Quote: Bkpigs (quoted from post at 14:30:33 01/09/23) Went down a rabbit hole looking into railroads on Long Island and noticed plenty of row-crop fields towards the NE end but cannot find a production farm, as in bins and such. Couple of horse stables and horticulture farms. But nothing that would stand out as a row crop farmstead. Anyone with knowledge know about the area? Seems plenty of unique challenges given the population and all. I did find what looks like an old White tractor discing just East of Riley Ave and Edwards Ave intersection.
My grandfather and great uncle farmed in Hicksville until 1950, sold their land to Levitt, the famous post WW II housing developer. Many farmers were happy to sell out as the Golden Nematode had been discovered in that area. Some went to Delaware, some went to Steuben Co, and most, like my family went east. I grew up in Middle Island. By the end of the sixties, suburbia and poor profitability in potatoes caught up with us. Dad and his uncle sold out and my family moved out to Mattituck.
We were growing some grain. AGWAY had a feed mill in Riverhead that mainly sold to the duck farms. My father did sell some corn to a feed mill in Connecticut for sometime. They brought finished feed over and hauled corn back via the New London-Orient Point ferry. Dad also had a customer for rye for a few years at a mushroom spawn facility in Connecticut. Most of the grain grown in the area was rye from cover crop. We custom harvested rye, cleaned and bagged it for local cover crop or sent it over to New Jersey or PA in bulk on trucks as back haul after they brought corn out to AGWAY or Beacon Feed in East Moriches.
In the early 70 s, it was found that the climate on LI would support the growth of French hybrid wine grapes. In 1980, Temik insecticide used for controlling Colorado potato beetle was found in the groundwater and had a stop use order. With very little else available for effective control, it was the beginning of the end of potato farming and the people with money that wanted to get into the wine business found plenty of farms to buy. So over the next 20 years all these vineyards and wineries were now where potatoes and cauliflower were.
Sod farms and nurseries were common and still are. Still lots of vegetables grown on the North Fork that are marketed at farm stands along Sound Avenue and Rt 25 aka the Main Road.
If you want to see a few grain bins, the ones we built on Oregon Rd near Elijah Lane are still there. The guy that rents the farm and bins grows corn for the wealthy man that owns Robins Island for wildlife food. Also on the farm is a Butler Building that I m quite sure one of Mr. Pendzic s relatives put together. Down the road is one of the few remaining potato farmers that made a go of it by starting a potato chip business.
Haven t been down on the Southside (south fork, you know, Hamptons and all) for years. Couple years ago I read that one other potato farm in Sagaponack is still in business, also producing potato chips.
The guy with the collection of gold demonstrator Farmalls; his father was the director for the county ASCS office (now Farm Service Agency) and was good friends with my father who served on the county committee for a number of years.
There will continue to be farms of some sort on Eastern Long Island as a result of the purchasing of development rights that Suffolk Co. (first such program in the country) started in the 70 s. The townships also bought development rights which is the means by which my parents crop land remains as such.
One individual s perspective that hopefully provides a little flavor of LI farming history.
This post was edited by JohnRowehl on 01/12/2023 at 10:32 am.
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