Dirt Dance Farm
Sarah Chien
New York
The Farm
Dirt Dance Farm, (Dirt Dance Projects, LLC) is a small diversified vegetable operation owned and operated by Sarah Chien. Dirt Dance exists to feed our community with nutritious, culturally diverse produce; and demonstrate that art and farming belong together. The farm is located at The Esopus Agricultural Center in Kingston, NY. This small but mighty human-scale operation uses organic and regenerative practices including cover cropping, crop rotation, drip irrigation, reduced tillage, reusable mulch and no synthetic sprays or fertilizers.
The crop list includes 100+ varieties of vegetables (with an Asian American focus), herbs and flowers. Staples include an heirloom lettuce mix (no salanova here!), mini bok choy, a wide variety of peas and beans, and specialty potatoes. We also arrange whimsical yet affordable flower bouquets and grow unique fragrant herbs like shiso and reehan.
The Project Funded
Partial purchase of a BCS Flail Mower attachment to support cover crop termination, bed flipping and weed management on my 1 acre farm.
Project Impact
I have just completed my first year as a solo owner/operator of my small organic asian vegetable farm. As I enter my second year, I'm focusing on investing in the infrastructure and labor portions of the business, which means my operating expenses are increasing quite a lot. Small grants like these help me offset the costs of important improvements. Last year I borrowed a flail mower from another farm, that was about 30 minutes away. I had to complete all of my summer into fall mowing over the course of one week, while also inconveniencing another small farmer with extended borrowing of her machine. Purchasing my own will help me be a better land steward, work more efficiently AND have another asset to share with fellow small farmers.
