Family farm in Central Islip sold to developers

Janice Papa remembers life on the family farm in Central Islip as practically idyllic.

The 15-acre farm started by Papa's mother and uncle was a hub of social life on Connetquot Avenue, she said, recalling that she began working at the farm stand when she was 8. Papa said she and her seven siblings could walk 4 miles from the farm to fish and crab in the Great South Bay.

Later the farm would add a greenhouse, and 35 years ago the farm was opened to school field trips. There were pony rides, Halloween haunted houses, fall pumpkin picking and a Nativity scene at Christmas.

But after 73 years, Papa's Farm and Greenhouses closed and was sold for $1.5 million to a Commack developer. Explaining the family's decision to sell, Papa cited the familiar plaints of Long Islanders from Manhasset to Montauk: traffic, noise, the high cost of utility bills and "off the wall" taxes.

“We couldn’t get anyone in agriculture" to buy the property, said Papa, 68. "Everyone in agriculture is leaving. … It’s too difficult anymore to pay the bills.”

Papa and her brother John Papa, her two daughters and two grandsons have moved to an 80-acre spread in Winfield, Pennsylvania, a farming community on the west branch of the Susquehanna River. They had bought the land 14 years ago with plans to relocate and develop a new farm.

"We had already seen the handwriting on the wall," Papa said. “It was a hard decision to do. We were born and raised there. You meet a lot of good people.” 

Titan Acquisitions plans to build up to 30 single-family homes on the Central Islip property, president Matthew Collado said in an email. Formal plans will be submitted to the Town of Islip in a few weeks, the company said.

An Islip spokeswoman said town officials would not comment until the plans are submitted.

Papa said the farm was started in 1947 by her mother, Frances Papa, and her brother Benny, the children of Polish immigrants. While Frances' husband, Patrick, worked as a mechanic in New York City, she and Benny tilled the fields to feed the growing family.

“That's how it started, growing out of necessity, then we started growing produce,” Papa said. “You saw an opportunity. You had too much product, so you started a stand."

The farm stand became a local meeting spot where neighbors chatted over coffee, she said: "When you were little, you could really learn a lot from listening to everyone.”

Papa enjoyed showing the farm to school groups. But eventually fewer people shopped there for groceries, and the bills piled up, until the family decided to move on, she said.

Property taxes on the Pennsylvania farm are $10,500 a year, Papa said — compared with $80,000 in Central Islip, for much less land. But more than that, the new farm reminds her of the Central Islip of her youth.

"We're back to peacefulness," she said. “... You have the birds, you have the bees, you have the neighbors. It’s like what Long Island was.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.