Acquired in 2007 as a conservation set-aside, this 12-acre parcel at 490 Old Day Hill Road, Windsor, included a tobacco barn and an historically-significant potato barn, a pond, and eight acres of “prime” farmland – all in disrepair. We developed an innovative equity lease with Newgate Farms, passing ownership of the land to the farmers as they earn it by improving the property. The Land Trust will retain conservation rights. The land has been cleared and, with the help of WLT donors and three matching state grants, funded through the Community Investment Act, the potato barn is close to being restored. We saw the first harvest from the land in 2017.
2013-2014 Update: This series of articles, which first appeared in our newsletter at this time, describes additional history of the farm and our farm preservation project.
July 2019 Update: With contributions from individual members, the metal roof has been rebuilt. Next we are focusing our attention on restoring the historic, custom-built cupola specially designed to ventilate the barn so that it can be put to use again.
