What is your farming experience or connection to agriculture?
I have a huge respect for farmers, and would not consider myself a farmer, but more a gardener in constant training. I owned a restaurant in Rhode Island for 19 years with my wife. We had a roof top garden that I managed and enjoyed thoroughly. During our restaurant time, I had the pleasure to connect with multiple local farmers that I was able to work with and learn from.
What are your future farming plans? What do you hope to accomplish in the next year? 5 years?
Ideally, I would love to have a small property (zoned residential/commercial), 1 -2 acres, that has apple orchards and land to grow vegetables, herbs, flowers. We would live on the property, grow food that I would then either, shelf-stable can or create grab&go products for customers to pick up on the farm (all with proper licensing of course.) Perhaps, very small dinners would happen on a location far enough away from our lived in property. We want to create a community where all feel welcome and can learn and enjoy farm grown food; taking the items from the earth and creating the finished product. I currently work at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park and hope to share my farming experience with the culinary students.
How are you looking to access land?
We haven't been living in the area that long, we are using the resources from Farmland [FNG-NY] and are trying to make connections. Our needs would be to have a small property that we could live on, and then cultivate/maintain the orchards and vegetables/flowers. Currently open to all options, lease, buy or other.
What are you looking for in farmland?
We are looking for 1-2 acres, 4 acres maximum in Dutchess County. The property we need would have to have living quarters, irrigation system, and organic soil.
Is there anything else you would like for a landowner to know about you?
I am a hardworking and my passion is cooking, and for me, I cannot separate the relationship from farmer to food. I just recently relocated from Singapore where the food culture is amazing, but there is no infrastructure for farming, they are working on it, but currently most grown food is imported. One of the main reasons we returned to the US was our need for that farm to food connection.
To learn more and connect with Matthew, visit his profile here.
