm Alliance agreed to develop a comprehensive agricultural educational program geared toward school children which will teach the students about the processes of farming and the county's agricultural history.

The Farm Alliance has agreed to maintain 20 acres of non-active fields as part of the license agreement, taking over chores such as mowing the grass. The first crop the Farm Alliance will grow is be one acre of pumpkin fields, said R. Allan Beers, coordinator of the county's Division of Environmental Resources. Future plans for the property include the development of community gardens and a walking trail, building of a public playground and picnic areas, and the restoration of an old barn to be used for community events.

Clarkstown Town Board member Shirley Lasker said the agreement with the Farm Alliance is the culmination of 10 years worth of work in Clarkstown and Rockland County to preserve sites such as Cropsey Farm from being lost to commercial or residential development.

Rockland County and Clarkstown purchased the farm from the Cropseys in 2006 for $6.5 million through the County's Open Space Program. The county provided $4 million, with $1.5 million obtained from New York by state Sen. Thomas Morahan, R-New City, and $1 million from Clarkstown's open space program. The deal gave Jim and Pat Cropsey the right to spend the rest of their lives in their family farmhouse.

Beers said that if the land had not been preserved, existing zoning regulations covering the farm would have allowed for development of as many as 48 single family homes at Cropsey Farm. Pat Cropsey said nine developers had come to them trying to buy the property in the days before she and her husband sold the farm to the county and Clarkstown.

As the Cropseys watched a lease-signing ceremony yesterday at the farm, they said they were happy that the property would soon become busy again as a farm. Jim Cropsey said he especially liked plans for the future that include a community garden.

"I'd like to see a community garden like the one in Nyack, where people can come in and take care of a piece of the garden," said Jim Cropsey.

Formed in 2005, the non-profit, 800-member Rockland Farm Alliance is creating a "Community Supported Agriculture" initiative to help fund the farming operation, according to founder John McDowell. He said shares of the farm operation will be sold to members in advance of the growing season, with funds from the sale of the shares to be used by farmers to grow crops.

Each week, shareholders will receive a basket of organic vegetables in exchange for their support. The Farm Alliance is also organizing fundraisers to help pay for the cost of fencing and irrigation equipment. Heshi Gorewitz of West Nyack will oversee the farm operation as executive director.

"We hope there can be a community farm in every town in Rockland County," said McDowell, who said the work of his group pays tribute to the many farms – as many as 900 in the 1930s – that once occupied vast tracts of land in Rockland.

Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack said he expects the Farm Alliance operation to attract participants from throughout Rockland County.

"We're glad it will be going back to being a working farm," Gromack said. "Now everyone can see what we see at this beautiful property."

Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef said the effort to revive farming at Cropsey Farm is especially important to educate local children about Rockland's agricultural heritage.

"Long a county landmark, the Cropsey Farm will now be known as one of two working farms in Rockland, where children can come and learn and experience our rich history of agriculture and farming," Vanderhoef said, referring to the county's other productive farm, the Orchards of Conklin in Pomona. "Today, we thank the Cropseys and the RFA for helping us preserve not only our environment, but our history as well for generations to come."

Until Jim and Pat Cropsey retired, the farm was a year-round operation that also included the farm stand and nursery opposite the farm across Little Tor Road – which is not part of the county/town-owned open space. The farm included its picturesque – but deteriorating – red barn and14 greenhouses. The greenhouses that were part of the farm property are gone, with only one small version of a greenhouse that is used by the Cropsey's for their family garden.

While the Cropseys are out of the commercial farming business, Jim Cropsey still takes pride in his family garden. "I picked string beans this morning just like I picked string beans for my father when I was a kid," Cropsey said while sitting on his side porch with Pat.

Pat Cropsey said the crops grown in the family garden are shared with local senior citizens. Every Monday she brings a fresh batch of produce with her to the Street School Community Center in New City, where she is a member of the New City Seniors 3 group. And what's in that basket Pat brings with her? Usually it's items including tomatoes, corn, squash, beets, carrots and lettuce.

As members of the Rockland Farm Alliance cheered Tuesday's official lease signing, Jim Cropsey congratulated them but also cautioned that they have a lot of hard work ahead of them in running and maintaining a farm. Cropsey had farmed full-time since returning from military service in the mid-1950s and recalls many tough years of hard work in which the farm needed around-the-clock attention.

One of the first projects the Farm Alliance has to tackle is erecting fencing that will protect its crops from the local deer population. Also, the farm's old barn is so run down that it cannot be used immediately as part of the farm operation. Beers estimates that more than $700,000 worth of work will be needed to restore and modernize the barn.