Looking to Rent in the Hamptons? Try a Farm
Looking for property in the Hamptons? The Wall Street Journal recently reported that becoming a farmer in the Hamptons is possible through the use of a system called tenant farming, which allows people to come to the Hamptons to become farm owners and rent land cheaply in exchange for agreeing to farm on it.
From WSJ.com: “Katie Baldwin and Amanda Merrow, two young women from opposite corners of the country, decided to start a seven-acre grain and vegetable farm in 2008. They are part of a wave of tenant farmers who have laid down roots—against all odds—in the Hamptons, amidst some of the most expensive real estate in the country. They started Amber Waves Farms by renting the plot for about $300 an acre per year from the Peconic Land Trust, a nonprofit. Renting cropland is a common arrangement among the handful of small, niche farms that have cropped up recently in the string of summer colonies on Long Island’s South Fork.”
The system is provided from local governments as well as the Peconic Land Trust, which rents 165 acres of farmland to 13 farmers in the Hamptons.