The community group working to conserve Thimble Farm as perpetual farmland was granted a reprieve this week when the owner of the land renewed a one-year lease with current tenant Whippoorwill Farm.
Land owner Eric Grubman said yesterday the deal with Whippoorwill Farm owner Andrew Woodruff was a placeholder to ensure the land stayed active while organizers behind the Vineyard Farm Project, the coalition of farmers and conservationists seeking to preserve the land, crafted a plan.
Whippoorwill Farm, home of the first Community Supported Agriculture program on the Vineyard, will move its operation from Thimble Farm in Oak Bluffs back to Old County Road, farm owner Andrew Woodruff said this week.
A newly-formed Island coalition is working on a possible deal to buy the former Thimble Farm property, take it out of private ownership and make it a nonprofit working farm with housing for farm workers.
Called the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Project, the group hopes to raise $2.5 million to buy the land and buildings at the farm in the Iron Hill area off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road that is home to Whippoorwill Farm, a large community-supported agriculture operation.
Community Supported Agriculture, the popular organic Island vegetable cooperative at Whippoorwill Farm, is on the rocks again, this time because of a business plan that has failed.
Wild Care Cape Cod brings Wilfred the Barn Owl back to Whipporwill Farm in West Tisbury to release it where it was rescued.
