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Four Winds Farm

Northeastern American Mixed Forests Trust T1

A 24-acre organic family farm whose untilled beds since 1994 pioneered no-till market gardening

Size: 9.7 ha
Climate Zones: Humid continental climate with hot summers (Köppen Dfa), with the Shawangunk Ridge sheltering the valley from western winds.
Regenerative Focus: Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health, Regenerative Grazing, Education, Renewable & Decentralized Energy Systems

About this land node

Four Winds Farm is a 24-acre (9.7 ha) certified organic family farm in Gardiner, Ulster County, New York, established in 1988 by Jay and Polly Armour. It became a pioneer of no-till vegetable farming: since 1994 its four acres of permanent beds have never been tilled, fed only with compost made from the farm's own grass-fed cattle, raising soil organic matter from about 2 percent to as high as 8 to 10 percent. The farm raises grass-fed beef and pastured poultry and pork, grows organic seedlings and has trained generations of farmers through its Second Wind CSA incubator; since 2024 Wood Thrush Farm manages the no-till beds as the Armours move toward retirement.

Overview

Project Vision: We see Four Winds in twenty years still farmed without a plow, its no-till beds in the hands of a new generation, its soil ever richer, and its method practiced on hundreds of small farms across the Northeast that learned it here.
Project Purpose: To show that small-scale organic vegetable farming can feed hundreds of families and support a household while building rather than depleting soil, by never tilling, composting the farm's own manure and sharing the no-till method with the next generation of farmers.
Project Title: Four Winds Farm
Ecoregional Location: Northeast US Coastal Forests, Northeastern American Mixed Forests (NA10)
Local Location: Shawangunk / Wallkill Valley
Political Location: Gardiner, Ulster County, New York, United States

Ecology & biodiversity

Biodiversity context: The Shawangunk Ridge just west of the farm is one of the Northeast's most important conservation landscapes, with Mohonk Preserve, Minnewaska State Park and Sam's Point protecting globally rare pitch pine barrens and cliff habitats. Farms in the valley below, especially organic ones, buffer this landscape and add grassland and hedgerow habitat.
Ecological corridors: Hedgerows and farm edges connect to the Wallkill River corridor to the east and to the forested Shawangunk Ridge to the west, a major regional corridor linking the Catskills, the Hudson Highlands and New Jersey's Kittatinny Ridge.
Natural boundaries: The farm lies in the Wallkill Valley in the Town of Gardiner, between the Shawangunk Ridge rising to the west and the Wallkill River to the east. Neighboring farms, woodlots and the hamlet of Gardiner surround it.
Ecosystem unity: Four Winds sits in the Northeast US Coastal Forests ecoregion where the agricultural Wallkill Valley meets the forested Shawangunk Ridge. Its pastures, hedgerows and intensively managed beds form a small, closed-loop agroecosystem, with soil life rebuilt by thirty years without tillage.

Climate & water

Climate Zones: Humid continental climate with hot summers (Köppen Dfa), with the Shawangunk Ridge sheltering the valley from western winds.
Rainfall patterns: Precipitation is spread evenly through the year with no dry season; late summer and early autumn are slightly wetter, often boosted by thunderstorms and the remnants of tropical storms. Winter precipitation falls as snow, sleet and rain, and spring snowmelt drives peak streamflow in March and April.
Average Rainfall: Approximately 1,100 to 1,200 mm per year.
Temperature Extremes: July highs typically reach 28 to 30°C, with heat waves above 32°C in most summers. January lows average around -8°C, with cold snaps below -18°C.
Average Temperature: About 10°C annually, from roughly -3°C in January to 23°C in July.
Watershed: Within the Wallkill River watershed; the Wallkill flows north past Gardiner and New Paltz to join Rondout Creek and the Hudson at Kingston.
Nearby water bodies: The Wallkill River lies about 2 km to the east; the Shawangunk Kill drains the ridge to the west.

Land & terrain

Elevation & slope: Gently rolling valley floor at roughly 80 to 100 metres above sea level, with the Shawangunk Ridge rising to more than 600 metres a few kilometres west.
Landforms: Glacial till plain of the Wallkill Valley with low ridges and shallow drainage ways, overlooked by the quartzite escarpment of the Shawangunks.
Soil Types: Silt loams formed in glacial till and lake sediments over Ordovician shale of the Wallkill Valley. Under no-till compost mulching the farm's bed soils have become unusually dark and friable, with organic matter several times the regional norm.
Soil health: Exceptional. Thirty years without tillage and annual compost have raised organic matter from about 2 percent to 8 to 10 percent, restored soil organisms, improved drainage through decayed root channels and dramatically increased water-holding capacity, so the farm withstands drought without extra irrigation.
Erosion risk: Very low on the no-till beds, where permanent cover and compost protect the soil; low on rotationally grazed pastures.
Renewable resource potential: A 14-kW grid-tied solar array already powers the farm, the vegetable barn is passive-solar and earth-cooled, and produce was delivered in a van running on waste vegetable oil; further solar and biogas from manure are possible.

People & history

Land Acknowledgements: Four Winds Farm lies within Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people, whose Munsee-speaking communities, the Esopus people, lived along the western side of Muhheakantuck, the river that flows both ways. We acknowledge the Lenape and their descendants in the Delaware Nation, the Delaware Tribe of Indians and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, whose relationship with this land continues.
Recent land history: Jay and Polly Armour bought a rundown farm in 1988 and farmed it conventionally organic with tillage until weed pressure led them to form permanent beds in 1994 and stop tilling by 1995. They added no-till fields through 1999, built the solar straw-bale barn, launched the Second Wind CSA incubator in 2010 and, after 36 seasons, began transitioning the vegetable operation to Wood Thrush Farm in 2024.

Regenerative practice

Regenerative Focus: Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health, Regenerative Grazing, Education, Renewable & Decentralized Energy Systems
Regenerative Methodologies: Permanent no-till raised beds since 1994, never driven on or plowed; compost mulch made on farm from winter cattle manure using a forced-air composting system; seeds and transplants planted directly into compost; occultation tarps to break down crop residue; rotational grazing of grass-fed beef on the remaining 20 acres; a passive-solar, earth-cooled straw-bale vegetable barn with a 14-kW rooftop solar array; a farm incubator model (Second Wind CSA) for beginning farmers.
Environmental objectives: Build soil organic matter and soil biology by eliminating tillage; close the fertility loop with on-farm compost from pastured cattle; minimize fuel use and reliance on outside inputs; demonstrate low-energy farm infrastructure.
Community objectives: Feed hundreds of mid-Hudson Valley customers with organic vegetables, seedlings and meat; mentor beginning farmers through the Second Wind CSA incubator and apprenticeships; share the no-till method through workshops, articles and podcasts; ensure a farm succession that keeps the land in organic production.
Community engagement: The Armours handed their CSA to beginning farmers in 2010, running Second Wind CSA as an incubator for eleven seasons, and their former crews have started no-till farms across the region. They have taught the method through Cornell Small Farms, MOFGA, Growing for Market and the No-Till Market Garden Podcast, and the farm sells seedlings, beef and produce locally. Wood Thrush Farm now grows more than 500 vegetable and fruit varieties on the no-till beds.
Economic Model: A family farm business earning most of its income from four acres of vegetables and seedlings, with grass-fed beef, pastured pork and poultry and compost sales from the remaining 20 acres of pasture. Low input and fuel costs from the no-till system are central to its viability; farm succession is being handled through a management agreement with Wood Thrush Farm.

Impact

Expressed Impact: Four Winds proved, decades before no-till market gardening became popular, that a small organic farm could stop plowing altogether and get richer soil, fewer weeds and better yields. By measuring the change in organic matter, publishing its methods and training its workers to farm without assumptions, it seeded a regional movement and showed how a family farm can pass to the next generation.
Key impact metrics: 24 acres certified organic since 1988; 4 acres in permanent no-till beds since 1994; soil organic matter raised from about 2% to 8–10%; Second Wind CSA incubator ran 11 seasons; 14-kW solar array and passive-solar straw-bale barn; more than 500 crop varieties now grown on the beds by Wood Thrush Farm.

Visiting & links

Nearest urban centres: The hamlet of Gardiner is adjacent. New Paltz (population about 14,000) is roughly 8 km northeast, Poughkeepsie about 25 km east across the Hudson, and New York City about 125 km south.
Website: https://fourwindsfarmny.com