About the Farm
At Common Ground we work towards a more sustainable food system by growing fresh produce and distributing our vegetables and herbs through food justice partnerships. Common Ground Farm is located on 6.5 acres of historic farmland leased from the Stony Kill Foundation in Wappingers Falls, NY.
Every year, we grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers. The food we grow is distributed to a variety of destinations within 30 miles of the farm, including 9 different food pantries, distribution sites, and community meal programs, and the Beacon Farmers’ Market.
We also use Common Ground grown produce in educational cooking programs, including Farm Camp and field trips. During the summer Common Ground offers a 12-week U-Pick CSA where members come to the farm to pick their own fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers. Visit the Farm and learn where to Find our Produce.
Food Justice
Our farm and programs support the well-being of our land and community, and we collaborate with regional and national partners to create a more just food system.
Connecting people with agriculture:
Common Ground Farm makes the commitment to pay our farm crew above minimum wage, to provide all of our staff with access to farm produce, and to welcome people of diverse backgrounds to the organization. We bring young people to the farm to learn about agriculture through Common Ground’s educational programs and through our longtime partnership with the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Green Teen Beacon program. Common Ground’s education programs are supported with grant and donor funding, allowing us to offer scholarships for all education programs. During the growing season, Green Teen visits the farm to learn about agriculture. We also hire a Next Step teen interns who work at the Beacon Farmers’ Market.
Food Access:
We support emergency food services in the Mid-Hudson region with weekly produce deliveries to eight different food pantries, community meal programs, and free markets. In 2023, over 10,000 pounds of fresh produce valued at over $40,000 went from our farm to these different outlets.
We accept EBT/SNAP, FMNP and WIC-FMNP at ALL of our markets, and we match all food benefits with our community supported Greens4Greens program to double their value.
Land Stewardship
Common Ground Farm is located on 6.5 acres of historic farmland leased from the Stony Kill Environmental Education Center in Wappingers Falls, NY. The land was given to the State of New York by the Verplanck family, with the restriction that the land needed to be used for agriculture. Amid the changing landscape of the Hudson Valley over the last century, the Stony Kill Farm property provides a reminder of the importance of agriculture to the thousands of cars that pass by each day on Route 9D. By keeping farmland active in this rapidly developing region, residents are connected to their food and to the health of the land that nourishes them.
Common Ground Farm is committed to growing food sustainably without chemicals, treating our workers with dignity, and showing respect and care for our land. We follow organic growing practices and we do not use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides, and we protect our ecosystem by maintaining biodiversity in our plantings. We limit unnecessary soil disturbances and tillage in order to build a healthy soil environment for microbes. Each year we build soil health by planting a cover crop in all of our fields for at least part of our season, and a portion of our acreage remains in cover crop for the full growing season to build organic matter. The results of these practices are apparent in the nutrition and flavor quality of the vegetables we bring to our markets and food access partners.
