Pitney farm building high tunnel
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.» Just about every day volunteers visit Pitney Meadows Community Farm to aide Paul Arnold on a project he began working on about 10 days ago.
Ryan McFadden is one of the volunteers. He owns Henry Street Taproom and couldn’t be more thrilled to volunteer his time to build the nearly 6,000 square foot high tunnel that will serve two purposes.
“As soon as we heard about the farm we just wanted to get involved. It’s going to be the only farm in Saratoga, and at our restaurant we focus on locally sourced foods,
and what’s more local than this farm right here,” said McFadden. “In addition to that, just as a member of the community, I have two young children that I would like to be educated on farming and things like that and this is going to be a resource for that moving forward, so I was really happy to be involved.”
Eventually PMCF wants to build a nearly $5 million building to host events, but the budget wouldn’t allow the event space just yet, so instead the farm decided to spend $50,000 on a high tunnel, which was manufactured by Quebec-based Harnois Greenhouses.
“It’s kind of a two-fold thing. One is, of course, it’s a place to grow vegetables because in high tunnels you grow vegetables in the ground,” said Arnold. “Second thing, it will also be an interim event space for the farm to hold things like fundraisers and any programming that’s going on.”
Arnold has been involved with building three similar greenhouses on his Pleasant Valley Farm in Argyle.
According to a release, a row of 37 steel bows will support an immense sensor-controlled polyethylene sheet that rolls up to increase sunlight and rolls down to retain warmth. In the ridge will be a sensor-controlled vent, opening as necessary to let heat escape and closing to keep it in.
The high tunnel, which was about 75 percent completed Tuesday morning, will be completed before PMCF presents its biggest fundraiser of the year: Fire Feast on the Farm.
“You can’t get any more ‘farm-to-table’ than this,” said event organizer John Sconzo, the Pitney Meadows board member and founder of Slow Food Saratoga in a release. “This will be a signature Saratoga Springs event.”
Sconzo assembled five nationally renowned chefs who will cook a multicourse dinner over five livefire pits.
“The fire feast is just going to be a really cool event. There’s a lot of really great chefs coming in for it,” said McFadden. “It’s going to be extremely unique, and it’s something that we wanted to be involved in as soon as I heard about it.”
The dinner, which goes from 6 until 10 p.m., starts with Gulf shrimp and oysters prepared by Alex Harrell, who owns a restaurant called Angeline in New Orleans.
Striped bass, pork, lamb and beef will then be prepared by Jaime Young, the former chef de cuisine at Atera, Francis Derby, master of meat and more at NYC restaurants like WD50, Tailor, Momofuku Ssam Bar and The Cannibal, Joel Vielhand, a former chef at the Community Table in Connecticut and Matt Lightner, a 2 Michelin-star chef in New York City.
Daniel Burners, chef/ owner of Burns Gelato of Brooklyn, will prepare a blueberry gelato. National and local bartenders will serve drinks all night, including Eamon Rockey of Betony NYC, Chase White formerly of Saison in San Francisco, Will Wyatt from The NoMad Hotel, L.J. Sconzo from Eleven Madison Park, Brendan Dillon, owner and bartender of Hamlet & Ghost and Drew Janik, bartender at Henry Street Taproom.
All proceeds from the Fire Feast on the Farm will further Pitney Meadows’ educational mission, supporting the high tunnel, establishment of a Children’s Garden and Greenhouse and development of trails on the 166-acre property, which PMCF acquired last December from the Pitney family with a $1.13 million contribution from the City of Saratoga Springs’ Open Space Fund.
When the farm raises enough money for the event space, the high tunnel will be moved on the farm side in order to grow vegetables year round.
The high tunnel will be used for educational events. Arnold called it a good interim space for the farm.
Arnold appreciates having so many volunteers on the farm.
“It makes my day really interesting. I mean it’s just great talking with people that are passionate about this farm,” said Arnold. “And that’s what keeps the whole thing going. The community’s involvement in this. They feel like they own part of it.”