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Have you actually been to the St Lawrence Valley? It's rock heaven. Most of the top soil was scraped off down to the granite bedrock by Ice Age glaciers, and a lot of the land that has soil is laced with rocks. It's also USDA Planting Zone 4 which is really borderline for agriculture. It's also very sparsely populated and pretty poor compared to other parts of the state, which is why land is cheap there.
The best agricultural land in the state is located in the lake plains south of Lake Ontario and east of Lake Erie. The next best is probably in the Finger Lakes, and then maybe the Schoharie Valley. Take a ride on US 5 & 20 from Buffalo to Auburn and then take 81 north from Syracuse and follow the local roads to Ogdensburg. You'll easily see the difference in the two regions.
If you're looking for land near college towns consider land near Fredonia, Brockport, Geneseo, and Ithaca. Other possibilities include Cobleskill and Oneonta.
Good point, as Orleans and Wayne counties are known for attracting migrants(Blacks from the South and Hispanics) to work in apple orchards, vineyards and bean fields. Perhaps the OP could look into a town like Kendall, which has good schools and it is just west of Brockport. I believe that they may even participate the Rochester area urban/suburban program now as well.
Some of the towns around Geneva, which has Hobart College, may work too.
If you're looking to create a sustainable agricultural community, then you should look at the climate first and then the land because you can't grow crops if it's too cold/too dry/too poor soil.
I will add that while most of Upstate NY is fairly to strongly conservative, it's a very libertarian type of conservatism. The area has a very "live and let live" attitude about people who are "different", which is one of the reasons why the Amish communities in New York have grown. Unless you're going to start preaching anti-hunting/anti-gun/anti-meat manifesto in front of the town hall, people could generally care less about your other views.
As for zoning, I think many towns do have at least rudimentary zoning. It's generally to prevent the proliferation of ramshackle mobile homes and shacks without wells and septic, junk yards, tire dumps, etc. There's not much in the way of specification on the type of house that you build although yurts might come under scrutiny. You generally need minimum lot size, minimum building size, etc. Multiple dwellings on the same property will probably require some kind of plan for water and septic for the entire community, but you'd want something like that anyways.
For a knowing a tiny bit about agriculture and having tended a one acre plot once, I'm always amazed at anybody who think they are going to make a living growing stuff without any experience. IF you were in South Carolina or California I'd tell you it's going to be tough. But you are talking about upstate NY where the growing season is not that long.
I think your community is going to have to offer some other services to be able to survive. I'm not sure what, but I think thinking you are going to make a living through growing stuff, especially around a town like Ithaca which has a huge number of knowledgeable farmers thanks to the agriculture program at Cornell, it's going too be rough. I think you should talk to some farmers in up state NY, maybe talk to somebody at Cornell in the agri dept. But to just buy land and jump in it is....going to be very rough. Just so you know, I've had the same dream, once, and guess why I haven't pursue it. First being married to land with condition that will send me back to the 19th century is not that appealing and will eventually get old. Good luck.
Very good points Linda_d, the zoning from what I've found out is minimal in certain parts but all have the basic requirements as you mentioned, septic, no junkyards, etc which is good as it keeps the values up. We will be looking at Finger Lakes & a few others you mentioned to survey the lands & talk with the locals. I've learned that the best way to find the least zoning cities is to find the Amish communities, as they live off-grid basically.
ckhthankgod , thanks again, I will look into Kendall & Geneva :-)
And Phorlan, good points too. We are not expecting to live like queens/kings off the farm/produce. It will mainly sustain the community & farmer's markets take time to get into. There are other income streams in place.
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