The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust has negotiated a long-term lease with a local farming couple that will keep Crystal Spring Farm in agriculture, maintain public access to the property, and keep a popular weekly farmer’s market operating there, trust officials say.

Angela Twitchell, executive director of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, said the 50-year lease will allow Seth Kroeck and Maura Bannon to develop long-range plans for farming part of the 321-acre Brunswick property, which is owned by the land trust. Kroeck and Bannon have farmed the property for 11 years and will be able to transfer the lease to another farmer.

The agreement also ensures that the land trust can continue to operate the farmer’s market as well as provide public access to a community garden and trails and for other events at the farm.

The farmer’s market, which runs on Saturdays from spring through fall, has operated there for 15 years.

Twitchell said a 50-year lease between a land trust and a farmer is unusual – if not unprecedented.

“Crystal Spring Farm is a tangible symbol of the multiple values that comprises the land trust’s mission,” Twitchell said in a statement. “Local agricultural, land conservation, recreation, community: all these are important to us. This lease will assure that Crystal Spring remains a farm, and it also illustrates how the land trust’s approach to land conservation truly strengthens our communities.”

Under the agreement, the land trust will retain ownership of the farmhouse and other buildings and will set aside part of the couple’s rent for a maintenance fund.

Established in 1985, the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust has preserved roughly 2,300 acres in the area.

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