Meet Matt Celona, new Farm Manager at Sylvester Manor

Matt Celona’s first day on the job as the new manager of the Sylvester Manor farm was Jan. 20, and even though the hoes and rakes were put away, the farmstand shelves bare, and the quiet fields a few days away from receiving a foot of snow, he could tell that he was coming to a good farm.  

“Ten acres, well fenced, everything put away, everything in its place,” he said. “Organization is the key to farming. There are so many curveballs in the growing season, that if you are looking for the screwdriver, you don’t have a chance. The screwdriver has to have a place and be in that place. It can’t be in one of seven possible places.”

Matt grew up in Shrewsbury, Mass., where his father kept a garden that Matt remembers for its beauty, and its tomatoes, which the whole family anticipated. Celona went to Duke University, studied English, and was in graduate school at the University of Iowa when he discovered farming while volunteering for a family-run goat and vegetable farm in a small town called Solon, near Iowa City.

“I was concerned about the state of the planet and environment,” he said. “I saw that people can be responsible for their own food production. I saw a way to be part of the solution, to take responsibility for myself in the world.” 

As Matt got deeper into farming, he went to apprentice with Scott Chaskey at Quail Hill, the renowned farm in Amagansett that is stewarded by the Peconic Land Trust. Matt was at Quail Hill from 2000-2005, when Bennett Konesni, who was an undergraduate at the time, was also apprenticing there. The Quail Hill farming philosophy emphasizes caring for the land and soil, farming for the local community, and education, all values that Mr. Konesni carried forward when he led the establishment of the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm on land that had been in his family for hundreds of years. 

In those days, Matt knew Mr. Konesni talked about establishing a farm on Shelter Island, but he had no idea that one day he would become the manager of that farm.

Matt spent several growing seasons in France, working in exchange for room, board and instruction. He went on to work at a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Massachusetts and at the Mass Audubon Society’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. Before coming to Sylvester Manor, he was the manager of All One, One All (AOOA) a farm in Goshen, N.Y., raising sheep, chickens, and vegetables. In his 20-plus years of farming, he’d raised a lot of organic vegetables, but AOOA was his first experience with sheep, and he loved it. 

Matt learned of the farm manager role at Sylvester Manor from a job posting. He was enchanted by Shelter Island from the times he passed through on his way from Massachusetts to Quail Hill and visits to his sister in Sag Harbor. He was equally impressed with Sylvester Manor’s community compost program. 

“Putting organic waste back into the soil through cover cropping and composting animal waste and food scraps and the involvement between the farm and the community, it’s a unique thing,” he said. “It appealed to my values.”

He enjoys cooking the vegetables he grows, and although he’s not vegetarian, his go-to dinner is rice and whatever vegetables he’s harvesting prepared in a rice cooker. “It’s always about efficiency, get the veggies cooked and onto the table quickly,” he said. “Start the rice cooker, add sweet potatoes — or other winter vegetables — make a sauce.” He also makes pasta, with vegetable toppings.

He takes pleasure in working outdoors in cooperation with nature and creating healthy interactions between the habitat for birds and the crops and the animals. “I heard an owl last night. Birding is one of the great pleasures of farming,” Matt said, describing the way swallows descend to eat the insects under the mulch in freshly uncovered rows, and bluebirds keep down the pest population.

There may not be much growing at Sylvester Manor right now, but Matt, and farmers Elias Currier and April Adkison, are busy clearing snow from the farm roads and around the high tunnel houses. They have chickens to tend, (did you know chickens won’t walk on snow?) They are harvesting eggs and radishes to donate to the CAST food pantry, and it’s time to start ordering seeds and supplies. 

Matt says community involvement is key to the success of a farm, and that’s one of the things that drew him to Sylvester Manor, where he is planning a robust volunteer schedule. “Public access to the farm is important,” he said. “A Saturday work session. Picking berries. Weeding, transplanting and flower harvest. Setting up a system for a farm that is easy for people to get involved.”