Yesterday I showed you one of the last working dairy farms in town. But not all the farms that are no longer dairy have gone out of farming completely.
The wine is "Boyden Valley" (wwww.boydenvalley.com). It's run by one brother. The other brother runs Boyden Farm (meat and VT products market and event space).
--Missouri has it's own great wine country as I recall. We made several trips out to Hermann.
Great photos! I don't mind seeing the dairy farms in this area go out of business as long as they remain a working farm.
And you can't go wrong with Polled Herefords! We had a small cow/calf operations for 10 years but you need to be rich to farm in this area of the state ... you're competing with people from the cities who want to buy up the land for ski area condos/development or want just to use it as a summer home. In that case, to my way of thinking, they should be taxed heavily as the land is no longer productive.
The Boyden Farm is doing well in their beef business because they put a lot into marketing and sell wholesale as well as retail. Going out of dairy was tough on Dad more than anyone else, as it was what he had known. The kids did make sure he was not on-site the day the bulk tank went.
As for development--look for shots later this week.
Yeah, I know it can be rough but it's not as if it's a summer place or condo heaven...or in the case of my grandmothers farm sold simply for the big bucks like my father did... may his black soul rot in He**!
I argued and argued against it being sold and asked that my husband and I be allowed to take over the place and work it. We already pastured our cows on my aunt's connecting 10 acres and I thought I had come up a full proof plan -- we would supply him with all the free milk, eggs, meat, and vegetables if he'd pay the taxes on the place until we got established and then we'd buy him out ... but sadly it was no deal.
Some day I'll have to post my poem GONE: SOLD IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS on here as it explains a lot about who I am.
No, this particular farm isn't gone, but we've got our own condo heavens. I'll be showing them later in the week. Here in the Lamoille Valley the flood plain means that some land will likely stay in agriculture permanently, but it also means potential crop loss for the farmers.
As for the summer places, I grew up in Peacham which had a huge summer community, so I know what you mean. Very few of the "summer folks" had the foresight to keep their land open by letting farmers hay it or graze young cattle. On the other hand, they employed people like me when I was in high school and college to babysit and clean their houses and it was a local job where otherwise there wouldn't have been anything.
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--Missouri has it's own great wine country as I recall. We made several trips out to Hermann.
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And you can't go wrong with Polled Herefords! We had a small cow/calf operations for 10 years but you need to be rich to farm in this area of the state ... you're competing with people from the cities who want to buy up the land for ski area condos/development or want just to use it as a summer home. In that case, to my way of thinking, they should be taxed heavily as the land is no longer productive.
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As for development--look for shots later this week.
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I argued and argued against it being sold and asked that my husband and I be allowed to take over the place and work it. We already pastured our cows on my aunt's connecting 10 acres and I thought I had come up a full proof plan -- we would supply him with all the free milk, eggs, meat, and vegetables if he'd pay the taxes on the place until we got established and then we'd buy him out ... but sadly it was no deal.
Some day I'll have to post my poem GONE: SOLD IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS on here as it explains a lot about who I am.
Reply
As for the summer places, I grew up in Peacham which had a huge summer community, so I know what you mean. Very few of the "summer folks" had the foresight to keep their land open by letting farmers hay it or graze young cattle. On the other hand, they employed people like me when I was in high school and college to babysit and clean their houses and it was a local job where otherwise there wouldn't have been anything.
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