Countryside ConservancyFarms
Working farms carry the valley’s agricultural life forward through stewardship, production, teaching, and long-term care for historic farmsteads.
Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy
Connecting people, food, and land in and beyond Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Who we are · Meet the board members · Visit the farms
Who are we
Countryside Conservancy builds a thriving local food community by connecting people, food, and land in and beyond Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We support working farms, cultivate public understanding of agriculture, and help keep the valley’s historic agricultural landscape active, useful, and shared.
Born out of the initial past · Continue on History
What the Countryside program was born out of
The founding purpose of Countryside was to promote and manage the reestablishment and revitalization of appropriate farming practices in Cuyahoga Valley National Park and beyond. From the start, the work joined stewardship, public education, biodiversity, and historical-cultural landscape preservation.
That purpose still shapes the program today. Countryside now works with farms to enrich the cultural and community presence of farming in the Cuyahoga Valley, reconnecting consumer-citizens with farmer-citizens and developing durable public-private partnerships around land, food, and care.
Mission
Build a thriving local food community by connecting people, food and land in and beyond Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Objective
Become an ecologically and financially sustainable, inclusive, and equitable organization with highly effective models for protecting land, cultivating farmers, and connecting people to local food.
Relationships in the valley
The relationships Countryside regards as essential in the Cuyahoga Valley
Countryside’s founding purpose reaches beyond land management alone. It treats agriculture as a shared civic practice, one that depends on strong relationships between farms, neighbors, cultural memory, public land, and the people and institutions willing to sustain them together.
The Community
Residents, visitors, volunteers, and local food buyers keep farming rooted in daily life by showing up, learning, and participating in a local food system.
The Culture
Farming in the valley is also cultural presence: memory, seasonal ritual, shared knowledge, and the stories that make agriculture part of public identity.
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park
The national park provides the landscape where preservation, public access, recreation, ecology, and active agriculture can be held in careful balance.
Partners
Public and private partners make it possible to guide land use, support farmers, and test collaborative models that neither sector could accomplish alone.
Sponsors
Sponsors help sustain programs, communications, and educational access so the work of connecting people, food, and land can continue to grow.
Latest from the newsletter
Seasonal writing feature
Upcoming program highlights
Open full annual happeningsCuyahoga Valley Farmers Market
Apr 4, 2026
RecurringCVSR — Create-A-Critter (Family Fun Loop)
Apr 18, 2026
Special dayNature Rx | Reciprocity through Volunteerism
Apr 22, 2026
Special dayCVSR — Western Locomotive (Themed)
Apr 24, 2026
Special dayCVFM — Summer season opens (Howe Meadow)
May 3, 2026
Special day