Diane Valden in The Columbia Paper features the three Columbia County farms receiving grants from the Empire State Development Corporation's New York State New Farmers Grant Fund Program. Blue Star Farm in Stuyvesant gets $50,000 under the program, Letterbox Farm Collective in Greenport receive $31,000, and MX Morningstar Farm in Copake gets $30,436. In Copake, they are using the money to purchase equipment and supplies to increase vegetable yields and crop storage capacity. In Greenport the grants will bring new equipment and materials to construct hoop houses to extend the agricultural season, house livestock, and create a vegetable wash station. Plans are similar in Stuyvesant, where the farm will renovate and expand a barn for a vegetable washing, and build a walk-in cooler and crop storage area. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.