Glynwood Center – Cold Spring, NY by Patty

After our visit to the Catskills gave us a first hand look at the balancing act required to keep farmers on the land and protect New York City’s drinking water, we were ready to visit the Glynwood Center to explore this idea even more. The Glynwood Center is located in Cold Spring and is dedicated to helping communities deal with tension between economic development and land conservation. In addition to their research and programs to help communities, they also run an organic farm as a way to strengthen the regional food system of the Hudson Valley.

We got to have lunch and a quick visit to their farm. At lunch (which was a delicious spread of local food, including purple potato succotash, prepared by the Main Course restaurant in New Paltz) we heard more about what Glynwood is doing to help communities build strong food systems. Specifically, with their Keep Farming program, they are working to quantify how farming benefits communities by contributing to the local economy, protecting natural resources, providing access to local foods and maintaining community character. It’s really important stuff and I was excited to hear about how many communities are slated to do pilot programs with the center in the near future.

Then it was off to tour the farm itself. We saw bees being raised using biodynamic methods, chickens that get to hang out and eat grass and bugs in an apple orchard (which benefits both the chickens and the trees), and their vegetable garden which is currently feeding over 20 CSA members and is set to expand to produce enough for 50 members next year. And we got to spend some quality time with Dudley, the resident farm dog, who was a very social member of our little tour group.

Unfortunately our tour had to be a quick one because the big green bus had to keep rolling. But it was a really informative visit in an incredibly beautiful spot.

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