After various stints working on urban farms, Shayna Lewis, 38, left Brooklyn to start Dirty Boots Farm with her partner, Matt Hunger, five years ago. With the help of a farmland conservation organization, she was able to lease land in the fertile Black Dirt region of Orange County, New York, close enough to New York City to access the strongest market for organic produce.
Dirty Boots’ CSA, a system in which eaters pay for a season’s worth of weekly produce, was popular. The farm was written up in local food publications. Meanwhile, Lewis estimates she was making about $9,000 per year.
“We were basically breaking even in terms of our living expenses, and we are frugal people. We don’t go out to eat, we don’t buy clothes, we don’t go on vacation. These are basic expenses.”
In January, they moved the farm north, to Kerhonkson, New York, to access more affordable housing. Again, they were able to lease land with the help of a nonprofit, but quickly realized it lacked infrastructure. She hustled to find loans to build a propagation greenhouse and get a furnace installed and ran out of money before she could build a shed.
