After seven months of efforts to create a stable future for the Thimble Farm property, the fate of the prime farmland is still in flux, leaving the owner disappointed but not discouraged.

Reached by telephone this week, property owner Eric Grubman said he has not given up on an Island coalition of farmers and conservation agencies formed to explore alternatives for the property, but he’s seen little progress to reassure him there is enough interest from the community to take the farm out of private ownership.

Mr. Grubman had set a deadline of the end of the year to get a business plan from the coalition, called the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Project. Project leaders said this week they’ll be ready to present something by the end of January.

“I’ve said if it doesn’t show itself by the end of the year then I’m going to feel I should explore other options,” Mr. Grubman said. “I’m not sitting here counting the days....I would be open-minded if they come up with something or if someone else came forward with an idea.

“I’m a little disappointed,” he said, adding, “I’m not disappointed in anyone because I think people have been giving it their best.”

The farm project has struggled to find something that would have broad enough appeal to generate financial support, Mr. Grubman said. He said he is still committed to keeping the land in permanent food production.

“I’ve been consistent since the time this started...I was and remain committed to the notion of local food production as a valuable resource, but I said from the very beginning and said this summer, I’m not prepared to be the only one that supports it,” he said. “There needs to be a viable plan that shows broad and deep support.”

Mr. Grubman, executive vice president of the National Football League, bought the farm property in 2007 for $2.45 million in an eleventh-hour deal that saved the property from sale into the private residential market and kept it in food production. Whippoorwill Farm, which includes a large community-supported agriculture operation, has leased the property for the last several years.

When Mr. Grubman bought the farm he made it clear the purchase was temporary, asking farm owner Andrew Woodruff to develop a long-term plan to buy the land back. Mr. Grubman gave Mr. Woodruff until the end of the year to come up with such a plan. In response to Mr. Grubman’s deadline. a group of Island farmers, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and the Island Housing Trust came together to develop a plan to take it out of private ownership and make it a nonprofit working farm with housing for farm workers.

Mr. Woodruff has since moved the CSA pickup back to his old farm location on Old County Road in West Tisbury, and plans to operate a smaller CSA from there.

At stake for Thimble Farm is 37 acres of rich soil off Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in the Iron Hill area of Oak Bluffs, as well as a one-acre greenhouse, the largest on the Island, and surrounding farm buildings. Long-term goals for the property call for altering a conservation restriction already on the land to require that it be used strictly for food production. Propositions for the property include a slaughterhouse, egg breeding, and a teaching farm, and Mr. Grubman said he was open to almost anything.

“I have a sense in mind how much financial support I’m willing to give to the project but beyond that it’s the responsibility of other people,” he said. “If they can figure out how to raise that almost anything works. If they can’t, nothing works.

“What I said to them is I’m amenable because I’m not the expert,” he said. “If people in food production say this could be done and profitable and can be maintained, by all means - I’m not going to be the owner of the property.”

A farm steering committee has been meeting weekly since October, when farm-to-school network Island Grown Initiative stepped forward to lead the coalition. The steering committee consists of members from IGI, Whippoorwill Farm, conservation groups and Vineyard farmers.

Everything is “still a work in progress,” IGI director Sarah McKay said yesterday.

“What is the mission, what are the goals, what is the vision for this property? All of those elements are still coming together,” she said.

The use of the greenhouse, the number of farmers the 37-acre plot would support, the potential for a young farmers apprentice program, a commercial kitchen, and the affordable housing piece are all strands that still need to be braided together.

“The piece that’s tricky at this point is we still have to work something out with Eric [Grubman] and until that happens there’s some hesitation to say, this is what’s going to happen,” Ms. McKay said.

For now the steering committee is focusing on short term goals, including an interim plan for use of the property during the 2012 season, which will likely include Mr. Woodruff and Whippoorwill Farm, Ms. McKay said.

The steering committee has decided farmers interested in working the land will go through a request for proposal process, and applicants will be reviewed by the committee. Ms. McKay also said the project, whatever form it may be, is likely to be a development of regional impact and will most likely have to be reviewed by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Raising enough funds to purchase the property is not a priority, at least not yet, Ms. McKay said.