The History of the Patroon Land Farm

Pauline Williman’s family moves across Thompsons Lake and settles in what is now the Albany County Hilltowns, near Voorheesville. Her father starts a dairy farm and what is now the Patroon Land Farm is born.

After making a trip to Ireland and seeing how a land trust benefits farmers and the land, Pauline puts the Patroon Land Farm into a land trust. This protects it and ensures that it can only ever be farmland. At the same time, Pauline ensures that there would always be a place to grow food for the hungry.

The Patroon Land Foundation is created. Pauline begins growing food on a large scale to donate to the Regional Food Bank.

The Regional Food Bank takes over management of the Patroon Land Farm, promising to uphold Pauline’s mission, values and vision.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) comes to the Patroon Land Farm. This allows members to support the farm by buying shares of produce each week.

With community help, the Packing Barn is raised, giving volunteers and staff a place to work indoors. Also, the highest yield of any season to date , 168,548 pounds of produce.

The Farm constructs its first greenhouse, giving them a safer space to start seeds and increasing the germination success rate. This leads to more plants, which in turn, leads to a more produce.

The repair shop and office are erected, giving staff a place to fix equipment and do farm administrative tasks.

The first high tunnel is raised, extending the growing season and giving more control over the elements. The farm also passes the 1 million pounds of produce supplied to the Food Bank mark.

The Farm gets an irrigation pond, holding up to one million gallons of water. This pond allows the farm to water their plants throughout the entire growing season.

The Farm surpasses 1.6million pounds of food supplied to the Food Bank.

A new pump house is installed, allowing water from the pond to better flow to the rest of the farm and sustain the farm during the harsh winter months. Plus, funding for the second greenhouse is secured.

In October, the second greenhouse is built and funding for two new, smaller high tunnels is secured. Plus, the CSA program is ended, meaning that 100% of the produce grown at the Patroon Land Farm goes directly to the Regional Food Bank.