by Mary Baker

In some ways, helping to preserve open green space is as simple as eating a good salad. Consuming locally grown organic greens, says farmer Katie Smith form the 200-acre Farm at Miller’s Crossing in Claverack, near Hudson, supports local organic vegetable growers and at the same time adds to the overall richness of life.

"Locally produced organics and other local stuff have their own kind of culture" that keeps communities vibrant and productive, says Katie, who has been selling greens such as mesclin and other produce at the Coop for 10 years. "It looks so beautiful to see a farm stretching for miles along the Hudson Valley. Buying locally grown organics preserves that landscape and keeps it beautiful, and the Coop is good at buying directly from local farms."

Katie started her farm in 1995 on a 5-acre parcel in Chatham. Six years ago she bought the family farm at her present location with her partner Chris Cashen, where she and Chris balance the demands of vegetable growing and raising two young children: Lael, age 2, and Connelly, 6 months.

Some 30 acres of the land is dedicated to vegetable production, with an alternating 15 acres in production every year. The family farm, the sole source of income for the Smith-Cashen family, includes many cows that graze on 30 to 40 acres of the land. In addition to the produce production, the farm also sells certified organic grass-fed beef. Their diverse list of produce includes just about everything except sweet corn, including mesclin, kale, beets, snap peas, peas, onions, tomatoes, celery and lettuce.

The Farm at Miller’s Crossing "is great and the people are swell to deal with. They’re also getting more organized with computers and fax machines which is a great help," said the Coop’s produce manager, Gayle Anderson. Gayle explained that because the Coop is one of the drop-off points for the farm’s community supported agriculture (CSA) organization, it makes it possible for the farm to deliver fresh produce to the Coop on those days. The CSA is "like a mini farmer’s market here on Wednesdays" (for CSA members). "It’s nice because the farm grows a wide variety of vegetables, and is able to deliver it here twice a week" (days of the CSA drop-off), "which balances the contribution of other growers."

To help keep the farm going in its first year, Miller’s Crossing owners took frequent trips to New York City to sell produce. Now the trips to New York are less frequent and Miller’s Crossing supplements its business instead by participating in two farmer’s markets, one in Kinderhook and the other in Lenox (Mass.).

"It’s stressful to have to do all of our selling within a 6-month growing season, but it’s so fun to run a small family farm, where we can decide to redirect things to meet shifting demands," Katie explained. "Besides, we need those winter months to revamp and recuperate."

In addition to using some compost generated from its cows, over the past several years Miller’s Crossing has put a lot of energy into cover cropping in order to increase the organic matter of the soil, experimenting with annuals and perennial cover crops such as alfalfa and oats.

Miller’s Crossing incorporates some aspects of biodynamic farming, with some alterations.

"To be certified to grow organically, we make a commitment to refrain from importing a whole lot of things to the farm, " Katie said. This is especially the case with organic beef sold by the farm. She explained that the organic standard is that much more challenging to achieve for organic beef because the farm has to either breed the cattle itself or buy the cattle grass-fed. "It’s forced us to figure out how to breed animals in such a way that we have many generations of cattle at any given time," she said.