Thursday, August 16, 2018

Will the Farmers Survive the Flood?

On August 14, flash floods hit a number of upstate New York communities, including the small community of Nichols, New York.

One farm devastated is a family owned operations called Englebert Farms.  It is believed that they are the oldest organic certified dairy in the United States.

This farm, according to Facebook posts, faces an uncertain future after the flood that hit them on Thursday.  Today, I repeat a post from October of 2017, when my spouse and I toured the farm.  It was a wonderful experience.

I wanted to show you a couple more pictures I didn't publish the first time.
A calf.
Pigs.
Your local farmer always needs you, but they need you more than ever after disaster strikes.

Please, support your local farmer today.  They aren't the only farmers suffering; it's just one story I'm aware of.  And now, the post from October 2017 with small edits:

These pictures were taken two Saturdays ago at a Tioga Farm/Art Trail open house at Engelbert Farms near Nichols, New York.

As far as they know, this farm is the oldest organic certified dairy in the United States.The land has been in possession of this family for well over 100 years.
Here are some of their "girls". The barn they are in, by the way, is a shelter.  The cows have free access to the outdoors. 
A farmer feeds a cow.

The milking parlor is antiquated, but fulfills the needs of the farm.

As I spoke with one of the family, and met some more family members, it became obvious just how hard these farmers work. Dairy farming is quite labor intensive, apart from the fact that cows must be milked twice a day, each and every day. 

This farm has a farm store which sells produce in season.

Engelbert  is locally famed for  delicious organic cheese products such as cheese.  They are a bit expensive, but we also buy their cheese from time to time.  If you ever wonder why these products are expensive, you should meet, and talk with, a small farmer.

As we left, the family member giving us the tour said "Feel free to ask questions anytime!"

It is a wonderful thing to meet and talk to a food producer, to see where your food really comes from, and how hard these farmers work to put food on your table.  And if Dutch Hills Creamery (whom I blogged last year-AM) can not get back into operation after a disastrous fire (August 2018 update - sadly, they did not recover), our community will be poorer for that.

Support a local farmer today!

8 comments:

  1. This reminds me of how farming was originally intended to be - before mass production and price cutting and corner cutting became the norm. So sorry to hear that they've been hit by those floods.

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  2. As a suburbanite, I haven't spend much time on farms, so this was interesting, Alana. How sad this family business has been damaged by flooding. I hope they do recover, unlike the other farm you mentioned.

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  3. Sad that things like this can destroy livelihoods.

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  4. I do hope that Englebert Farms is able to recover after the flood and am saddened to hear the fate of Dutch Hills Creamery. Farming is hard work but this really is the way it should be done. Small organic farms are our only hope of reversing the industrialization of farms, mass production, and the mistreatment/torture of animals in those settings. Spending a little extra on well-raised food definitely pays off in many ways!

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  5. As a rancher's daughter, I am totally behind this. And looking for ways to help . . .

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  6. Oh, gosh, I've been seeing a lot of the flooding from my friends in Trumansburg. Terrible stuff. I hope this farm (and everyone else who's been hit) is able to recover.

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  7. Brava for "bringing the bacon home" so we stop and think about where our food comes from, and who's responsible for growing and raising and getting it to us.

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  8. It sounds like a wonderful farm I would love to buy groceries from. it's hard work and they need all the help they can get to keep doing good work.

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