Fresh-cut flowers take over Wassaic roadside stand

WASSAIC — A local farm is selling fresh-cut bouquets at a weekly pop-up through August.

The pop-up, put on by Wassaic’s Maitri Farm, occupies a small stand next door to the Ten Mile Table wine shop on Friday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon. The farm also runs a store onsite at 143 Amenia Union Road, open on Fridays from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Maitri Farm started as a livestock farm ten years ago on Charlotte Ford’s land near Wassaic, Farm Manager Fain Storey said during a tour of the farm on Friday afternoon, Aug. 7. Over the years, the farm expanded to flower and vegetable production under a community supported agriculture model and eventually with a public farm store featuring fresh produce.

Storey said she took over as farm manager earlier this year after years working at farms in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and the Florida-Georgia border. She said her goal is to further grow the farm’s CSA program and draw in more customers for the farm store.

“The potential is so great,” she said. “People still want produce, people still want to be a part of Maitri Farm.”

The CSA program currently has 20 members, but Storey said the farm has enough growing space to support more.

The farm produces a wide variety of vegetables, using about 5 acres of greenhouse tunnels and open fields to grow everything from tomatoes to peonies.

This month’s pop-up is part of regular events the farm runs or hosts. Right now, visitors to the farm can pick up a pair of flower snips and go cut their own sunflowers during farm store hours on Fridays and Saturdays. The “U-pick sunflower” event will run until the first frost of the season, and doesn’t require pre-registration.

Storey said the focus on events is intentional. Ford modelled the farm operation on nearby Sisters Hill Farm in Stanfordville, aiming to create a space where farmers could put their skills to work and invite community members in to learn and spread that knowledge to others. Other events include educational presentations from local craft education group Cottage Courses.

The connection to Sisters Hill Farm runs deeper than Maitri’s business model. Storey was originally trained by apprentices of longtime Sisters Hill Farm manager Dave Hambleton when she began farming in North Carolina. She said it was a happy accident that she ended up in New York so close to his farm.

“I apprenticed for them in North Carolina like nine years ago,” Storey said. “I knew he was in New York, but I just had no idea, and now I’m 20 minutes away from him.”

She said Sisters Hill’s mentor model was a big inspiration both to Maitri and to herself as a professional farmer, praising community-minded farmers for spreading knowledge about the work.

“It’s shaped me,” Storey said. “It’s very cool to be a part of that, even unintentionally.”