What a fun week! Earlier in the week, I continued to schedule farm interviews. On Thursday and Friday, Barb took T and me on a car tour of Tioga County. We visited several farms and looked at some of the solar installations around the county.
On Thursday, we toured the northern part of the county. We drove by several farms and Barb talked about how each one fits into the Tioga County farming community. I saw many farms located in the “bottomland”, profiting from the flat, fertile soil of the river valley. We visited Heritage Haus, a diversified livestock farm. Jenn showed us her sheep, goats, miniature horse, chickens, and pigs, which mingle together in the barn and paddock, as shown in pictures below. The highlight of our visit was seeing the Kunekune piglets that were only two days old. It was great to see the animals and hear about Jenn’s livestock management and learn about markets for meat.
Jenn has worked with Tioga County Soil & Water Conservation District on several projects around her farm, including new fencing and new trees as a riparian buffer.
During the Berkshire portion of our tour, I was lucky enough to eat a delicious chicken spiedie, a culinary staple of the Southern Tier. I closed out the day with a stop at the Candor farmer’s market, which had a variety of farmers, artists, and other vendors.
The tour continued on Friday with a stop at Tremblay Apiaries in Van Etten. Tremblay Apiaries sells bee products at a farmer’s market in New York City each weekend and in their shop during the week. I was interested to learn about the different types of honeys they produce, and to hear about their business model of serving customers in New York City and the Southern Tier. Apiaries are one type of agriculture that is talked about as a possibility for agrivoltaics, so I was able to learn from the Tremblay team about some characteristics of apiaries that are relevant to the concept of bees raised among solar panels. I left Tremblay Apiaries with more knowledge of apiaries and a fresh jar of local honey!
We then visited Side Hill Acres, a dairy goat farm in Candor. Their farm store offered delicious cheeses – I could not pass up the Rosemary Garlic option. We met the friendly goats who produce the milk and cheese when the Kellogg family showed us their goats, milking parlor, and milk tank. I was able to learn about what breeds they choose to keep, and how they bottle-feed their goats to protect the mothers’ health and establish a good relationship with the goats. The goats were happy to greet us, and I was glad to learn about how a family goat farm works!
Along the drive, we looked at several solar projects. I had read about some of these projects and located them on the Tioga County GIS map, so it improved my understanding to see these installations in person and notice their surroundings and location characteristics.
Friday’s tour was fueled by a stop at Engelbert Farms Store and Creamery to eat a medley of local farm products.
The tour was rounded out with a visit to the farm on Cass Hill Road that is about to become the new CCE Tioga office. The views on the farm are beautiful and the farm contains pastures, a horse barn, a pond, a riding ring, and more. I look forward to seeing the expanded agricultural education opportunities CCE Tioga will be able to offer from their awesome new location!
All in all, the Tioga County Grand Tour, as we called it, equipped me with a deeper knowledge of the towns that compose Tioga County, the several different types of farming within the county, and the current solar installations. I look forward to visiting more farms during my upcoming farmer interviews.