LIVINGSTON MANOR, NY — For Wes and Amy Gillingham, and their beloved daughter Iris Fen Gillingham, farming is a family tradition. 

Wes and Amy are the proud owners of Wild Roots Farm, on land that’s been in the family since 1957.

A bit more recently, Iris Fen began operation of the 150-acre Gael Roots Community Farm, just a short vintage tractor ride, or as a fledgling crow flies, across Catttail Road from her folks’ off-grid farm. Much as a well-nourished seed takes root in a neighbor’s field.

On Saturday, July 26, Gael Roots Farm, in collaboration with the Livingston Manor Free Library, hosted a well-attended educational event titled “Adventure for Kids and Families.” “Kids and families visited Gael Roots Community Farm for an afternoon of fun,” penned executive director Iris Fen Gillingham, when asked for a brief writeup of the program.  

“Gael Roots is a small educational and food access farm, located between Youngsville and Livingston Manor,” she wrote. Gillingham “welcomed families to the farm with a series of interactive activities. They visited the lambs and sheep, harvested and tasted tomatoes and wild and cultivated plants, and met and learned about the Scottish Highland cows.”

“Kids had the opportunity to watch a hand-spinning demonstration with wool from the farm, and left with a handspun yarn bracelet. Participants were offered herbal tea made on the farm, and kids could sit on the International 300 tractor. The program fostered a connection to food, fiber, and Catskills agriculture in a fun, hands-on, and informative way,” she wrote.

The program partly consisted of offerings presented over the summer in partnership with the local library; Gillingham worked with the school district too. The farm offers educational workshops and fiber arts residencies, geared toward getting “elementary and high school students on the farm, and aims to grow food for the cafeteria,” in addition to “running a high school internship program fostering hands-on life skills at the farm.”

Wes Gillingham, one of the founders of Catskill Mountainkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Catskill Region in New York State, said of his daughter’s farming enterprise, “I’m really excited that she took over the land that we used to lease for our animals, and she works closely with several of the teachers at Livingston Manor Central School, and the FFA program, to offer experiences on the farm for youth.”

And a few words from Amy Gillingham, on Gael Roots Community Farm’s new “pay what you can” farm stand:

“We just want people to have access to good, real food—by donation if you’re able,” she explained. “We want people taking the food.”

Last year, the farm donated goods to the food pantry next door to the local library. The food is offered by suggested donation, and if you “can afford it, pay a little extra,” the farmer suggests.

On Saturday, September 6 through Saturday, September 13, Gael Roots Community Farm will present a week-long fiber arts residency, with a culminating community event at Catskill Art Space.

On Sunday, September 28, Gael Roots Community Farm will participate in a workshop titled “Understanding Food Labels,” hosted by Farm Arts Collective/Willow Wisp Organic Farm.

For more information about the Gael Roots Community Farm, located at 734 Cattail Road in Livingston Manor, visit the farm on Instagram @gaelrootsfarm, or learn more on their informative website at www.gaelrootsfarm.org.

For information about the library programs—intended for all ages—visit www.livingstonmanorlibrary.org.

For more photos, visit www.riverreporter.com.

Iris Fen Gillingham contributed to this story.