Strawberry Farms to Visit This Summer

Strawberry shortcake, strawberry pie, strawberry galette… We’re big fans of anything strawberry, and nothing’s better than fresh picked! Have you been picking yet? We’re rounding up a handful of local farms to try if you’re in the mood for some strawberry shortcake, too!

Yoleberry Farm in Fort Ann, NY • Photo: Bri Lyons

Ariel’s Farm | Gansevoort: A farm that comes highly recommended (and just a quick 20 minute ride from Glens Falls!), we can’t wait to try Ariel’s Farm this season. More info here.

Hand Melon Farm | Greenwich: This was a Washington County favorite when we asked our Instagram followers for suggestions! Find their info here.

Hicks Orchard | Granville: New this year! Hicks is always a summer favorite for blueberry picking, so we were thrilled to hear that they’ll have u-pick strawberries this season. Bonus points for the cider donuts you can enjoy once you’re done picking! More info here.

Strawberry Acres | Buskirk: A new to us option that we stumbled across on Facebook this year. If you’re looking for a ride through beautiful Washington County with strawberries as your reward, this looks like the spot for you. Grab their info here.

Bowman Orchard | Rexford: If you’re headed south, Bowman Orchard is the place to be! After you pick your fill of berries, you can head over to their farm store for homemade ice cream, play on the playground, and visit their many animals (including goats, sheep, and pigs!). Details here.

Yoleberry Farm | Fort Ann: Closed for the 2024 strawberry season, sadly! We picked here for the first time last season and loved it! A beautiful, quiet setting and plentiful picking made for a perfect morning. They’re open Tuesday - Sunday from 9am - 4pm. Details here.

First Look: Oopsy Daisy Flower Farm

When we stumbled across Oopsy Daisy Flower Farm on Instagram, we couldn’t get to their adorable flower stand in South Glens Falls fast enough! We chatted with owner Angela Weinberger about this new family venture, including how the flower stand came to be, the joys (and challenges!) of small scale flower farming, and of course, how to get your hands on one of their gorgeous bouquets!

Tell us about yourself!

My name is Angela Weinberger and I live in South Glens Falls. My husband Seth and I have been together since we were 16 and 17. We have a 3 year old daughter and 1 year old son. When we aren’t covered in dirt from the garden,  you can find us at Lowes or bike riding to our local elementary school playground. We love to spend time by our pool and with our family and friends!

An Idea Blooms

In August of 2022, I was 4 months postpartum with my son and had a crazy energetic curly haired 1 year old girl. I had a fun idea for her to have a lemonade stand that weekend, but I wanted a way to incorporate all of the fresh flowers that we had grown in our yard and garden. So I thought, “lemonade and fresh flowers” — who could say no to that, let alone from a 1 year old?! Seth got right to work and built the most adorable toddler height lemonade stand. My daughter was thrilled. She wore her garden hat with pride and sold enough lemonade and flowers to fill her piggy bank the next day. It was then that we realized we had the space to grow even more fresh flowers and make something of this.

We immediately got to work and started all of our seeds indoors over the winter. Our kids loved helping water them and take care of them. In the freezing 30 degree winter weather, nothing made me happier than seeing green sprouts on our plants! Spring was coming!!

We’re currently growing on about a quarter acre. We have over 60 varieties of dahlias with a total of roughly 215 dahlia plants. Along with dahlias, we grow zinnias, sunflowers, hydrangeas, snapdragons and more. We planted a small pumpkin patch this year with plans to expand next year. 

As far as the Oopsy Daisy name, well, our daughter has always said “oopsy daisy” when she drops something. One day she just said it, and it clicked! Oopsy Daisy Flower Farm!

On Rewards and Challenges

Seeing customers when they pick up their bouquets has to be my absolute favorite! When I deliver flowers, I enjoy seeing how happy and surprised they are. I truly try to put a lot of thought into the bouquets I design. We have done a few events this season and being a part of bridal showers, baby showers and just day to day celebrations is so special. Aside from my children, nothing makes me more proud than stamping our Oopsy Daisy logo on an envelope for a bouquet.  

As far as challenges, I think most people in our area can agree that our weather this spring and summer has been so inconsistent. Between the drought and then constant rain, we really haven’t had the best growing conditions.

The only other challenge we have faced is trying to arrange and deliver flowers with a 1 and 3 year old. We are out working before they wake up and out the door the second we put them to bed. You can say we are pretty busy over here! Thankfully, we have had some help this summer from my 12 year old brother who stays with us. He helps me on our deliveries and brings our bouquets to the door when he isn’t helping out with the kids. You can say he’s rightfully earned employee of the month this month! 

At the Flower Stand

My husband Seth built our flower stand. He is a man of many trades and I will always brag about how handy he is.

Our stand is typically open every day. I like to put a couple bouquets out a day, but I’ve found that weekends are our busiest. You can find up to date information on our flower stand hours and address on our our Instagram page @oopsydaisyflowerfarm. I always say that pre ordering ahead of time is a better way to get your hands on a bouquet in case the stand sells out. 

When you visit our stand, you’ll find rows of flowers in our front side yard with a hand painted by my 3 year old and a “fresh cut flowers” sign hung with pride. You might also see an exhausted mom in her nightgown with a baby on her hip chasing her defiant toddler around. 

On The Future

Our first season has certainly been a trial and error experience for us. We now know what is most popular and plan to grow more of that next season. We specialize in dahlias and next year we plan to triple the amount of plants.

We plan to spend the fall and winter figuring our logistics for ideas we have. I love the idea of “U-Pick” events and “mommy and me” picking. We would eventually love to buy a piece of property to grow flowers on. We have so many ideas and are so excited for them. Our first season really took off so quickly and well. We are so grateful for this opportunity to share something we love with our children right at home. It’s a great opportunity for them as they grow older to help us and learn to work for money. 

On Giving Back

Recently, we started a thankful Thursday giveaway on our Instagram page. Each week for the remainder of the season we will give away a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. We love making others smile! 

We are always looking for charitable events to donate to. Please reach out via Instagram or our email [oopsydaisyflowerfarm@yahoo.com]. 

Oopsy Daisy Flower Farm
South Glens Falls • Address is posted on Instagram when Flower Stand is Open
Instagram

First Look: The Farm Store at Tiashoke

If you’re looking for a quintessential fall shopping experience in the country, look no further! 

Located in Schaghticoke in southern Washington County, Tiashoke owners Jessica and Stuart Ziehm are fourth generation dairy farmers that just so happen to have a lot of fun growing pumpkins, too. Ninety two different varieties of pumpkins, gourds, and squash, to be exact! Jessica started out selling pumpkins in the fall at their roadside stand (made famous by their adorable pumpkin house with the cornstalk roof!), and as business grew, so did her plans for a year round farm store — which came to fruition this fall! 

The Farm Store at Tiashoke showcases the farm’s dairy and meats, along with a variety of local farm treats and gifts. The star of this season, though, are their pumpkins! With 92 varieties, they have every shape, size, and color that you could hope for, along with a charming atmosphere (yes, the pumpkin house is still there!) and three sweet pups that serve as the Farm Store’s unofficial greeters! 

Inside the beautifully renovated 1800’s barn, you’ll find Tiashoke’s own beef and pork, their Cabot cheeses, and a variety of local products, including Goose Island potatoes, Mapleland Farms syrup, and Borden’s Orchard apples and cider, among others. They also stock a fun selection of farm themed children’s products, home decor, candles, cookbooks, and more. So much inspiration for country living. 

The best news: this is just the beginning! Jessica shared plans in the works for adding an antique section to the shop (2023 update: the barn basement is now filled to the brim with antiques!), events and workshops, as well as future plans for coffee, ice cream, food trucks, and lots more. Can’t wait to follow along as they continue to grow! 

The Farm Stand at Tiashoke
11834 NY-40, Schaghticoke, NY 12154
Facebook / Instagram

On The Farm: Greenfield's Forever

We headed south to Greenfield this month to chat with Tabor Ellsworth of Greenfield’s Forever about their delicious pickles (and raspberries, and blueberries…), as well as their pickling process - from cucumber to jar!

On Starting a Farm

I started our farm in 2009. At the time, I was looking for a new career. I attended a farm conference that year and decided to give it a try.

Our farm and house was established in 1792. After the American revolution, they were giving out 1,000 acre tracts of land to settle the upper Hudson Valley. The Kronkhite family got one of the tracts and moved here from Dutchess County. My great grandparents were immigrants and purchased what was remaining of the original farm in 1908 and operated as a dairy farm. They stopped farming in the 1960’s.

Tabor Ellsworth at Greenfield’s Forever | Photo: Bri Lyons

The Offerings

I currently have six acres under cultivation. I grow blueberries, raspberries, apples, pears and plums for fruit. Our vegetable offerings include asparagus and cucumbers.

We offer u-pick for our fruit and also sell the fruit from our farm stand. The asparagus is sold at the farm stand as well, and we use our cucumbers to make pickles.

On Food Processing

We have a value added products business which has been part of our farm business from the start. We make pickles, which is our biggest item by far. Americans eat 9 lbs of pickles per year per capita! We also make pickled beans, pickled beets, pickled carrots, pickled red onions, pickled asparagus, pickled peppers, pickled garlic and fruit jam. We have grown our business to include several brands, which include Farmer T’s and Food Union Family Farms.

We started out by renting space seasonally from a friend who has a commercial kitchen. In 2016, we constructed a processing facility on our farm and now do all of our processing here.

At first, we grew everything for our value added business. Now that we’ve expanded, we purchase the vast majority of the product that we don’t grow directly from other local New York State Farms.

The Process

Our all natural pickles are made from fresh cucumbers packaged directly into the jars within days of harvesting. We have unique recipes and a different brine for each flavor to compliment the herbs and spices used for that flavor. We make garlic dill, amish sweet dill, bread & butter, over the top garlic and hot pickles.

On Distributing Product

We have a few products sold to regional distributors within the northeastern United States. Most of our business is local, from Warrensburg to Kingston. We have approximately 15 outlets that sell our product within 8 miles of our farm.

On Farm Life

I like working for myself, though farming is difficult. I have worked in the food business and manufacturing for 37 years. By far, the most successful farmers are the best businesspeople. Most other businesses can simply order in whatever they need and then resell it to generate revenue. Farmers have to grow, raise or produce everything that they sell and deal with all of the challenges of that, many which are beyond their control - like weather and disease. Then we process, package and ultimately sell the product.

On The Future

If I was younger when I started, I would have a more diverse farm business. I hope to attract other farmers to collaborate with and have their own business on our farm.

Instead of me managing all aspects, I’d love to have independent businesspeople running their operation. We want to continue to grow our food products business and we have a business plan in place forecasting just that.

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Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center offers nine state-of-the-art vending machines featuring food, beverages, and gifts from the Adirondack Region and across New York State. Find locally roasted coffee, cold beverages, chips, nuts, snacks, baked goods, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, maple, honey, chocolate, candy, and artisan gifts.

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center is operated by the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for supporting the organizations that support Glens Falls Living!

On the Farm: Mapleland Farms

The best part of this muddy time between winter and spring - maple season! We headed into Washington County this month to chat with David Campbell and Mary Jeanne Packer of Mapleland Farms about their amazing maple syrup, as well as their process - from sap to syrup!  

On Running A Family Business 

My relatives came here from Scotland in the 1850’s and my brother Terry and myself are still living on and working on the same land that they came to back then. They were dairy farmers then. 

The sugaring business came about 50 years ago. My parents and grandparents tapped some trees here and there and made a little syrup for the family, and we took to the process after that, starting at age 13. Our first customers were the school bus driver, the school custodian, even the other kids at school! 

David Campbell and Mary Jeanne Packer at Mapleland Farms

On the Process: From Sap to Syrup

The process, in some ways, hasn’t changed in 200 years. That is, that you collect sap, you boil it down until there’s nothing left but the sweetness, and you call it maple syrup. 

The legend is that a busy wife and mother needed to put on a pot of water to boil for tea, but instead of going down to the brook for water, she noticed “water” running from the trees and used that instead. Her husband came home for lunch and said it was the best tea he’d ever had! So that’s how, supposedly, maple syrup was discovered. 

We’ve modernized some parts of the process since the early settlers learned about this sweet water from the trees. Starting at the tree, instead of just sticking a pot under the tree and hoping some sap falls into it, we have a certain way we drill holes with spouts that are the most efficient at grabbing the sap as it comes up. And we do get it on the way up! The sap comes from the ground to feed the leaves that are getting ready to open up. We then use sap lines, or tubing, to collect and direct the sap. We have almost 20,000 taps and over 60 miles of tubing over 600 acres that we’re tapping on. There’s a network of tubes that lead down to the bottom of the hill where the sap flows into tanks, which are then hauled to the sugar house. The sap is pumped into the back room at the sugar house, where we have reverse osmosis machines that take the sugar out, throw away the water, and save that sugar concentrate, which reduces the amount of time it has to boil. 

The concentrate is then boiled for a period of time and drawn off through a tube at the end when it’s just short of the boiling point. At that time, it’ll be syrup at 67% sugar. It’s then pumped through a filter, which catches any impurities, and then we store it in barrels until it’s ready to be packaged. 

It takes 50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. This is because the sap is just 1 or 2 percent sugar. Right now it’s 2% - earlier in the season it would be 1%, and at the end of the season it will drop back down to 1%. When it’s 1%, it takes about 70 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. 

The Offerings

Our maple candies are a favorite, for sure. We’ve won numerous awards for making them - international awards and even Vermont awards! It’s a method that I’ve perfected myself using a bit of a different process than most folks do. 

We have the quintessential maple syrup, of course. Maple cream, maple fudge, maple cotton candy. We also have two flavors of maple granola, maple almonds, and maple roasted nuts. Our spicy maple rub and maple garlic pepper are very popular with folks on the craft fair circuit. The list goes on! 

On Sales + Distribution

Our largest customer is in New York City - it’s called Fresh Direct - and we ship by the pallet to them every week. They do home food delivery. They represent about 15-20% of all of our sales. We sell to a few distributors that then sell to restaurants, and we also sell direct to local restaurants by the gallon. All the good breakfast spots! 

Locally, you can also purchase at Price Chopper, Shop Rite, Healthy Living, and Fresh Market. Also apple orchards! Places like Hicks and Saratoga Apple are open year round and carry our products. Taste NY carries our products at rest areas across the state. We also sell direct to consumer on our website. 

On Farm Life

The most rewarding thing about the business is having people satisfied with a quality product. I’ve done a bunch of workshops on how to make maple candies since I’ve won a lot of awards with them, and so I’m trying to teach other people how to make good maple candies instead of poor quality, which has been very rewarding. 

The most challenging thing is probably the weather. With the weather changing, you don’t get as many freezing and thawing cycles, so we rely on the vacuum pumps to get the sap out of the trees more than we used to years ago. 

Weather has made the timing of our season unpredictable too. The season starts earlier and earlier. It used to be the middle of March before the season actually started. The last couple of years, we started putting in the taps on the Monday after Christmas, and this year we got a good sap flow on January 1 and 2 and we made syrup on January 2. 

Invasive species have been a problem because of the weather, too - bugs, like the asian longhorn beetle, and plants, like honeysuckle and buckthorn, are trying to take over the woods. The change in climate has made it so these plants and bugs that didn’t used to be able to survive here, are able to thrive here, which impedes on our trees. 

The sugar maples don’t like the warmth of the south, and as the warm weather shifts north, the maple producers are probably going to need to shift north as well. 

The view at Mapleland Farms

On Bird Friendly Maple

We’ve just been officially recognized as a bird friendly maple syrup producer! This is a project of Audubon New York, and we’re one of the first few to be recognized. We commit to manage our forests in a way that helps birds raise the next generation of their species. That includes leaving dead trees standing to provide nesting sites, and leaving downed trees on the forest floor to provide cover and forage. It’s an honor to have passed the certification and we hope to spark interest with customers who understand the value of a healthy habitat for birds and other wildlife. 

On Maple Weekend

Maple Weekends will be the next two weekends - the 19th and 20th and the 26th and 27th of March from 9am - 4pm. While we won’t be having breakfast this year, we will be having a maple snack bar, which will feature maple doughnuts, maple cookies, and brownies and other products all made with maple syrup. Of course, we’ll also offer our tours! 

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Mapleland Farms
525 Bunker Hill Road • Salem, NY
Website

Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center offers nine state-of-the-art vending machines featuring food, beverages, and gifts from the Adirondack Region and across New York State. Find locally roasted coffee, cold beverages, chips, nuts, snacks, baked goods, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, maple, honey, chocolate, candy, and artisan gifts.

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center is operated by the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for supporting the organizations that support Glens Falls Living!

On the Farm: King Brothers Dairy

We headed south to Schuylerville this month to chat with Jan and Jeff King of King Brothers Dairy about their delicious milk and ice cream, as well as their process - from cow to cup!

On Running A Family Business

We are a 125 year old business. Our grandfather and great uncles milked cows, bottled milk and delivered it in the Saratoga area. This continued until the early 60's when the creamery stopped, but the farm continued. 

Today the farm is still a family run business, and has grown to include home delivery with over 200 items to choose from, wholesale and restaurant deliveries as well as an on farm store. Our products include milk, chocolate milk, buttermilk, cream products and over 60 varieties of ice cream.

We [brothers Jan and Jeff] run the farm and operate the creamery. Jeff's wife runs the farm store and ice cream production. Jan’s wife is a veterinarian and takes care of the herd's health.  

Jan King at King Brothers Dairy

On the Importance of Happy Cows

Our cows are very important to us. We treat them just like they were our own kids. The happier we can make our cows, the more productive they are for us. We ensure they are fed the right diet in order to keep them healthy.  

All the cows on our farm are registered holsteins (black and white). We actually keep track of each cow’s ancestry. We do this because we sell some of our high valued genetics to bull studs, and also so we can have some fun showing them at the local fair.

Production - From Cow to Cup

When we started processing and bottling our own milk, it was very important to us to be able to have a product that tasted better than what was already available. As we were constructing the creamery, we chose a little bit of old school technology that helped us achieve that better tasting product. We were willing to be a little less efficient in our process, use a smaller batch size and cold separate our product, all in the quest for better taste. We’re proud of our high quality product. It is a single source product with all milk coming from our farm.

The Offerings

We offer a full line of white milk, chocolate milk, vanilla milk, buttermilk, half and half, and heavy cream. We also make a premium line of ice cream in 60 plus flavors. 

We do our own distribution, primarily in the Capital District, and some in New York City. Locally, you can find our products in Hannaford, ShopRite, and Walmart. 

On Home Delivery 

Ever since we were little kids, we loved seeing the old glass milk bottles and wooden delivery crates that our grandfather used to deliver milk. In 2010 we reinvented our grandfather’s delivery business, returning to deliver milk to homes in the local area. We started back up in the milk delivery business in 2010 and we had about 40 customers in the first few weeks. Today, we do well over 700 deliveries per week. We are like a farmers market on wheels, offering our products and other local products as well. Cheeses, yogurt, maple products, and fresh fruit and veggies when in season.

Our customers absolutely love the service and all the products we offer. They consistently remark on the superior taste of the milk, the convenience and the pride in supporting a local business. 

The Farm Store 

Our farm store has been open for two years. All of the products we offer on our home delivery can also be found here in the store. We have a dip counter offering about 40 flavors at a time, along with seasonal and other unique novelties.

The ice cream has been a huge hit. Many of the people who stop and try our ice cream say it’s the best they have ever had.

On Farm Life

I have loved living on the farm and in the country forever. Watching the sun come up over the Green Mountains is a favorite part of the day. I enjoy watching things grow that I have planted each spring, and smell of fresh cut hay and corn. Each of these things put a smile on my face.

I love the fact that we are able to have our Holstein cows and enjoy the milk that we make into awesome tasting products. Since having the creamery, it has brought us full circle. We plant the crops, harvest the feed and milk the cows. With the milk, we can make chocolate milk and delicious ice cream. There is nothing more satisfying than having a customer appreciate your product and have a connection with where it comes from.

On The Future

We are in the middle of an expansion. We are expanding our coolers, freezer and production area and making room to produce more ice cream so that we can offer it to other vendors than just our own store. 

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King Brothers Dairy
Website / Facebook / Instagram

Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center offers nine state-of-the-art vending machines featuring food, beverages, and gifts from the Adirondack Region and across New York State. Find locally roasted coffee, cold beverages, chips, nuts, snacks, baked goods, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, maple, honey, chocolate, candy, and artisan gifts.

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center is operated by the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for supporting the organizations that support Glens Falls Living!

On the Farm: Nettle Meadow Farm

We headed north to Thurman this month to chat with Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan of Nettle Meadow Farm about their delicious cheese and their commitment to caring for their goats well after they’ve retired from production. Cheese just tastes better when it’s made with kindness, don’t you think?!

FROM LEGAL TO FARMING

We got involved in farming and bought Nettle Meadow as a bit of a mid-life major change in direction. We had both worked in the legal field for several years and did not find it fulfilling. We made cheese as a hobby and saw an ad for the farm in Thurman and we took the leap. I come from many many generations of Irish dairy farmers so it was not too far of a leap for me, though it was a huge change in course for Lorraine.

Sheila Flanagan and Lorraine Lambiase at Nettle Meadow Farm

THE GOATS

At our peak we had well over 500 goats at the farm in Thurman but as we have gotten older we decided to start leasing the goats out to local family farmers and buying the milk back. It gives the animals more acreage and more barn space, and this way we can continue to grow our brand while maintaining animal welfare as one of our core company principles.  

We have always promoted mixed breeds for hybrid vigor and we particularly have promoted cross breading between boer goats and saanens and boer goats and nubians.  Both are extra tough, high volume, and butter fat rich goats with the health and capacity to make it through - and even enjoy - cold Adirondack winters and warm summers.

THE PROCESS

We use only freshest milk from our sheep and goats and Jersey Cows. We are very well known for making "mixed milk" cheeses combining milk from different species. We also use infusions of herbal teas and alcohols that add unique flavors to so many of our cheeses.  

We start making cheese around 2am each day and the final batches usually are not complete till around 7pm in the evening.  Every batch is hand poured, whether it is 10 gallons or 100 gallons.

We make three basic kinds of cheese - fresh cheeses in a variety of flavors; semi-aged cheeses aged in a bloomy aging cave for two to three weeks; and hard aged cheeses washed and rubbed on their rinds and then aged for 90 days to one year.

THE CHEESE

We make over 60 different cheeses and butter and goat cheese ice cream. We make approximately 225,000 pounds of cheese each year.

We sell cheese from the eastern-most islands in Maine to Anchorage, Seattle, San Diego and Hawaii. We have distributors and national chains that distribute our cheese around the country. We deliver directly to many restaurants in the Glens Falls area and specialty shops like Oscars in Warrensburg, 4 Seasons in Saratoga, and Izzy's and Hudson River Trading Company in North Creek. Hannaford and Price Chopper have both been wonderful supporters of Nettle Meadow this past year when the pandemic has been wreaking havoc on artisan cheesemakers. We also have two of our own retail shops - one at our farm and sanctuary in Thurman, and one at our new facility at the Old Hitching Post in Lake Luzerne.

THE SANCTUARY 

When we arrived at the farm there were a few older goats who had really reached the end of their productive life. At first we let them live out their lives with the other girls, but as they aged, they needed a little more peace and quiet, so we took a portion of one of the barns and set it aside for retired girls. Soon we needed a retirement community and assisted living facility, so we built a new area for the really aged near the main house.  

When we started our first kidding season we partnered with a couple of upstate livestock sellers who contracted to only sell our baby goats for dairy, brush clearing, and 4H and family set ups. But sometimes we had left over boys, and soon our "bachelor pad" was created for boys who did not find homes.  

Over time, people contacted us who were moving out of agriculture areas, or no longer had the resources to care for their animals. We have had horses, donkeys, mini-horses, mini-donkeys, llamas, turkeys, chickens, peacocks, ducks, pigs, cats, dogs, cows, a bull calf, and many many elderly goats and sheep and differently abled goats and sheep in our sanctuary program over the years. We have had some animals in the sanctuary since 2005 and every year it has grown.

ON COMMUNITY SUPPORT

People have supported us in lots of ways. Some people leave change at our shops in the tip jars for the sanctuaries. Some people donate their skill sets - we are always looking for a good plumber or electrician for barn repairs. Some people donate food for the animals, or tools, or fencing. Some people support us by buying our cheese, attending our events, and asking for our cheese when they don't find it in their local stores. There is also a donate button for our sanctuary animals on our Nettle Meadow website and our Kemp Sanctuary at Nettle Meadow website.

ON THE FUTURE 

We are working diligently towards finishing construction of our new cheese plant in Lake Luzerne and hope that we will be able to open the tavern and cheese tasting room with a small plate menu at that location some time this summer. We also hope the extra space will allow us to expand our goat cheese ice cream selections by 2022.

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Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center offers nine state-of-the-art vending machines featuring food, beverages, and gifts from the Adirondack Region and across New York State. Find locally roasted coffee, cold beverages, chips, nuts, snacks, baked goods, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, maple, honey, chocolate, candy, and artisan gifts.

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center is operated by the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for supporting the organizations that support Glens Falls Living!

On the Farm: Asgaard Farm & Dairy

A farm with a view! We headed into the Adirondacks earlier this fall to catch up with David Brunner and Rhonda Butler, the owners of Asgaard Farm and Dairy in Au Sable Forks. As soon as we turned down the tree lined drive, Tom and I both agreed that if we were a goat, this is where we’d like to live! We were thrilled to learn a bit more about the farm’s amazing history, what drew them to farming, and the benefits of their small, diversified, climate friendly approach.

ON BUYING A FARM

We've been here on the farm for a little over 30 years - since 1988. Rhonda grew up in Tennessee, and I grew up in Ohio, both in rural farming communities. We ended up going to college, getting jobs and landing in New York City working for financial institutions after having lived in San Francisco. We’ve lived in lots of parts of the world and had very exciting times, but we had always wanted a farm.

My family kind of migrated here from Ohio. My sister came to Lake Placid after the Olympics. My mother moved up here, because nobody was in Ohio anymore. And on one of our visits, we found this place.

It was a fixer upper. There was not a single window in this entire complex. The roofs were all failing. But it had a great history.

It was owned by an artist by the name of Rockwell Kent. He was a mid 20th century artist, author, writer, illustrator, adventurer, world traveler, and he was a bit of a political activist. Among all those other things that he did, he always wanted a farm. He was also a Columbia trained architect, so he built and designed the farm and had a very well known jersey dairy herd here. He was here from 1927 until he died in 1971. I don't think it was actively farmed past the mid 1960s.

So we've essentially restored the farm over 30 years. First the buildings, then the land and the soils. And over the years, we put our savings into adjacent properties. There's about 1500 acres here now with about one thousand acres of forest which we manage.

David Brunner and Rhonda Butler

ON DIVERSIFIED FARMING

Of our 30 years here so far, we spent probably 15- 20 years coming here first for vacations, then coming once a month, then coming once a week. We spent 15 years more or less working on the place and thinking about how we would put it back into operation.

We decided on a goat dairy as our anchor activity. We milk 60 goats and make cheese here in the creamery onsite.

In order to make the farm work both in terms of in terms of caring for the land, as well as the business, we’ve created a diversified small farm. We have beef cattle, poultry, laying hens, and pigs. And that all works together. The fields are good examples of that. The goats and the cows are dead end hosts for each other's parasites, so we graze one through, and graze the other through next. The cattle help to maintain pastures. The chickens follow the cattle, which is a good routine since there’s plenty to eat and they spread the manure around.

It's a small farm like many in our community, but we find it works well with this diversified set of activities.

ON FARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE

I think climate change is the most important issue facing our generation. Undoubtedly, the most critical issue facing the next generation.

This kind of farming is great for climate change. If you can get the grass to grow like this, with roots deep in the ground, you're basically creating a system which is sequestering carbon, and you're putting oxygen back into the environment. This is a net positive from a climate perspective.

Forest Management is another dimension. We have about 20 acres of wetlands, which are very good carbon sequestering environments.

Beyond the farming practices, we're also committed to renewable energy. We cover about 85% of our electricity with solar, and we’re just installing a small scale wind turbine. We’re working within the APA’s guideline of 40 feet height on that. As a farm, we could go higher, but the idea of this design is that it will operate better in lower wind speeds.

ON A GOAT DAIRY

Of our 60 goats, we have mostly Alpines as well as Nubians, Saanens and LaManchas. They get fresh grass within their paddocks for two days. They can stay there for four days after that, and then the parasites start to emerge, and so begins the rotation.

Goats are seasonal milkers - they’re not like cows. So they'll all stop milking at the end of November or early December. They're like deer in that they breed only in the fall. You can't time them so that some are always in milk like you’d do with a cow. So we joke when some people say, oh, gee, what are your plans? We say, we make our plans in September because once we start breeding, we're stuck for another year!

We make about 10,000 pounds of cheese with the milk from our 60 goats, as well as our goat milk caramels.

ON GRASS FED BEEF

The idea behind the grass fed beef business is that the cows are eating plants that we can't eat. And as a result, the beef is a great, high protein food.

We keep about 30 cows. They're born on these pastures, and they live their whole lives on these pastures. Never in a barn. In the wintertime, we'll put them on a pasture in the back, where they can go in the woods when the weather is bad. We feed them baled hay and give them access to frost free water.

We have several breeds here but the mainstay is our Red Devon. It's the oldest cow recorded and it comes from Devon, England. It's a very important breed in American history as it probably came across on some the early ships. It was called the triple use cow then because they used it for beef, milk, and hauling, so it was a perfect family farm cow. We cross the Devon to Herefords. They're also an English breed and they grow really well on grass. I'm partial to the Devons because we wanted the heritage breed, and I’m partial to Herefords since I grew up around them.

Our cows are always on grass. They don’t eat any grain. Cows don't eat grains naturally, so it tends to poorly affect their performance or make them sick. The idea of grain feeding cows came from a desire to finish them quickly. So without grains, our cows take a little longer to finish - at between 24 and 36 months, whereas feeder calves finish in about 18 months.

ON LOCAL FOOD

Our distribution is all local. The whole idea is that it's a local farm for the local community. About 50-60% we sell direct and around 40-50% goes to local restaurants and local stores.

Here at the farm, we offer our cheese, eggs, grass-fed beef, whey-fed pork, goat milk caramels, and other local goods for pickup at our farm store.

Our sea salt caramels have been very popular product for many years. They have a real cult following. They are small batch, handmade, hand cut, so we can only make so many.

ON FARMING DURING COVID

We had to change everything. We put everything online - all online ordering and payment, and curbside pickup. And that's working well. We've extended our hours, and instead of being open two days a week, we're here every day for pickups except for Sunday. And while our sales to restaurants are down, our direct sales have gone up.

We're all looking for the silver lining in this current situation, and one is that the appreciation for the strong local food system has strengthened. And that's gratifying. We can only hope that it will remain after this is over.

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Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center offers nine state-of-the-art vending machines featuring food, beverages, and gifts from the Adirondack Region and across New York State. Find locally roasted coffee, cold beverages, chips, nuts, snacks, baked goods, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, maple, honey, chocolate, candy, and artisan gifts.

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center is operated by the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for supporting the organizations that support Glens Falls Living!

On the Farm: Hicks Orchard

We headed out to Washington County this week to catch up with Dan Wilson, owner of Hicks Orchard in Granville, and find out a bit more about the orchard we all know and love. We chatted about his beginnings in the business, what’s new in the orchard and in the barn, and of course, their famous cider donuts.

How did you get into the business? 

Kind of sideways, actually. My parents were not farmers. My dad was the head of research and development for General Foods down in White Plains in the ‘70s. We lived in Connecticut then, and we moved up here just as I started high school. My parents purchased the orchard in the mid ’70s. 

My parents always had an open door to me. It wasn’t like they expected me to take this over. It took me years of traveling and working in other places, often coming back here for apple season to decide if I wanted to land here. And I did. 

I learned the business by their example, more than anything else. I studied art and psychology in school. There's a lot of opportunities for creativity and art in this kind of environment, designing labels for example, and a lot of ways of study psychology, too. So that all comes into play. 

I learned horticulture from the folks at Cornell. I encourage extension agents to do as much work as they can here because I learned from them … and I have the best eyes in the state on my crop that way, too. 

It's hard to believe I've been doing this for decades, but that's how time goes. 

I love what I do. I think this year, probably more than I have in a long time. We've pared down in staff which puts me in touch with the very fundamental parts of the orchard. For example, I pruned all the trees this year. I made the cider. And though small, we have a really superlative crew, so this year has just been great. 

Dan Wilson

We love what you do, too! I’ve been coming to Hicks every year since I was a kid. You must hear that all the time.

Thank you. We have a great community. Really good people. I just feel really appreciative to be part of a family’s fall tradition. I did a lot of theater when I was a kid. And so, in some ways, I feel like my job is a stage manager. I'm creating this platform for people to have an experience with their families, which is really rich. We’ve even had people propose in the orchard, so this becomes kind of a part of the fabric of people's lives.

I also think there's this kind of visceral quality of how gratifying it is to go to a place and and pick the food from the tree. That is so fundamental. And an experience that is hard to replace. 

How is this year’s crop looking? 

We have a superlative crop this year, which is a bit of a surprise given that it's been a really dry summer. We have nice fruit, good quality, and good size. And and most varieties that people really like are pretty strong. Of course, we’re also making donuts and a lot of fresh cider, and if I can keep enough hard cider on the shelves, we'll have a good supply of that too.

Tell us more about the orchard itself! 

We have around 12,000 trees, and we continue to plant new trees. We are sadly taking out some of the oldest trees in our orchards, that are now over 100 years old, because the trees are kind of falling apart. They're also a lot harder to take care of. When I'm out in the orchard pruning in the winter, it’s the difference between pruning a little tree with hand clippers versus working with a chainsaw. It's really a difference between horticulture and forestry. 

I have this relationship with these trees that have been here for generations before me, so it's really kind of heartbreaking to make that transition. However, these new trees that we’re planting are some exciting varieties and some are coming into production now. It's a little bit of a learning curve working with trellised apple trees that look more like vineyards than orchards, but that's the transition farms go through. 

What’s it been like for you navigating this season in the midst of a pandemic? 

Well, this is our 115th u-pick apple season here on the farm. It's interesting because you think about all the historical events that have transpired in the last 115 years, including another pandemic. We got through that, and so we're figuring out how best to navigate this. 

I think we’re seeing a little bit of a benefit from the fact that there haven't been too many other things for people to be able to do. There's a fair amount of mourning for the fact that there was no Washington County Fair or Balloon Festival. So people are looking for opportunities to get out, and coming to pick apples outdoors should be pretty correctly perceived to be a low risk kind of activity. 

We’ve built a program to be as safe as we possibly can. One of the things we're doing this year, which is new, is that we're offering a couple of midweek incentives for people to come out. Partly because we feel like we're plugged into this community in a in a pretty significant way. And for everything that's going on in this country, the effort to rebuild community, I think is an important one. So we’d like to play a little part in that by by giving back to senior citizens, since they kind of brought us here. So Tuesdays are our senior discount days and we're offering 10% off apples, either picked or u-pick, and fresh cider and donuts. 

On Wednesdays, we're creating the same offer for the broad category of essential workers, which includes health care and emergency workers, but also active military and teachers, so they get the same 10% discount. 

On Thursdays and Fridays, we're open an hour later and we’ll be firing up our pizza oven. Again, we’re offering these incentives and additional hours partly to give back, but also to encourage people to come during the week to help us decompress the number of people here on weekends a little bit. 

Other than the pandemic, what are some of the other challenges you face at the orchard?

We're super dependent on the weather. And we've been really lucky this year. It was such a dry summer. But then we got the tail end of a hurricane that came through and in one day dumped four inches of rain. It wasn't all at once. It was a long all day rain, which is perfect and the one reason we have apples of significant size.

We got lucky with that. But there's so many ways that we can be unlucky, right? I'm never confident about our crop until I see somebody with a bag of apples, that they've already paid for, walking down to the car. Because so many things can go wrong up to that point. But right now, we're in the middle of a great season. We've seen good times and challenging times, and have negotiated those. 

We can’t not ask about the cider donuts, because they are hands-down our favorite!

Well, it's because of the superlative cider that goes into them! And the fact that we use a lot of cider in every batch of doughnuts. We have a great mix that we've never changed. We've only tinkered with it up to the point of creating a maple glazed version this past spring. We'll have them again later when it cools off a little bit. We're experimenting with a pumpkin spice version, too.

Having something like the donuts that is a weatherproof part of our business is a wonderful thing. 

What’s next for Hicks? 

Starting a couple years ago, we experimented with being open through the winter. It's a challenge, because we don't have heat in the barn, but people responded well, so we do plan to be open year-round on weekends. 

We’re also growing the store as a hub of other local producers like cheeses, honey, and syrup. We've done that for a long time, but we're really working to be kind of a central purveyor of local products that people can come to one place to purchase. One of the great things that has come out of the pandemic is a greater desire to support local business, and this is another way to do that. 

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Hicks Orchard
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Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center offers nine state-of-the-art vending machines featuring food, beverages, and gifts from the Adirondack Region and across New York State. Find locally roasted coffee, cold beverages, chips, nuts, snacks, baked goods, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, maple, honey, chocolate, candy, and artisan gifts.

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center is operated by the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for supporting the organizations that support Glens Falls Living!

On the Farm: Pleasant Valley Apiary

Sweet and good for you? Yes please! We headed out to the farm this week to catch up with Tom Wells of Pleasant Valley Apiary in Argyle (who you probably recognize from the Glens Falls Farmers Market!) and find out a bit more about the importance of bees, the benefits of honey, and how it all comes to be (or shall we say bee?!).

How did you get started with beekeeping? 

I started beekeeping when I was 16 years old after watching my grandfather catch a swarm of bees from a local tree. I started by just keeping a few hives as a hobby, and continued to learn through taking classes and from fellow beekeepers. As I started producing more, I decided to begin selling the honey wholesale, and as time went on, I began selling to the public at farmers markets and other venues like Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center.

Today, I have about 105 hives and they’re located on various farms across Washington County. I make around 5,000 pounds of honey per year now. 

Let’s get back to the basics for a moment - how is it that bees make honey?!

Bees make honey by collecting nectar from floral blossoms and bringing it back to the hive, where the bees turn the nectar into honey by dehydrating it to a desired moisture content - around 17%. 

We’ve all heard the phrases busy bee and worker bee - tell us more about their jobs. 

Every bee has a job within the hive. They usually start out as nurse bees who tend to the larvae and feed the young. Then they become house bees, performing tasks like cleaning the hive, removing the dead, building honeycomb, and repairing the hive. They then move up to field bees, where they go to find and collect the nectar. 

The typical lifespan of a honeybee is around 3 to 4 weeks in the summer time and up to 6 to 8 months in the winter. 

(Pictured above: Can you spot the Queen?)

What does the harvesting process look like? 

To harvest the honey, I go out to each apiary (where I keep the hives) and pull off the honey supers, which are the boxes containing the frames for honey production. From there, I take it back to my honey house and uncap it, which removes the top layer of wax and allows the honey to be extracted. It then goes into my extractor and through a pump to a collection tank where it sits for two to three days. This time allows all of the wax particles to come to the top so that they can be scraped off and put back out for the bees to clean. 

The honey tastes different based on the blossoms from which the bees have gathered the nectar. I separate the honey from all of my apiaries so that I can have different flavored honey based on each location - for example, blueberry, lavender and wildflower.

(Pictured above: The view from one of Pleasant Valley’s apiaries.)

What are the differences between honey you might get at the supermarket vs. fresh, local honey? 

The major difference between store-bought honey and honey produced by us is that the store-bought honey is pasteurized and filtered. Our honey on the other hand, is never pasteurized, never filtered, and is always different because every bucket of our honey has all the goodness that God intended us to eat. 

There’s a lot of pride that goes into our honey. We have many customers that will attest that it helps them with their allergies, helps them sleep better, and I’ve even had some of my customers use it in medicinal ways by orders of their doctors and their veterinarians.

We hear a lot about importance of honeybees - tell us more!  

Without a honeybee there would be empty grocery stores in every city! There’s not many fruits or vegetables that do not need pollination from the work of a honeybee to survive. 

A major challenge for honeybee colonies today is the loss of suitable forage so that the honeybee can have a diverse palette to survive on. The use and improper use of pesticides have also taken a toll. Not very many people realize that the dandelions in your lawn are the first flowers in spring that honeybees use to start their brood rearing.

What are the most rewarding parts of keeping bees? Any challenges? 

The biggest challenge of running a business keeping bees is keeping the bees alive throughout the winter. It is awful to have a beautiful colony of bees in the fall only to find them dead in the spring. I do everything that I have been taught to keep the bees alive and to get rid of the Varroa mite - everything that I use to keep these under control are organic in nature.

Speaking of winter, honeybees do not hibernate in the winter. Instead they form a cluster and shiver so that they can keep the hive warm. The inside temperature of a honeybee hive in the winter time is around 93°! 

By far the most rewarding aspect of the business is seeing our customers enjoy our honey and come back with great stories to share with my wife, daughter and I as we sell them their next jar.

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Pleasant Valley Apiary
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Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center offers nine state-of-the-art vending machines featuring food, beverages, and gifts from the Adirondack Region and across New York State. Find locally roasted coffee, cold beverages, chips, nuts, snacks, baked goods, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, maple, honey, chocolate, candy, and artisan gifts.

Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center is operated by the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for supporting the organizations that support Glens Falls Living!

On the Farm: Sunset Farm

’Tis the season for fresh, local veggies, and it doesn’t get much more local than the produce grown and harvested at Sunset Farm on Ridge Road in Queensbury! We popped in last weekend and came away with a basket filled with the best of summer - corn, tomatoes, cucumber, summer squash, a loaf of sourdough (still warm!), a bouquet of flowers - that we cut ourselves, might we add - and a half dozen of the most delightful molasses cookies. While there, we chatted with owner Elizabeth Miller to find out a bit more about the farm and their plans for growth (pun intended!).

On the Past

We’d love to hear a bit about the farm’s history!

We purchased the farm on September 14, 2008. It was a long standing produce stand on Ridge Road and I wanted to see it continue. I was afraid that a developer would purchase the land and remove the last bit of operating farm on Ridge Road. The goal was to save the farm and see it grow for generations to come!

According to the local records, the farm has been operating since 1928. We aren’t really sure what the primary crop was at that time. From the little bits people were able to tell us, we can presume they had a variety of crops. There were originally two farm stands directly next to one another that were operated by rather interesting characters. The other farm stand was where the Emergency Squad is currently located.

Do you have any idea where the name of the farm came from? 

We aren’t completely sure of the origin of the name “Sunset Farm”, but at certain times of the year, the sunset viewed from the back field is gorgeous - so that might’ve had something to do with it!

Any carryovers from the original farm?

Over the years, we have had many customers share their version of the “original” molasses cookie recipe from back in the day! It’s been pretty neat to have our customers share stories of the farm and to see the variations in the molasses cookie recipes. We still bake and sell our famous molasses cookies every week!

On Growth

You’ve been growing!  Tell us about the evolution of the farm to date. 

We take great pride in serving our customers local, home grown produce, as well as locally sourced products. Our expansion started with the hoop house located behind the farm stand and we eventually added an electric fence around the main field. This year, we have expanded immensely with the addition of a split rail out front, a pergola behind the stand, a 30x90 greenhouse behind the field and the cultivation of an additional two acres. Because of the expansion, we needed to include an additional well. We have more sprinklers and drip lines. Our permit has been approved to extend our roof and add additional space to the interior of the stand this fall. 

Over the years, we have greatly expanded our Sunset Farm team! Hal Bain has been working on the farm for the past nine years and continues to be a favorite face to all of our customers! We are so pleased to have Caroline Brown and Chelsae Gadway as part of our team, alongside our wonderful volunteer, Nick Caimano. With the help of Bill Batkay, Griff Thomas is spearheading expansion on the farm for the next generation. Our most recent area of growth has been the addition of our two field workers, Madelyn and Amelia VanKirk, who do an amazing job on all aspects of the farm!

Sisters Madelyn and Amelia VanKirk

What are some unique aspects of the farm? 

We are proud to grow so much of our own produce! It is important for our customers to see where their food is being grown. If we don’t grow it, we source it locally! We also take great pride in our garden! When our flowers are in full bloom, there is nothing more beautiful! We encourage our customers to swing by the stand to pick their own bouquets and explore the field of flowers. It’s a great activity on a warm summer day and a highlight on the farm! 

On the Goods

What are some of the primary crops now available? 

We have been harvesting most of our crops this year, so there’s always a wonderful variety of produce for our customers to choose from! Right now, we have tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, zucchini, squash, yellow and green beans, banana peppers, napa cabbage, cucumbers, winter squash, pumpkins, gourds and locally grown corn available at the farm. Of course, we love our flowers at Sunset Farm! We have hanging baskets in the Spring and mums in the Fall. Throughout the season, we stock lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, swiss chard, bell peppers, banana peppers, green and wax beans, asparagus, zucchini, summer squash, beets, spring onions, onions, cabbage, potatoes and so much more!

You also have a nice variety of other local goods, too! 

We do! Along with our own produce, we have a nice selection of locally sourced goods including corn from BJ's Farm and honey from our bees. We also carry Battenkill Chocolate Milk, as well as some delicious sourdough bread, chocolate chip cookies, maple syrup, cheese, bottled herbs, fruit (Hand melons, blueberries, cherries, Ariel’s strawberries, etc.). In the fall, we will be selling our own apples! If you're a regular at our store, you already know about our famous molasses cookies! 

On Community

Do you provide any of your goods to any local restaurants? 

Yes, we do! We love connecting with local restaurants to offer a farm to table experience. We want to highlight locally grown products and support local businesses. Over the years, we have worked with many local businesses and have recently expanded our distribution list to include Doc’s Restaurant and Cleverdale General Store. We deliver a variety of products including lettuce, cucumbers, potatoes, green peppers, green and yellow beans, zucchini and summer squash, to name a few. The delivery orders change every week depending on harvest times and restaurant needs.

On the Future

What’s next at the farm?

We are always looking to expand and better our farm. We are planning to build a asparagus, rhubarb and strawberry plot for our customers to enjoy. It would be wonderful for our customers to be able to visit the farm and pick their own berries! We would love to eventually provide greens throughout the year. We hope to grow our customer base, increase our outreach to local restaurants and further expand our production with the addition of another greenhouse. We greatly value our customers and their continuous support!

Hal Bain / Chelsae Gadway

Sunset Farm
1099 Ridge Road, Queensbury
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