What’s in a Name?
Cover crops at Tributary Farm
Tributary: a river or stream flowing into a larger river or lake
Our farm is located on the Rondout creek, a tributary to the Hudson river. Each tributary plays a small role in the health of the entire watershed, as they all end up flowing together. In a similar way, our farm is responsible for maintaining and enhancing its small part in the ecosystem, as part of a much larger whole.
Considering our own contribution or thinking about paying tribute gives us a daily opportunity to show respect, gratitude, or affection to the land and those that have farmed this land before us.
“It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking and gathering on the ancestral homelands of the Munsee Lenape people, who are the indigenous peoples of this land. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, today their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.”
-Cultural Affairs Department at the Stockbridge-Munsee Community
The Munsee were decimated by European diseases and under increasing pressure from Dutch and English colonists including the Espous wars of 1659-1663, the Munsee merged with neighboring tribes and surviving members eventually settled in Wisconsin, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana and Oklahoma.
We are grateful to many people for the opportunity to farm on such a beautiful and bountiful piece of land. We are grateful to so many helping hands in the process, to the wildlife that we share the farm with, and to any customer for the chance to serve our community with fresh food.
