Organic Farm Fights to Stay Alive in East Austin

The owner of Green Gate Farms, Skip Connett, posed a series of questions Tuesday in what seemed like a farewell letter on the farm’s website.

“How do you let go of land that has fed thousands of Austin families? To a house that was built before cars? To a barn built before tractors? To a slice of Austin history — weird and wonderful — that is threatened on all sides?”

While Connett is searching for answers, he hasn’t given up fighting for the future of the organic farm located in East Austin at 8310 Canoga Avenue.

In the spring the 250 acres of farmland on which Green Gate Farms is located was sold to an out of town developer, Arizona-based Roberts Communities. The company plans to use the land to build 500 manufactured homes and 120, including the 5-acre homestead where Connett and his family have lived and run their farm since 2006, said the letter.

But Connett may have to put a hold on asking how to move on.

On Monday Scott Roberts, the chairman of Roberts Resorts, met with the farm owners and agreed to give the farm a new three-year lease, reported the Austin American-Statesman. Roberts said that the development plans for the 250 acre farmland are just in the beginning stages, but is open to including the small 5 acre Green Gate Farms in a press conference Tuesday, according to the paper.

“Until yesterday it didn’t look very good because we couldn’t agree on how big this farm needs to be,” Skip Connett said during the press conference. “It took a while for us to build some common ground.”

Many supporters have also taken action to save the farm as development plans are still being finalized. A key initiative has been the “Big Red Barn” oral history project. This goal is to save the 113-year-old barn that was part of the original farm and has even been used in films by the Coen Brothers and Matthew McConaughey. In addition to being a historic attraction the barn is also essential to many farming programs.

Green Gate Farms provides local, organic produce to low-income residents in East Austin in an area considered a “food desert.” The farm also runs a nonprofit which hosts a community garden and teen job-training programs called the New Farm Institute.