Brew's Cafe- Episode 50 Ian Calder-Piedmonte

Brew's Cafe

Long before we spoke of "regenerative" farming, before "sustainable" was a thing, before "renewable", almost before "organic", there was "local". Local was a guy you knew. Who grew stuff. Maybe it was corn, or potatoes or flowers or milk. In the case of Balsam Farms, it was mostly corn, and it sat atop a flatbed wagon at the intersection of Windmill Land and Town Lane in Amagansett. You took what you needed and put the money in the box on the corner. It made the news only because periodically, someone would try to steal the money box. Progress was an increasingly sturdier, more theft resistant "honor box". Today, of course, most of what Balsam Farms does on its 200 acres of farmed land here on the South Fork is regenerative, sustainable, renewable, organic. And it's definitely still local. In this week's episode, farmer Ian Calder-Piedmonte sits down and revisits the history, the vision, the drawbacks, the obstacles and the rewards (spoiler alert- it ain't the money, despite the high price of corn!) of farming this way on the South Fork of Long Island. The place where most people drive a Mercedes (or the like), refer to it as The Hamptons, and know nothing of the rich soil and the history of that soil, and what makes Balsam Corn (and tomatoes, and asparagus and melons and yes, shishitos) taste so damn good.