A New Lease on Life for Singing Hills Dairy
Lynne Reeck knows what it means to be rooted in a place. She has been stewarding the land - and countless herds of goats - at Singing Hills dairy farm in Minnesota for 26 years. Throughout her tenure she’s contributed valuable, nutritious products to her community through her creamery and cheese making business, and has played happy host to a diversity of wildlife that thrive under the 300-year-old oak trees that populate the property.
Two years ago, Lynne made the difficult decision to retire, and transition the farm to its next steward. Lynne felt strongly that the land should go to another farmer that would tend it with the same thoughtful care and grow food for the local community. But the property’s picturesque setting beside Big Woods State Park, along with its proximity to major metropolitan areas, made it an attractive option for non-farmers looking for an urban escape. “I’ve laid awake many a night trying to figure out what’s going to happen and if it can happen before I go bankrupt,” said Reeck. Lynne worried that if she didn’t find the right buyer in time, the farm could join the list of 34,000 Minnesota farms that have been lost to development since 2015.
The Lor Family Farm. Photo by Shawn Linehan.
Just north of Singing Hills, the Lor family has been growing and selling fresh produce at local farmers markets in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area. Before coming to the US, husband and wife duo Kue Lor and Bao Xiong immigrated from their native Laos to Thailand, where they were not permitted to farm due to their status as refugees. Upon arriving in Minnesota, they began renting land and have been growing ever since. “At first we farmed to feed our family, and then starting in 2000 we started selling at the farmers market. Our main crops are strawberries, asparagus, bell peppers and bulb onions,” said Lor.
For the past twenty years they’ve farmed on rented land, cobbling together a farm operation on multiple noncontiguous parcels. Today, it can take up to an hour to travel between their two parcels, depending on traffic. Neither parcel is close to where they live. Often, during the growing season, they will work late into the night and sometimes need to camp next to their fields to save time harvesting and driving to the farmers markets where they sell their produce.
Kue Lor and Bao Xiong. Photo by Shawn Linehan.
Renting farmland is a constant source of stress for the family. Land has been sold out from under them countless times, causing them to lose thousands in potential profit. “We had a case where we were kicked out of our farmland and we lost about 30,000 asparagus and strawberry plants, and the combined price was about $5,000, which is a lot of money to go to waste,” said Xiong. They worry each year about whether their leases won’t be renewed and they’re hesitant to make investments in their property, or diversify with more perennial crops or livestock, for fear of losing access to the land.
The Lors were exactly the kind of farmers Lynne Reeck would want to take over her farm, but given the desirability of the land, the price was prohibitive. This is a common problem. As development pressure has picked up over the last few decades, valuable farmland near urban markets has become ever more expensive. “It’s always been a dream of mine to own a piece of land but because of finances I couldn't do it myself, so I never considered it,” said Lor.
Luckily, one of American Farmland Trust’s new land protection projects was able to help bridge the gap: the Buy-Protect-Sell+ program. This program facilitates farmland access opportunities by making land more affordable for the emerging generation of farmers through conservation easements. To help facilitate this particular transfer, AFT partnered up with Renewing the Countryside, a local Minnesota nonprofit dedicated to working for a more just, vibrant, and sustainable rural America.
The Lors converted goat pasture into fields of vegetables to sell at local farmers markets. Photo by Shawn Linehan.
AFT plans to purchase Singing Hills Farm, protect the farmland with an agricultural conservation easement, and then sell the farm to the Lors at a reduced price. The easement removes the development rights from the land, limiting nonagricultural development and other uses that may threaten the future of farming. The removal of development rights not only ensures that the land can remain in active agricultural use, it also will reduce the overall price of the property, making the farm more affordable. ““The valuation of the property falls, because that decreases what you can do with the land. You can’t turn it into a housing development for 40 people anymore,” said Reeck. In addition, the easement will help ensure that the legacy of stewarding the land with sound farming practices continues in the future.
Community members familiar with Lynne and the Lors have donated to help offset the price of the easement, making it possible for AFT to sell the farm to the Lors at an even lower price. “In this case it’s a community effort, so the community has really come together to raise this money. RTC and AFT and tons of other organizations, Middle City farmers market, all of my customers, everyone has contributed to help pay for this easement,” said Reeck. For the Lors, this land will be the stable base they’ve been longing for, and they’re already planning to pay it forward. “This piece of land, it just doesn’t belong to us but to the whole community. The fresh produce will be grown for all,” said Xiong.
