Quail Hill Farm was awarded a very well-deserved Snail of Approval award by Slow Food East End. This award was originally announced at our Earth Day celebration in April but was officially presented to Layton Gunether, Quail Hill Farm director, and the farm team at the farm’s annual CSA potluck dinner event on Saturday, July 15, 2023.
CSA members gathered at the orchid to grill and share the bounty of the farm with each other, on what was a beautiful day sandwiched between two extremely rainy days, an auspicious sign for a sweet celebration. It was wonderful to share the celebration with the CSA members and gather together to celebrate the bounty of Quail Hill’s 2023 harvest but also the bountiful legacy and community connections that are grown and nurtured on the farm.
Snail of Approval Awards has long been a tradition for Slow Food, an international organization in over 160 countries. Snail Awards have typically been awarded to restaurants but Slow Food East End, the largest USA chapter has also decided to award local farms too. Our eco and biosystem depends on local farms that tend healthy soils, they are the source of our best foods. Snail Award winners must be businesses that are structured on principles that Slow Food believes are essential to receive recognition and honor the values of good, clean, and fair food for all.
Quail Hill aced the qualities that we evaluate. These factors include local sourcing, the use of toxin-free products and resources, a devotion to sustainable or organic environmental impact, excellent community involvement, for example, supporting The Bridgehampton Child Care Center with substantive donations of produce and of course exercising fair business values to keep prices low by relying on CSA members to help pick their own produce and flowers. This unique CSA model also provides members with a personal connection to their food. Quail Hill also depends on apprentices to manage the farm, the farm is known for its exceptional mentoring program where apprentices learn not only how to farm but more importantly how to run a farm. Over 100 Quail Hill apprentices have gone on to run farms across the country.
Quail Hill, located in Amagansett, has long been a visionary farm embracing food fairness, healthy soils, and fair business management while continually striving to meet the needs of the local community and CSA members. Quail Hill’s legacy has deep roots locally and nationally as a true leader of the CSA movement as one of the original community-supported farms in the U.S. John Halsey, the founder of Peconic Land Trust guided the stewardship project on land donated by Deborah Ann Light, her generous donation of 35 acres of land that had been continuously farmed for 10 generations; her vision that land should be for everyone to enjoy and should be used for growing has become a reality, this farm founded by Scott Chaskey and now directed by Layton Guenther today serves over 250 families.
Slow Food East End is proud to recognize the achievements and legacy of Quail Hill, each year the farm signs onto the Northeast Organic Farming Association, New York Farmer’s Pledge “to sustain the land in healthy condition for future generations.”
