What a special treat, getting to see the amazing Scott Chaskey after nearly twenty years!!! Scott is the director of @quailhillfarm in Amagansett, NY. To say he is a pioneer in the small, sustainable, farm movement would be an understatement. Quail Hill was the first CSA (community supported agriculture) model in the state of New York and among the first in our country. Now a fairly common thing, subscribing to a weekly CSA box from your local farm was an absolutely RADICAL idea just a few decades ago. And this guy, Scott, was at the forefront.
The first CSA was in Switzerland in 1986 though there were similar models in Japan as early as the sixties. With traditional farming, the farmer carries all the many risks of farming on her own. For small farms, this means a disease or pest issue has the potential to devastate your business. With such huge risks it's no wonder why farmers started becoming a dying breed. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the average age for a farmer has been on the rise for over thirty years, by 2014 it was 58 years old. CSA is a game changer and has enabled many new, young farmers to get into the business.
Typically with a CSA you pay a subscription fee and then every week or two you get a box of fresh veggies delivered to your home or a pick-up location. This is revolutionary because you are pledging your support of the farm regardless of the season’s outcome. For farmers to be able to count on some degree of income is a big deal, it can be the difference between small farmers being able to stay in business or having to close up shop.
I had the absolute pleasure of interning every week at Quail Hill when I was in college. It was the first time I had ever planted or harvested anything. My family didn’t garden, we weren’t really outdoorsy at all. The intern program Scott created was what started me on this path. I fell in love with working in the soil, physical labor outdoors, and with the transformative power of compost (from waste product to soil building magic, compost is the ultimate story of redemption!). I am in no way unique, Scott has connected hundreds of students and apprentices over the years with the land.
Quail Hill does something even more radical: the 200+ CSA members go to the farm and pick their own food from the field! This is really tremendous. What they are doing is getting the community ENGAGED, with nature, with the process of growing food, with their fellow community members, with the weather, with disease and pest issues, all of it!
I truly believe people would take better care of this planet if they just felt connected to it. Scott and Quail Hill Farm have been setting an incredible example of how to facilitate those connections for about thirty years now. So inspiring!!!
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