North Shore Land Alliance Honors Young's Farm
By Niall Fitzgerald
The North Shore Land Alliance met for a dinner celebration last week, and honored one of the North Shore's renowned farming families - the Youngs family - of Youngs Farms - who have preserved 70 acres of working farmland in the Village of Old Brookville.
Founded in 2003, the North Shore Land Alliance has protected over 1,400 acres of land on Long Island from being destroyed by the developers' bulldozers. The Land Alliance holds 26 conservation easements, owns 16 nature preserves and maintains an additional 132 acres of forest, meadows, wetlands and community gardens.
"Our community is the beautiful place it is today, because of the vision of forward thinking people who both valued land and understood its important role in a healthy future for us all," stated the NSLA in a recent statement.
The Reverend John Youngs and his family arrived on Long Island in 1640 by ship from New Haven, Connecticut, and initially settled in Southold, where John established the first English church in New York.
In 1650, his second son, Thomas Youngs ventured west to establish the first homestead in Oyster Bay, which at that time was a wilderness shared with Native American Indians.
Youngs began planting apple trees from seedlings he brought from Connecticut. He and his family developed an orchard that had 27,133 trees by 1768.
The Youngs Family built the first schoolhouse in Oyster Bay.
In 1880, Theodore Roosevelt purchased 155 acres of land from the Youngs Family to build his beloved Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay.
In the 1960's, the family opened a roadside farm stand on Hegeman's Lane - the site today of the Youngs Farm Store.
In the 1980's John Youngs sold a portion of the family farmland, but put an agricultural restiction on the land, which was bought by the Villa Banfi wine vineyards.
In the early 200's the North Shore L:and Alliance and Nassau County were able to extend the conservation easement on the property. Today, the preserved land - over 70 acres - is being farmed by Youngs Farm and the Rottkamp Brothers Farm.
The Land Alliance hosted their annual dinner at Sagamore Hill, and the Youngs Family was there to receive the thanks and recognition of so many leaders on the north shore.