• We have signed our farm lease! It’s the real deal now. Our lease runs for five years.
• Our business name is “Stone Soup, LLC.” This is partly because the farm is so darned rocky, and partly because of the fantastic fable, Stone Soup, in which a delicious meal is made due to everyone bringing a little of what they have to the table.
• We got the initial plowing done! Although the plow broke an axle due to the rocks, the plowing did indeed get finished. Pictures to come.
• Our CSA is filling up fast! We have 24 members already. We are hoping for 40-50, so be sure to get on the list if you want to join.

More updates and pictures soon.

• The lease is almost all done! After a number of back-and-forths between ourselves and the Ames family we are very close to having a completed lease. We’ll be leasing the land for five years, with the idea that it will be renewed into a longer term lease if everyone is happy after those first five years.
• We are working on forming an LLC, a Limited Liability Company. This will protect us personally from any legal liability that might come out of the business. Although the farm property itself will be called Langwater Farm, we need to pick a different name for our business entity (I know, it’s a little confusing). Currently naming the LLC is our biggest hurdle… any suggestions??
• Kevin bought a pickup truck! It’s green.
• Kate and Mary (Rory and Kevin’s mom) went and visited the farmhouse where Rory and Alida will be living. We’ll be leasing the farmhouse, which is on the property, along with the farm. Apparently the house has a wood stove, plenty of room for visitors, and a secret staircase! Couldn’t ask for more. Here’s a picture of the house.

So that’s what we’ve been up to. Needless to say, we’re getting very excited about the part where we stop worrying about LLCs and leases, and actually get to farm!

Stay tuned for more updates soon. In the meantime let us know if you have ideas for our business name.

That’s a question we get asked a lot when telling our friends and family about the farm. The short answer is no. We’re leasing it. This type of land tenure arrangement, basically the same as renting, can be beneficial in many situations, but is especially popular amongst young farmers like ourselves who don’t have the money to outright buy a farm. A lease arrangement allows the owners to use their land for farming without having to actually sell their family property or farm it themselves, and allows the farmers (us) access to land that would otherwise be unaffordable or unavailable.

One issue with leases as opposed to buying land is the issue of secure tenure arrangements. How do we make sure we don’t buy all kinds of equipment and invest in the land, only to have the landowners change their minds next season? The answer is long-term leases. I know farmers with leases as long as 99 years. This means they have an incentive to take good care of the soil, to implement conservation practices, and to plant perennial crops. Without this long-term lease, and without knowing if they would be on the land next season, that incentive for good stewardship would not exist.

The lease we are working on right now is a five year, renewable lease. In other words, we are secure in our land for the next five years, and at the end of that term, assuming everything is going well, we’ll sit down with the Ames family and write a new lease to extend our time. Currently we haven’t signed the lease- it is going back and forth between us and the Ames family so that each party has a chance to add things and make sure it adequately addresses all our needs and concerns. It’s a chance to think about all the things that might happen over the next five years and figure out how we might address issues as they arise. The lease process is a lot of work– reviewing legal documents, communicating, figuring out what the farmers and the landowners need– but well worth the time, since setting up a good lease is critically important to our farm.

Land for Good, a nonprofit organization focusing on land stewardship and agriculture, is facilitating our lease process. Their website has a lot of great resources about leasing and other alternative land tenure arrangements, if you’re interested in learning more.