- A new historical marker is now at Penn Farm to explain its history (click to enlarge)
Delaware Greenways, the Trustees of New Castle Common and the Colonial School District are poised to announce Friday the framework of a plan for the revitalization of the 112-acre Penn Farm, updating the 18th century agricultural vision of William Penn to meet the needs of the 21st century.
Gov. Jack Markell will head the roster of state and local leaders present for the occasion, where a state historic marker summarizing the farm’s rich history will also be unveiled.
The farm, on Delaware 273, east of U.S. 13 and behind a retail complex that includes the New Castle Farmers Market, is the sole survivor of 11 tenant farms established by the trustees in 1792 on land first designated for community use by William Penn in 1701.
Learn more about the history of Penn Farm here
Delaware Greenways has signed a long-term lease with the trustees, who own the land, and is developing a multi-faceted operation that, much as Penn originally intended, will have local farmers growing vegetables and fruit that will be consumed primarily by local residents. Much of the produce will be sold at the Tract 6 Produce stand, so named because Penn Farm was once numbered as the sixth of the trustees’ tenant farms.
Other components of the Delaware Greenways plan include developing a community gardening program; improving the farmhouse, barn and other outbuildings on the site; instituting a collaborative educational program with William Penn High School; hosting educational programs on wellness and agricultural topics; developing walking trails on and around the property, and installing solar panels to meet some of the farm’s need for electrical power. Delaware Greenways also plans to sell vegetables and fruit grown by other local farmers at the Tract 6 Produce stand.
- A view of Penn Farm from Frenchtown Rd-Rte 273 (Click to enlarge)
“The significance of this project goes beyond the preservation of the farm and going back in a real sense to its original purpose,” said Mike McGrath, recently retired state agricultural preservation chief who helped the trustees develop their concept for the property. “If you look at William Penn’s plans for New Castle and for other cities, you’ll see that farms were an integral part of them. A critical reason for the success of William Penn’s communities was that farms provided essential resources for the people who came to live here.”
“As trustees, it is our desire, our mandate, that this property be preserved forever as a farm,” said Chris Castagno, one of the 13 trustees of New Castle Common.
Delaware Greenways, well known over the last 20 years for its efforts in land preservation and developing greenway connections throughout the state, became interested in the Penn Farm a little more than a year ago, when the trustees solicited proposals from candidates to manage the farm with a direct-to-consumer business model that would promote significant community involvement.
Delaware Greenways has expanded its mission in the last few years to include promoting wellness, healthy lifestyles and eating well, said Mark Chura, the organization’s executive director. At Penn Farm, he said, “we can bring together all the elements of our mission and help it grow in partnership with others.”
With its emphasis on community involvement, Delaware Greenways’ plan represents an updated version of Penn’s vision for the greater New Castle area, Castagno and Chura said.
Penn Farm: Its Past and Future
DFM News looks at the history of Penn Farm and what lies ahead for the site.
For all the enthusiasm, McGrath cautions not to expect too much too soon. The farm had fallen into disuse following the death of the last tenant farmer, Joseph Quigley, in February 2008. (Quigley’s widow, Elaine, continued to reside on the property until early 2010, according to Kathleen MacDonough, the trustees’ executive secretary.)
“It’s going to take three to five years to get this farm back on its feet,” McGrath said. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”
But the work has already begun.
The trustees have, in the last two years, cleared fields overgrown with vegetation, restored the barn and granary, put in a new roadway to the barn and farmhouse, installed perimeter fencing, restored the farm stand and gutted the farmhouse, Castagno said.
Delaware Greenways is now moving forward. It has contracted with members of the Lester family, veteran farmers from the Middletown area, to tend to some of the fields, and is bringing other farm families aboard to work on other portions of the site.
“This first year will be a transition year,” Chura said. Feed corn, peppers, cut flowers, popcorn, pumpkins and gourds have been planted. By fall, the pumpkins and gourds will become the focal points of a pick-your-own operation, and special events like hayrides and a pumpkin carving contest will start drawing the public to the site, he said.
Next year, Delaware Greenways hopes to install an irrigation system, continue to remove invasive growth and improve cultivation of the fields. Eventually, Chura said, the farm will become a model of sustainable and organic growing practices.
In many ways, the farm will become not just a farm but “a sustainable urban agricultural center,” Chura said.
“We’re bringing together growers and we’re bringing together educators,” he said.
While the specifics are still being developed, Chura has no shortage of ideas.
He envisions the two-level barn as an education center, with year-round programming below and meetings, lectures and seasonal activities above. The farmhouse, built in stages in the early 19th century, will likely to be used for historical interpretations, provide living quarters for an on-site farm manager and possibly offices for some Delaware Greenways activities, he said.
Learn more about how the new Penn Farm could play a role in a healthier New Castle here
Large-scale involvement with local schools is one of Chura’s objectives. Details of a program with agriculture students at William Penn High School, which backs up to the farm, will be announced Friday, Chura said.
“Longer term, we want to do tours of the farm, we want to bring school kids here,” he said, noting that four other schools are practically within walking distance of the farm.
“We’ll be growing gardens here, so kids can see where their food comes from, and what it is. A lot of kids don’t know what fruits and vegetables are,” he said.
Summer programs, including camp-like activities for youth and gardening for adults, will also be considered, he said.
A dozen or more volunteers have turned out the last few Saturdays to help with cleanup around the farm, and Castagno and Chura see that as evidence of interest in the farm and the potential for ongoing volunteer support.
The project has been generating a uniformly positive buzz around town.
“To have this continuum of agricultural use is just fantastic,” said Mike Connolly, executive director of the New Castle Historical Society, “and it gives visitors a sense that we have this core of history and culture in town, and the farm is not far away.”
Connolly sees the farm becoming another New Castle tourist destination, one that shows the importance of agriculture to the local economy during the colonial period and the early days of the nation. “It’s one more chapter in the town’s history,” he said. “It’s easy for us to send people out there [from the historic district] to see the farm site, to take advantage of the produce sales.”
Esther Lovlie, president of the Historic New Castle Alliance, considers the farm an agritourism destination. “It adds another reason to come to the New Castle area,” she said.
Lyn Lewis, director of communications for the Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that area restaurants will be pleased to have an easily accessible source for fresh locally grown produce to enhance their menus. “Restaurants are embracing the farm-to-table concept,” she said, and visitors to the area often ask her organization to recommend restaurants that serve locally grown products.
For Delaware Greenways, the Penn Farm project represents “a big step for our organization,” Chura said, an evolutionary move “from advocacy, technical study and planning work, to how you put all of that on the ground. This gives us our own center, a place from which we can build.”
As Delaware Greenways embraces the challenge of a broadened mission, the Trustees of New Castle Common see the project as an innovative addition to its legacy of service to the residents of the New Castle area.
“Delaware Greenways is bringing a whole wellness perspective to the property and a community involvement that’s never been done before,” Castagno said. “We’re incredibly excited about it.”
