Donna & Tim’s Fall Harvest Farm

In addition to being the owners of your favorite coffee house did you know that Tim and Donna were also farmers? Not only do they make a mean cup of coffee but over the past three years they have been converting their 13 acres of heaven in Gardiner into a sustainable, family farm.

What began with 6 goats, all of whom had names and many of whom were bottle fed by Donna and the girls, is growing by leaps and bounds.

Last season Fall Harvest Farm was home to 24 laying chickens and 100 meat birds. We also raised 3 grass-fed, grass-finished steers as part of our burgeoning beef cooperative. Plans for this coming season include increasing the number of laying hens to 300 (so that all of the eggs we offer on our breakfast menu can be farm fresh, free -range and beyond delicious) and raising another 100 meat birds. Then in May we are hoping to add 9 steers (depending on the number of members in the cooperative this year) to keep the grass mowed and the earth healthy.

In addition to all of this growth, even more exciting news is that the Farm is going solar!

Inspired by his attendance at  “The Winter Green-Up Grass-Fed Beef Conference” in Voorhesville, (don’t worry, we didn’t know where it was either until we got there) sponsored by the Cornell Cooperative Extension, Tim is working on converting the farm operation to solar power. Thanks to a number of available  grants from NY state the conversion to solar will be both attainable and economical. Once the work is done, the lights, the water heater and the walk in cooler will all be powered by 100% renewable energy.

Thank goodness we have the good folks at Counter Culture Coffee to supply us with sustainably farmed coffee beans because we just don’t think we could swing that here in our Northern climes- especially not after a winter like this one!

We’ll be certain to keep you posted with news and photos from the farm this Spring as the solar conversion develops.