Picadilly Farm in Winchester is a certified organic farm that sells directly to local stores, including the Monadnock Food Coop and the Brattleboro Food Coop, among others. The Conservancy is proud to have finalized the purchase of a conservation easement on 21.9 acres of the farm, which includes 14 acres of "prime" farmland soil, a designation reserved for the most fertile soil in the nation. An older conservation easement held by the State of New Hampshire already conserved 46 acres of the farm, meaning the entire farm is now protected and can remain available to farmers for generations to come.

The new easement also has a special provision designed to support farming in the Monadnock region into the future. Under the terms of the deed, if the farm ever goes up for sale outside the owner's family and to a non-farmer, the Conservancy will have the right to purchase the property at its reduced "agricultural value" and resell it to a farmer who will continue to operate it as a commercial farm. The purpose of this provision is to ensure the land stays in production and remains affordable to future farmers. Though a first for the Conservancy, this mechanism is common in farm conservation in Vermont and Massachusetts, where the purchase option is rarely exercised because the farm sellers nearly always choose to sell to successor farmers on their own.

*Funders who supported the project include the USDA’s Agricultural Land Easement (ALE) program, the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), the Thomas W. Haas Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, The Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund, The New Hampshire Farm Future Fund, and more than 85 individual donors.