STORIES WE LOVE

Landowners who didn't want to farm found a farmer who did

Every now and then I find a story that shows exactly what we're about at Cultivate Farms: real people finding a way to keep a farm working and bring someone new onto it. I share them here because seeing it done by others makes it real. Here's one I love.

From Land For Good, 4 April 2025: "Beginning farmer finds farmland and secures a lease with the right support", by Kate Kellman. Read the full story at landforgood.org.

Why I love it

In Maine, a man inherited his family's 17.5 acres in 2022, the fourth generation to own it. He and his wife didn't want to farm it and weren't sure how they'd manage the upkeep, but they wanted to keep it in the family and keep its farming going. So they listed the chance through a farm link service and chose an aspiring farmer who'd started on an incubator farm and had been knocking on doors for land.

What I love is how they chose. The wife says what mattered most was the farmer's enthusiasm for the land. A three year lease in 2023 became a ten year lease in 2024. They talked openly about sharing the place, because he wanted his kids to roam it like he did. Now they live in the renovated farmhouse with their baby daughter, the fifth generation there.

Why it matters for towns like ours

Plenty of farmland is owned by people who don't farm it. Many feel stuck between selling and letting it sit. This shows another way: keep the land, live on it if you like, and give someone itching to farm a real start.

One step you could take

If you own land you don't farm, write down what you'd keep, like the house or room for the kids, and what you could offer a farmer. This couple say being open from the start was key. Read how land you don't farm could give someone a start in our The Farm That Keeps Giving guide.

I share these stories because each one shows it can be done, by ordinary farming families, in places like yours. If you know a story like this, or you're living one, I'd love to hear it.