The Peconic Land Trust, which has helped protect more than 10,000 acres of land on Long Island, much of which is used for working farms, has announced an opportunity for farmers to get their hands on farmland, equipment, education, and support. Its Farm Incubator Program is geared toward food production farming, due to the issues of affordability and sustainability that threaten the agricultural industry and security of the food supply, according to the trust.

    To be considered for the program, farmers must have a minimum of one to three years of farm experience, and cannot have previously owned farmland. They must give the land trust a business plan that includes market opportunities with measurable financial goals.

    On the South Fork, most of the available land will be at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett.

    A committee will screen applicants and make recommendations to the trust’s board of directors based on the applicants’ awareness of sustainable agricultural practices, their emphasis on food production, their personal capacity to cover living expenses, their openness to recommendations, their connection to the community, and alignment with the mission of the trust. An important part of the program’s mission is to use sustainable farming methods to improve the health of the soil and the community.

    Competition with existing farms as well as traffic and land use issues will also be considered in awarding five-year leases, which will be subject to an annual review. After five years, farmers will be required to relocate, unless there is still farmland available, in which case a short-term lease may be arranged. The trust will offer assistance securing future leases on their land or with land owned by partnering farmers and landowners.

    Fees for land, barn, and greenhouse rentals and deer fencing and irrigation will apply, as well as a lease execution fee of $100. The program will include free ongoing training and support, including monthly meetings where farmers can share questions, advice, and concerns during the course of the growing season.

    Interested farmers can submit a résumé and business plan to Stephen Searl, the project manager, at ssearl@peconic landtrust.org or 296 Hampton Road, P.O. Box 1776, Southampton 11969 by March 31. The board of directors will make its determinations by April 15.

    Celebrating their 50th anniversary, the Montauk Friends of Erin have a full weekend of activities planned tomorrow through Sunday.

    The annual grand marshal lunch will be tomorrow starting at noon at Gurney’s Inn. Tickets, which can be purchased at the door, cost $40. At the event, Mickey Valcich, this year’s grand marshal, will be roasted and handed his top hat, parade sash, and shillelagh.

    On Saturday, there will be a cocktail party, also at Gurney’s Inn, from 4 to 8 p.m., with a buffet, an open bar, and a band. Tickets cost $60 in advance and can be bought from any member of the Friends of Erin or at Becker’s Home Center in Montauk, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, or Atlantic Wines and Liquors in Amagansett. Tickets will cost $75 at the door.

    At the party, the drawing for the Pot of Gold raffle will take place, with tickets being sold right up to the drawing. They cost $25 each or five for $100. The first-place prize is $10,000, second is $1,000, and there are two third-place prizes of $500 each. You do not have to be present to win.

    On Sunday, the St. Patrick’s Day parade will begin at 10 a.m., earlier than in years past, in an effort to eliminate drunken revelers from coming in on an afternoon train and disrupting the parade.

    “We’re hoping that the Friends of Erin time change of the event will work to benefit the public safety side of things,” said East Hampton Town Police Lt. Christopher M. Hatch, the commander of the Montauk precinct, “and that all in attendance will be mindful of the quality-of-life issues that we will be enforcing.”

    Town police have issued a warning that open containers of alcohol will not be permitted and can bring a $250 fine.

    “We have approximately 120 to 130 police officers covering the parade, including our own,” Lieutenant Hatch said. “Every East End town and village department on the North and South Forks will be represented, as well as the Suffolk County sheriffs, Suffolk park police, state police, state park police, Riverhead, and Westhampton Beach.”

    The more than 60 entries in the parade include floats, marching bands, and fire departments. It will start at the Montauk Fire Department and head south down Edgemere Road before winding through the Montauk Post Office parking lot and then turning toward Main Street, where it will head west past the reviewing stand on the green and end at the Montauk I.G.A.

    Over at the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, a soup sale will be going on to help keep revelers warm. It starts at 10:30 a.m. More than 14 restaurants have promised vats of assorted soups that will cost $7 per souvenir cup. But to beat the crowds that usually form, cups will go on sale Friday and Saturday during chamber hours and at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.

    Passenger ferry service proposed for a route between Sag Harbor and Greenport moved one step closer to reality after the Sag Harbor Village Board decided to schedule a hearing on temporarily lifting a local law that would have prohibited it.

    The 53-person passenger ferry operated by the company that owns Hampton Jitney would run 14 daily loops from Mitchell Park in Greenport to Long Wharf, during a trial period ending Oct. 31.

    Proposed road transportation to and from Sag Harbor to meet the ferries would be provided by vans operated by the Hampton Jitney. Stops would be at the Bridgehampton Commons, in East Hampton and Wainscott, two on Route 114, and there would be connections to pubic transit for those heading west or into Springs. A modest charge for riding in the vans would be charged, Jeff Lynch, Hampton Jitney’s president, has said.

    Ferry-bound passengers would be dropped off at Marine Park in Sag Harbor, where they could use public restrooms before boarding on Long Wharf.

    Speaking at a village board meeting Tuesday, Mr. Lynch said that if the ferry proved viable, the company would hope to sign a lease and pay for the use of Long Wharf. He said that the operating company, Peconic Bay Water Jitney, must be licensed and franchised by Suffolk County. Response Marine of Mattituck has been hired as a partner, he said.

    At Tuesday’s village board meeting Mr. Lynch said, “I live in the village, too. I think it’s worth trying, I am willing to pack it in if it doesn’t work. There is no public funding, I am willing to spend money to try this out.”

    Bruce Tait, the chairman of the village’s harbor committee who was speaking for himself, told the board, “We need an alternative, this might be one of them.”

    “Originally I thought this was dangerous, due to the traffic issue,” he said. As he has studied it further, he said he realized that it is important to consider options for the village’s summer gridlock.

    On Monday, the Sag Harbor Harbor Committee discussed the ferry plan, which resulted in a letter of support to the village board.

    Nada Barry, a Sag Harbor resident since 1948 and one of the founders of its chamber of commerce, spoke on behalf of its board of directors. “They would like to see this done,” she said.

    “We are connected by bodies of water, not separated,” said Pat Mundus, a Greenport resident with family and friends on the South Fork. She said she likes to come to Sag harbor for dinner and movies, and hopes that the operators will consider the needs of locals.

    She said that Greenport’s transportation system is a step ahead of the South Fork’s, since the Long Island Rail Road, Hampton Jitney, and Shelter Island ferry drops passengers within 100 feet of the waterfront. She also said that she spoke to the supervisor of the Town of Shelter Island, who said that 70 percent of its traffic is just passing through to get from one fork to the other.

    Pierce Hance, a onetime Sag Harbor mayor, said that ferry service has been discussed for 20 years, and an East End plan always ideally included railroad, bus, and water transportation. “I’m not against the ferries,” he said, but wished there was more time to think it through. He also said that the applicants should pay substantially for the use of Long Wharf, since they are a private enterprise. He expressed concern that the proposal was unclear about who exactly is the licensed ferry company, and whether it is a seasonal or year-round proposal.

    Mayor Brian Gilbride responded that the proposal is for a pilot project for three to four months, but that an extension might be considered.

    He said, “I can tell you that it’s not going to cost the village anything.”

    “I hope this will happen, ” said Linda Schwartz, a year-round resident, who added her hope that ferry service to Montauk might follow. She said that a broader audience, including young restaurant and bar patrons, would take the ferry to Montauk, which would alleviate traffic and drunk driving.

    Alexandra Leigh-Hunt told the village board that the proposal was “the most sensible idea that has come along in a long, long time. I certainly would use the ferry. It’s energy conscious. It’s a terrific idea.”

    Peter Hansen, a Sag Harbor resident, told the board that since he cannot drive, “I am persuaded by this.”

    A voice against the proposal was Patricia Donovan, who is a resident of Bay Street. She said that she was not pleased with previous proposals because of the additional cars that would flow into the village. “This idea that all these classy people are going to sit on a bus . . . they’re going to come to park on Bay Street and High Street, where I live. I am against this very much. This will be detrimental to this village.”

    After deliberation, with public comments in favor outnumbering those against, all but one trustee voted in favor of the hearing. Timothy Culver was the sole no vote, saying that nobody has shown how the plan would reduce traffic. He also said that he is uncomfortable granting temporary uses that are prohibited by the zoning code. “Everyone might want this ferry, but how do we prevent another one, that maybe we don’t want?” he asked.

     Mayor Gilbride said that he shared his concerns but that “a pilot program lets us look at everything.”

    A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, April 10 at 6 p.m.

    On Sunday after the 10:30 a.m. Mass at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk, a small crowd marched from the church to the parish center across the street to commemorate St. Baldrick’s by shaving or watching others shave their heads to raise money for children’s cancer research.

    Among the brave ones was Simone Monahan, who started the tradition three years ago, and was the only one that first year to work up the courage to trade her long curly locks for a bald head.

    Looking around on Sunday she couldn’t believe the size of the crowd. “This is amazing,” she said, smiling broadly. Her husband, Richard Monahan, was also bald-headed, having shaved his hair prior to the occasion — his first haircut since last St. Baldrick’s Day.

    Clippers were wielded by local hairdressers and the Rev. Mike Rieder, the church’s pastor. This year there were 36 participants, including 13 children under the age of 15. The youngest was Trevor Meehan, a nursery-school student. A crew of Montauk Fire Department volunteers returned on Sunday to shave their heads for the second year in a row.

    The event raised $13,000 in donations, said Father Rieder.

    What he didn’t say was that he was challenged by parishioners not to shave his head and raised over $600 not to and another $100 to have it done. He went with the larger figure and did not get a haircut. Five women cut their hair to donate to the Locks of Love program.

    Wayne Scott walked in with dark straight hair that hung well beneath his shoulders, probably the longest hair of any of the men. He wore a hat on his bald head as he left.

    “It looks as if people have chosen to make this part of their Christian lifestyle out here. Two years in a row has made it an official tradition,” Father Rieder said.

    The cuts continue through the month of March at various venues. Locations are listed on the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s Web site, stbaldricks.org.

    If you see a miniature donkey in these here parts, whether it’s at a parade, on local television, or at a farm day, chances are it’s one of the six small burros owned by a group of women who call themselves the East End Ass Whisperers.

    Barbara Bornstein, a Sagaponack resident who still retains a little of her Alabama twang, said she was the first in the group to get a donkey — her Sicilian burro, Peso. “We were all members of the East End Livestock and Horseman’s Association,” she said on Monday, referring to the group of which the Ass Whisperers are “an offshoot.”

    Ms. Bornstein had noted that there were several organizations in the miniature donkey rescue business and approached a few of her friends who had, as she put it, “the wherewithal and land” to take in one, or more, of the animals, some of which were about to be slaughtered.

    Ms. Bornstein has had Peso for 18 years and estimates his age at “30 in the shade.” When asked about the typical donkey lifespan, she answered, tongue in cheek, “I’ll let you know.”

    The other members of the East End Ass Whisperers are all North Fork residents. Samantha Perry of Southold got Levi from a kill shelter in Pennsylvania, Cathy Springer adopted Lil E. Putia and Pop. E. shortly afterward. Debbie Miller soon followed with her burro, Buddy, and Emily and Bernadette Deerkoski, a mother and daughter ass-owning team from Mattituck, recently bought Diesel, the baby of the bunch at just under 2 years old.

    On Monday, the East End Ass Whisperers were paying a visit to the Wolffer Stables in Sagaponack, where they were spending the day with Karen Bocksel and the Center for Therapeutic Riding of the East End, or CTREE, which operates there. The students that day, from the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, were, with assistance, guiding the tiny donkeys through what could be described as an obstacle course — several cones to weave around and a bouquet-studded box where the objective was “to guide the donkey past it without him eating the flowers.”

    Diesel took a few minutes for an impromptu dirt bath, kicking his hooves in the air and rolling around in ecstasy while the children looked on and laughed.

    Afterward, it was time for carrots, and smiles, all around.

    Ms. Bornstein said she believes Peso enjoys the attention he gets from his guest appearances. “The others like to dress their donkeys up for some of the events,” she said, scratching Peso’s head. “But he’s not into drag.”

    The Lamb-Baker house at 88 Newtown Lane, which East Hampton Village purchased in 2007 for $1.4 million — and which Robert Hefner, an historic preservation consultant, called “a pretty ambitious Greek Revival-style cottage” — has been sitting unused for several years, but now, the property, perched next to the East Hampton Middle School, is ready to be renovated, Mr. Hefner said at the village board meeting last Thursday.

    The revised site plan, which was worked on by Mr. Hefner and Drew Bennett, the village’s consulting engineer, strives “to keep the setting of the historic house,” Mr. Hefner said, with some additional parking in the back, if okayed by the board.

    “We’re looking for more parking if it doesn’t impact,” Mr. Hefner said. He described a plan for 15 spots, necessary, he said, if the building would be used for village government offices — a possibility mentioned by Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. during the meeting.

    The property, which was the former Isaac Osborne farm, was sold to the village by the Baker family, who had inherited it from Adele Lamb, an early aviatrix.

    Inside the house, “the front half is very intact,” Mr. Hefner said, “with a great variety of Greek Revival moldings and trim.” There is room on the first floor for two offices in the front, and three in the back if the kitchen is included, with two large offices upstairs.

    Mr. Hefner said he would have plans and specifications at the next meeting.

    “When this property became available,” Mr. Rickenbach told the audience, “your board of trustees felt very strongly that it would be in keeping with the character and persona of the village to reach out” and acquire it, he said.

    Also last Thursday, the intersection of Woods Lane and East Hampton Village’s Main Street, at Town Pond, was again discussed. There had been talk last year of constructing a swale, which would help prevent drivers from mistakenly driving over the green and through the fence of the Hedges Inn, an event that occurs almost annually. The village will take another look at the plans submitted by Mr. Bennett.

    An informal community discussion about parking issues in the village is planned for March 22 at 7 p.m. in the Emergency Services Building at 1 Cedar Street. “The village board is not recommending any alternatives at this meeting but we are interested in listening to businesses, employees, and customers who use public parking,” according to a press release.

    There is life, and even fun, on a winter Thursday evening in Sagaponack in the form of a weekly quiz night at Townline BBQ, according to Alex Prime of East Hampton, who competed last month as a member of the Most Interesting Team in the World.

    Formerly called the Smarty Pints, the team has won “about 40 times,” so far, according to Mr. Prime, who credited his teammate Ted Benjamin with being “the brain of the team.”

    Creating a team name seems to be part of the fun. A group of teachers who compete regularly change their name each week to that of a different former Ross School employee. Two weeks ago, they were the Wallaces. A player on Your Mom seemed delighted by the notion that he could make up different phrases using the words  “Your Mom.”

    There was also an East Hampton family, Boot to the Head, who said they are weekly quiz-night goers. The Disco on Your Face team arrived in the nick of time, luckily finding room for all four members at the bar.

    Players came from all backgrounds and professions, including, that night, a self-proclaimed pool shark, an antiques historian, and a veterinarian.

    Seated at barstools around small pub tables, the teams answered questions around themes including Black History Month, comedians, music, and haiku, a theme that solicited groans from many. The topics vary weekly, with general trivia included along with more specific categories like pop culture, food trivia, music, art, geography, famous people, and a picture round. For the Feb. 23 picture round, people were shown images of cartoon characters and had to identify the actor who played the animated character.

    “They get mad if the questions are not difficult enough,” said Paul Johnson, who has served as the quizmaster since October.

    The lack of a real serious tone at the event was apparent from the moment the rules were announced. Among them: Mr. Johnson always has the final say. “You are more than welcome to argue,” he said, “but don’t.”

    Other rules included no cheating, no smartphones, no conferring with people not on your team, and, perhaps most important, be nice to the bartender.

    Six teams competed on Feb. 23, with members ranging in age from their 20s to their 50s. The teams are supposed to have a maximum of five players, but a sixth was allowed with a one-point penalty for the extra member.

    Teams deliberated on 10 questions per round while downing beer, wings, chili, sliders, and warm pretzels. Each participant paid a $10 fee, put in the pot for the grand prize. The evening’s first-place prize was $174 and went to Boot to the Head. Not Just Books took the $87 second-place purse, and the Most Interesting Team in the World accepted $29 for third.

    Today marks the 50th anniversary of an event few or many will want to celebrate, depending upon your point of view: the final day of the great northeaster of 1962.

    “The culprit was an intense low that developed and then drifted off the Carolina coast March 6th to 8th,” according to Nelson Vaz, a forecaster who studies coastal flooding at the National Weather Service’s New York office. The storm system sat in place over the mid-Atlantic coastline for three days, covering five high tides, battering beachfront towns from the Virginias to Montauk with tides three and a half feet higher than normal, each tide higher than the preceding one.

    “You have counterclockwise-rotating east-southeast winds piling water up against the coast. If you continue having these conditions as you go through successive cycles, each high tide will go higher,” Mr. Vaz said.

    According to reporting in the March 8 and March 15, 1962, issues of The East Hampton Star, more than 100 houses in Suffolk County were lost to the storm.

    “I remember the erosion,” Richard H. Hendrickson, 71, of East Hampton said on Monday. “A good friend of mine was in Southampton. We wanted to see the damage; we drove around. Ocean Road in Bridgehampton was impassible south of Mecox. In Sagaponack, most of the beach was washed away.”

    “The clubhouse of Bridgehampton Associates Inc., known locally as the Bridgehampton Beach club, was a total loss, along with a number of smaller buildings on the oceanfront,” The Star reported.

    One storm-related casualty was a bay-front house at the end of Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett. The Star said that Mrs. Elbert Parsons was awakened at about 1 a.m. by the sound of breaking glass and found her porch ablaze. She barely escaped the fire with her husband and 13-year-old daughter, Susan. The flame, fanned by 60-mile-per-hour winds, completely destroyed the house. The wind was blowing so hard that firemen couldn’t get water onto the flames.

    In Wainscott, summer houses on the beach were undercut and toppled over, The Star reported. Two large summer houses in Southampton were reported to have been destroyed.

    “These storms happen every 15 to 20 years,” Mr. Vaz said. The last one on such a scale to hit the East End was more than 20 years ago, the Halloween northeaster of 1991.

    About a year ago, John Behan of Montauk, a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, received a phone call from Tom Morrison, who was also a marine in Vietnam. Mr. Morrison told him that he was the crew chief on the helicopter that picked up Mr. Behan on May 23, 1966, the day he lost both of his legs in battle.

    Since he was pumped full of morphine and on the verge of passing out, one of the few memories Mr. Behan has is of thinking how his mother would be notified and the sadness she would feel if she lost another son. Joshua, his younger brother, was 4 years old when he drowned, and he didn’t want to put her though that again, he said.

    He remembers fighting with someone aboard the helicopter. It turned out it was Mr. Morrison, poking Mr. Behan’s chin to keep his head up. When Mr. Morrison visited on Feb. 12, he told Mr. Behan that the reason he was keeping his head up was to keep him awake and that he didn’t want him to look down and see the carnage that was his lower body. He told him that his boots and feet were still hanging on to his mangled bones.

    Mr. Morrison found Mr. Behan’s name on a Web site on which veterans register and can look up their former comrades to see how they’re doing. He said he was glad to see that Mr. Behan had survived because he didn’t think he could have. They spoke several times on the phone until finally Mr. Morrison said he was buying a car in Boston and would love to drive it to Montauk and meet face to face.

    Mr. Morrison, who traveled to the hamlet with his cousin Gene Jones, also a marine, could not be reached for comment. Mr. Behan said they arrived late on a cold Saturday night and didn’t want to disturb him. They searched for a motel but couldn’t find one that was open so they slept in the car. Early the next morning, they called Mr. Behan, who had no idea of their itinerary, and told him they were in Montauk at White’s Drug and Department Store. Mr. Behan drove right down and took them to his house.

    Once reunited, the men shared war stories, and as they went on, Mr. Behan noticed Mr. Morrison’s eyes tearing up. He thought his visitor was being emotional but he learned that even though Mr. Morrison keeps a pet rabbit, he was allergic to the Behans’ Jack Russell terriers.

    They shifted to Manucci’s restaurant in the harbor area for a Sunday brunch and enjoyed each other’s company. “I didn’t know what to expect. I was just about dead the first time we met,” Mr. Behan said by phone. “It wasn’t only nice to meet the guy who saved my life . . . he was a nice guy and the kind of guy I’d like to see again.” They plan a fishing trip this summer.

    Nick Kraus emerged the winner of the third annual Mr. Amagansett contest held on Saturday to benefit the Donald T. Sharkey Community Memorial Fund. As the manager of the Stephen Talkhouse, where the event was held, it would seem to some that this was an easy win, but his fiercest competitor was his boss, Peter Honerkamp.

    Both contestants created short films to campaign for the title, but Mr. Kraus’s taped endorsement from President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton probably helped push him to the top, he said. His film chronicled his depression after failing to win the contest the previous two years, and showed him seeking and following advice from professionals and celebrities on how to pull through.

    Mr. Honerkamp’s short had his face and voice imposed into classic films, such as “The Godfather,” “Braveheart,” and “Casablanca”: “of all the gin joints . . . she walked into mine.” Making the case for the crown, he pitched the fact that he keeps many local bars in business with his drinking problem.

    The best part of winning, Mr. Kraus said Tuesday, “was beating Peter.”

    Town and “Village People” were among the contestants. One, Gordon Ryan, introduced as the attorney who will “always get you off,” spoke in clever rhyming lyrics of memories with his friend, Mr. Sharkey.

    Upon accepting his robe, crown, and clam rake scepter, Mr. Kraus reminded the crowd why he had put forth so much effort. “It’s about Don,” he said, with whom he said he shared “some of the best times [he] can’t remember.”

    The fund provides scholarships to local students, fire departments, and the Wounded Warrior Project in Mr. Sharkey’s memory. Mr. Sharkey was East Hampton Town’s chief building inspector. He died in July 2009. Those who knew him, such as Eric Slocum and Bob Schaeffer, said he was well known for his generous contributions to the community, and for his sense of humor.

    Mr. Honerkamp said he could see “Don with a twinkle in his eye that we are remembering him, but more because we are doing something for the community in his name.”