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Phillies Bridge Farm Project

Northeastern American Mixed Forests Trust T1

A nonprofit working farm below the Shawangunks connecting people to food, land and each other

Size: 26.3 ha
Climate Zones: Humid continental climate with hot summers (Köppen Dfa), sheltered by the Shawangunk Ridge to the west.
Regenerative Focus: Education, Community Regeneration & Resilience Building, Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health

About this land node

Phillies Bridge Farm Project is a nonprofit working farm on 65 acres (26 ha) between New Paltz and Gardiner in Ulster County, New York, below the Shawangunk Ridge. It connects people to their food and the land through a CSA, farm-based education for schools and families, apprenticeships and a food justice program that shares produce with people facing hunger. Visitors meet goats and chickens, walk a nature trail and pick herbs during weekly CSA pickups, and school groups learn where food comes from on a farm that has been cultivated since the colonial era.

Overview

Project Vision: We see Phillies Bridge in twenty years as a place every child in the region has visited, where a new generation of farmers has trained, where the CSA and food justice harvests feed hundreds of households, and where the land below the ridge is healthier than when the project began.
Project Purpose: To connect people to their food and the land by running a working organic farm that educates children and adults, trains new farmers and shares its harvest with those who need it most.
Project Title: Phillies Bridge Farm Project
Ecoregional Location: Northeast US Coastal Forests, Northeastern American Mixed Forests (NA10)
Local Location: Shawangunk / Wallkill Valley
Political Location: New Paltz (Town of Gardiner border), Ulster County, New York, United States

Ecology & biodiversity

Biodiversity context: The Shawangunk Ridge beside the farm, protected by Mohonk Preserve, Minnewaska State Park and Sam's Point, is a globally significant conservation landscape. Organic farms in the valley below buffer it and add grassland and hedgerow habitat.
Ecological corridors: Hedgerows and streams connect the farm to the Wallkill River corridor to the east and the forested Shawangunk Ridge to the west, which links the Catskills to the Hudson Highlands and New Jersey.
Natural boundaries: The farm lies along Phillies Bridge Road on the New Paltz–Gardiner line in the Wallkill Valley, with the Shawangunk Ridge rising to the west and the Wallkill River a few kilometres east, surrounded by farms, woodlots and the Shawangunk Kill drainage.
Ecosystem unity: Phillies Bridge sits in the Northeast US Coastal Forests ecoregion at the foot of the Shawangunks, where valley farmland meets one of the Northeast's most important conservation ridges. Its fields, pastures, hedgerows and woodland trail form a small farm ecosystem connected to that larger landscape.

Climate & water

Climate Zones: Humid continental climate with hot summers (Köppen Dfa), sheltered by the Shawangunk Ridge to the west.
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 New Paltz to join Rondout Creek and the Hudson at Kingston.
Nearby water bodies: The Wallkill River is about 3 km east; small streams on and near the farm drain toward it.

Land & terrain

Elevation & slope: Gently rolling valley floor at roughly 80 to 100 metres above sea level, with the ridge rising to more than 600 metres a few kilometres west.
Landforms: Glacial till plain of the Wallkill Valley with low ridges and drainage ways, overlooked by the Shawangunk escarpment.
Soil Types: Silt loams formed in glacial till and lake sediments over Ordovician shale of the Wallkill Valley, productive for vegetables when organic matter is maintained.
Soil health: Organic management, cover crops and compost sustain soil on fields cultivated for centuries; the farm's education programs use soil health as a teaching theme.
Erosion risk: Low under cover crops, hedgerows and pasture; moderate on bare vegetable ground during heavy rain.
Renewable resource potential: Solar on barns; compost; soil carbon under organic management.

People & history

Land Acknowledgements: Phillies Bridge Farm Project 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: The land has been farmed since the colonial era, part of the Huguenot and Dutch farm country of the Wallkill Valley. The Phillies Bridge Farm Project was established as a nonprofit in the 1990s to keep the farm working while opening it to education, CSA members and food justice work.

Regenerative practice

Regenerative Focus: Education, Community Regeneration & Resilience Building, Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health
Regenerative Methodologies: Organic vegetable and herb production for a CSA; farm-based education programs for schools, families and summer camps; farmer apprenticeships; a food justice program donating and subsidizing produce; small livestock including goats and chickens; a nature trail and on-farm events linking visitors to the landscape.
Environmental objectives: Farm 65 acres organically below the Shawangunk Ridge; maintain field edges, wetlands and woodland as habitat; teach ecological literacy through the farm itself.
Community objectives: Provide CSA shares and farm access to local families; give schoolchildren hands-on farm education; train apprentices; share produce with people facing food insecurity; host community gatherings and events.
Community engagement: CSA members pick up weekly on the farm, harvest herbs and walk the trail; school groups from kindergarten up visit for farm lessons such as pressing cider; families attend festivals and events, and the farm hosts weddings and gatherings that help fund programs. Apprentices, volunteers and college interns work alongside staff.
Economic Model: A nonprofit funded by CSA shares, education program fees, events, grants and donations, with produce donations supported by the food justice program.

Impact

Expressed Impact: Phillies Bridge turns a historic farm into a classroom and a commons: thousands of children have learned where food comes from here, apprentices have gone on to farm, and families who could not otherwise afford fresh vegetables receive them. It models the nonprofit community farm as a Hudson Valley institution.
Key impact metrics: 65 acres in nonprofit farming; weekly CSA shares through the season; school field trips and summer programs for children; farmer apprenticeships; food justice produce donations; nature trail and public events.

Visiting & links

Nearest urban centres: New Paltz village (population about 7,000, Town about 14,000) is roughly 5 km north and Gardiner hamlet about 3 km south. Poughkeepsie is about 20 km east across the Hudson, and New York City about 125 km south.