The Monadnock Conservancy has purchased a conservation easement on 21.9 acres of Picadilly Farm in Winchester, the final piece for protecting the land's fertile soil from development forever.

The conservancy, which aims to conserve the region’s natural resources and has preserved more than 24,000 acres, noted in a news release that the state of New Hampshire previously conserved 46 acres of the 71-acre farm. The newly purchased easement includes more than 19 acres of farmland soil, 8.2 acres of which are actively farmed prime crop land.

The certified organic farm on South Parrish Road switched from a community-supported agriculture model to wholesale in 2023, and has been owned and managed by Jenny and Bruce Wooster since 2006. 

Picadilly grows a wide assortment of produce, such as kale, summer squash, garlic and carrots, which it sells to local food co-ops in Keene, Brattleboro and Greenfield, Mass., as well as other area farms.

Bruce Wooster said the easement ensures all of the farm and adjacent forest land will be conserved. 

“Agricultural stewardship is really important to Jenny and me,” he said. “In some ways, it’s in jeopardy.”

An estimated 371 million acres of farmland and ranchland nationwide could be in transition in the next 15 years, according to the American Farmland Trust.

A conservation easement — a voluntary legal agreement that limits the future development of a property — offers another way for farmers to profit from their land through the sale of the easement. The Woosters were paid to surrender the rights to the development of the land under the terms of the easement.

“I just think about the idea of forever, which is hard,” Jenny Wooster said. “Once land is developed, that land is gone forever.”

In the case of Picadilly Farm, the conservancy worked with the Woosters to include special terms in the deed where, if the farm ever goes up for sale, the Monadnock Conservancy will have the right to purchase the property at the agricultural value and resell it to a party who will continue to operate it as a commercial farm.

Pete Throop, conservation project manager for the Monadnock Conservancy, said this will help keep the land in the hands of farmers while making it affordable for the next generation of landowners. He noted this is the first easement of its kind for the Monadnock Conservancy, with the path to purchase included in the deed.

"The intent is to keep the property in the hands of qualified farmers who will continue to responsibly maintain the land," Throop said. "If they end up deciding down the line they want to sell the farm to someone else, and they need help finding a qualified farmer, the conservancy can help them find one."

He added that efforts like these are important for the sustainability of local farming.

"I just think it all goes back to what will happen in the future and the sustainability of our local food systems," he said. "... It’ll be much harder for that soil to recover, if at all, with any residential or commercial developments on it."

A farm worker sorts heads of garlic on pallets at Picadilly Farm in Winchester.

Ethan Weston / Sentinel Staff

Throop said the conservancy has been working with Picadilly since 2018 to obtain the funding for the conservation effort.

Funders who supported the project include the USDA’s Agricultural Land Easement program, the N.H. Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, the Thomas W. Haas Fund of the N.H. Charitable Foundation, the Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund and the N.H. Farm Future Fund, according to the release.

Jenny Wooster said this also included a number of anonymous community funders.

“We felt really fortunate about that, to know people in our community really supported this," she said. "It's been really neat to see [Monadnock Conservancy] dive into this — we still have a mortgage, and donating just wasn’t the feasible option for us."

Both Jenny and Bruce said including the path to purchase was not only important for them, but also for the future of farming in the Monadnock Region.

"There’s been a surge of farming in the past decade," Bruce said.

"[The easement] will ensure as the farm changes hands, it’s sold at the agricultural price," added Jenny. "... A farmer can come in and we can keep it affordable."