It wouldn’t be the largest farm on the block.

But the five-acre Morales spread at SR-305 and Lovgreen Road would go a long way toward reclaiming an agricultural district in the heart of the island.

So say members of the Bainbridge Island Open Space Commission, who are recommending city purchase of the property.

Asking price: $210,000.

“We think it’s another good value, and the first farm that’s really ready to go (into production),” said Dwight Sutton, open space commissioner.

The farm is one of two properties to be considered for purchase Wednesday under the city’s land preservation program, bankrolled by $8 million in voter approved bond funds.

The other, the 2.3-acre Crawford property – price: $150,000 – sits perhaps 100 yards to the north of the Morales land and adjoins a 13-acre tree farm that was donated to the city just last month.

The Crawford parcel, too, was an active farm before falling out of use some 30 years ago. Since then, it has been overrun by alders that could be cleared to re-establish agricultural uses.

The properties are connected by an old country right of way, established at the turn of the last century but never improved, which could also give access to the Bentryn and Suyematsu farms to the north. Clearing the Crawford land would restore a view corridor across farmland stretching from Lovgreen to Day Road.

With a farm stand, the 305/Lovgreen corner could be a nexus for roadside sales by a half-dozen area farmers, including a commercial greenhouse operation that sits across the highway.

“It would be a de facto farming district,” said Lee Cross, open space commissioner.

Homestead

The Morales family purchased the property from other Filipino farmers in the 1950s, and worked the land for berries and vegetables until about five years ago.

The couple has since moved back to the Philippines, and the property has been on the market for about two years.

A small, rundown home sits on the front of the lot, while a row of weather-beaten chicken coops suggest earlier days as a self-sustaining family spread.

Sutton said inquiries have already begun with the Housing Resources Board, to see if the house could be added to the island’s inventory of publicly-administered affordable homes.

But it’s the fallow field rolling out to the north that caught the eye of open space commissioners.

The parcel boasts the same sandy loam that sustains other working farms in the area, Sutton said; with a good plowing, much of the land could be ready for planting this year. At the back of the lot, a gentle hillside with southern exposure would soak up as much sunlight as the Northwest day offers, once cleared of Scotch broom.

Said Sutton: “There are people who do want to farm, but there aren’t farms that are accessible.”