When someone mentioned solar power at the NYIPL board meeting, board member Sister Mary Ann Garisto chimed up, “At the farm last year our electricity bill was ZERO!”

Sister Mary Ann (photo at left) is administrator for Sisters Hill Farm in Dutchess County, New York. In 1916 the farm in Stanfordville was willed to her order, the Sisters of Charity of New York. Their motherhouse is at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. One would hardly expect a congregation primarily of school teachers in the city to own and run a farm!The land was worked until the 1940s; then it was allowed to lay fallow, except for hay production. In 1998 the Sisters made organic farming part of their environmental ministry, alongside their work of advocacy to clean up the Hudson River.

Sisters Hill is a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm with that grows five acres of vegetables, feeding more than 200 families who each purchase a share of the produce. Because the cost of shares is on a sliding scale, those in need can be fed. Farmer Dave serves as a mentor to apprentices and volunteers, who learn how to practice sustainable agriculture.

In order to meet some of the energy needs of the farm, twelve solar panels were installed in 2007 and twenty-eight panels were installed in 2009. A picture and technical description of the PVC panels can be viewed on the web site of the company that installed them, Hudson Valley Clean Energy.

Patricia K. Townsend – NYIPL Board Member