In mid-October I visited three farms in Delaware County, NY. I piggy backed these visits onto Pig Mountain (no pun intended!), since I would be upstate in the vicinity helping prep and work the event. First I went to Lucky Dog Farm followed by Slope Farms and Stone & Thistle Farm.

That Friday morning, I awoke to heavy rain. I wasn’t looking forward to spending the whole day outside to say the least. But I threw on my long underwear and rain gear and headed to Hamden to meet Richard of Lucky Dog Farm. He and his crew were harvesting beets when I arrived. They were hard at work and my visit wasn’t going to disrupt their momentum. So I volunteered to jump in so I could chat with him along the way. I sensed Richard was a little apprehensive to talk to me, especially about doing business. Besides visiting the farm, I was looking to develop a relationship on behalf of the restaurant. It became clear that Richard had been burned by wholesale buyers in the past and was frustrated by the whole food system. He was just being cautious and I can respect that approach. But I think after helping Richard harvest and hashing it out, he let down his guard a bit. I’m optimistic that we can do business in the future. Especially now that he has started attending the Union Square Greenmarket on Fridays. Yeah! The rains last year truly devastated his crops so I’m looking forward to a fresh start this spring. After Richard was satisfied with the quantity of harvested beets, we moved on to the leek patch. I continued to help for a while until I had to head on to my next farm visit. I was able to sneak in a quick lunch at the Lucky Dog Farm Store’s cafe, which was a nice respite from the rain.

From Hamden I headed northeast to Delhi to meet with Ken of Slope Farms. I’ve known Ken for a while and had been hoping to get the restaurant to purchase from him. I respect his philosophy on raising animals and how to nurture the whole ecosystem. We made it happen and we get a half steer every two weeks, give or take. Though the rain and dreariness continued, I couldn’t help but stand in awe of the hills of bright green pasture. The cows were so happy grazing on the grass, especially on the apples that had fallen from the trees. It was so cute to see how excited the cows were when eating the fruit. They would almost scamper over to me when I tossed them apples. Ken keeps the cows in several groups based on age on his fields. He has additional cows which another farmer keeps on his pasture because he doesn’t have enough. In addition, on the other side of the hill are the some pigs, which I didn’t get a chance to see.

As the afternoon was passing by I had to continue north, heading to my final farm of the day, Stone & Thistle Farm in East Meredith. I’ve also know Denise and Tom for a while. I’m big fans of their goat yogurt, which sadly they had to stop making because Evan’s Creamery in Norwich where it was made wanted to focus on processing dairy for a few larger clients. They scoured the country side but could not find a creamery within two hours of their farm. They’ve been grant writing and fundraising and have started to erect their own creamery on the farm, which they will allow other local farms to use as well. Tom gave me the tour, showing me the turkeys, chickens, goats, cows, and sheep. They have quite the diversity. The restaurant have bought a few lambs in the past. I hope we can continue to work together.

After a long day, on the drive home, a rainbow appeared over the mountains. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending.