100% Farm Fresh

Mother always said to eat your vegetables, and in Central New York, if you follow her advice, you’ll be eating your way from Madison County to Greater Binghamton! As gluttonous a trip as it may sound, it’s actually very healthy – you’ll be tasting the most natural fruits, veggies, cheeses, meats of the area, as fresh as they come.

First up? A little place known as the 2002 New York State Agritourism Business of the Year, Critz Farms in Madison County! Sitting atop 325 acres of rolling farm land, Critz Farms’ centers on diversified agriculture with a family entertainment focus. The chirping of spring-loving birds on the window ledge is your sign to visit for the sweet taste of maple syrup. Come summer, join in some sweet berry picking in the fields. For more family oriented farm fun, stop by BMR acres and learn about the benefi ts of raising alpacas and alternative livestock. See alpacas, miniature baby doll sheep, mini-donkeys and silkie chickens and come back for various festivals here throughout the year. Spend a summer’s night at The Farm in Cazenovia to go back in time to 1830 and relish in the simple pleasures of sipping coffee in the morning on an expansive porch overlooking a beautiful valley, and spending the afternoon strolling along the farmland watching the livestock scuttle around and farm animals play in their natural habitat. Bring a towel in case Uncle Bill rolls around in the pigpen again.

A hop, skip and a jump (and maybe one more jump) over is Banner Ridge Alpaca Farm in Chenango County, your next stop on your CNY farm fresh foray, featuring, you guessed it (the name sabotages the element of surprise) Alpaca. Visit the gift shop on the premises as well for local goodies and unique treats. For fi ne fruit wines and hard ciders made right under your nose, or shall we say snout, amble on over to Black Bear Winery and sip an extremely aromatic, fruity, light, dry strawberry, a semi-sweet, tongue tingling hard cider, or a nice round, sweet blueberry. In keeping with the animal theme, leap over your lily pad to Frog Pond Farm Stand for the freshest produce and plants, and the usual suspects – cute farm animals. For everything from fresh greens and vegetables, to u-pick strawberries and blueberries, to Christmas trees, venture to Heller’s Farm Market or trot over to Hopestead Hill Farms to ba-a-a-ask in the sunshine with the grazing sheep (couldn’t resist) and emu traipsing around the meadows.

No phony encouragement from a corny photographer needed to get you to “say cheeeese” in Montgomery County! Scurry over to Palatine Valley Dairy to nibble on Cheddar cheese, fl avored Cheddar cheese – with 25 to choose from! – and freshly made, fl avored cheese curd – with seven fl avors to try. Palatine Valley Dairy is the only brand in the Northeast that can boast this many fl avors of cheddar cheese and cheese curd. Don’t you want to schedule a tour to view the fl avorful cheese-making process? If you’ve had your fi ll of dairy delights, hang onto your hat as you head to the 169th Fonda Fair full of midway rides, live musical entertainment, livestock and cattle shows, and truck and tractor pulls. This year The Charlie Daniels Band is headlining the fair! As summer slips into fall, slurp a Sundae on the Farm, an event offering horse drawn wagon rides, animals and farm exhibits on display, a milking contest, and yes, ice cream sundaes.

With so many farms to choose from in Montgomery County, why limit yourself and pick just one? Take a Harvest Tour! The all-seasons Harvest Tour map features 52 producers and can narrow your hunt for spring fl owers and summer produce, to fall apple picking and wintry holiday decorations. (Call 1-800-743-7337 for a copy of the map.)

Had enough healthy fruits and vegetables and craving something sweeter? Schoharie County has the answer to your mouthwatering prayers: maple syrup. Bring your flap-jack appetite to Buck Hill Farm for a hearty pancake breakfast every Sunday, October – May. Satisfy more hotcake hunger pangs at Stone House Farm’s pancake breakfasts offered February through April, where pure maple syrup, maple cream, maple candy, and maple sugar reign! It’s pure maple mania. Ride that sugar high with a Sap House tour at Maple Hill Farm to watch the time-honored, old-fashioned family tradition of making rich syrup with a wood-fi red evaporator. (You didn’t think you could eat it right out of the tree, now did you?) Or visit Wood Homestead Maple Syrup for maple products and sorghum syrup, known to the layman or laywoman as that ooey, gooey goodness called “molasses.”

We’ve covered most of the food pyramid – fruits, veggies and dairy, all the way to syrup and maple candy – so, naturally, the next stop on your quest for farm freshness is Fly Creek Cider Mill & Orchard in Cooperstown for over 40 specialty foods including fresh mill-made fudge, salsa, and apple wines. This historic, water-powered cider mill on the banks of Fly Creek presses crisp cider and offers tours, as well as straight-from-the-fields meals served atop an observation deck. Whatever you do, do NOT leave without sampling something sickeningly scrumptious from the bakery or slurping up a famous cider float. Learn about the heritage of Central New York circa 1845 through the innovative “living history” museum, The Farmers’ Museum where history is brought to life with exhibits, craft demonstrations and hands-on activities. For those whose whistle becomes a bit parched from all the historical talk, swallow an award-winning Belgian-style beer from one of the fi rst farmstead breweries built in America, Brewery Ommegang, a 135-acre former hops farm. Or, stick to sipping “vino” at Bear Pond Winery, specializing in dessert wines, food pairing ideas and wine accessories.

100 bottles of beer on the wall! 100 bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it ‘round Cooperstown, 99 bottles of beer on the wall. 99 bottles of beer… Ok, that’s enough of that! Continue onward and upward and visit the Cooperstown Brewing Company for tasty English style ales with catchy names like Old Slugger, Nine Man Ale and Benchwarmer. Before you slug a few back, consider that a beer with the name Old Slugger is probably not going to feel so great when you wake up in the morning. Get the best of brewing with the Cooperstown Beverage Trail: Fly Creek Cider Mill, Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown Brewing Company, and Bear Pond Winery. Cooperstown has a centuries-old history of the drink, going back well before baseball became America’s pastime, and this particular route happens to be New York’s very first official cuisine trail.

Sample over 100 years of brewing tradition at Saranac Brewery in Oneida County. To the Iroquois (the native people of Utica), Saranac means “cluster of stars.” They lived under those stars with the beauty and serenity that was inherent to the lake and surrounding wooded area. Likewise, the Saranac line of beers is brewed from the pure water that fl ows from the Adirondacks and the grains that grow in its soil. Take a tour of the brewery and start with history and hops, continuing on to brewing, bottling and – the best part – tasting. To delight in fresh apple cider, hot cider donuts, apples, pies, soups, and many other wonderful treats, visit the Clinton Cider Mill. Watch cider being made on our 100 year-old press while you relish in a homemade snack on the porch.

Bruised, browned, rotten, dimpled, squishy. Don’t settle for produce that was clearly hackie-sacked around the stockroom – pick your own in Greater Binghamton! At Apple Hills, you’ll find strawberry, cherry, raspberry, blueberry, and appleberry, ok, just apple, U-Pick seasons. Sink your teeth into crisp vegetables, pears, plums, and over a dozen varieties of apples from Ida Red to Golden Delicious at their Big Red Farm Market.

See “what’s growing on” at Lone Maple Farm and taste their hearty homemade soups, hot-out-of-the-oven baked goods, churned-to-perfection ice cream and flavorful wines. Check out the crop of the week and other available high quality produce and plants. Another family-owned farm in the area boasting mouth-watering gourmet foods is Fiato’s Orchard & Farm Market, providing what some have called “the best sausage in the world” (impressive!) and homemade spiedies. Pinpointing a single reason why these farms are so amazing is quite the challenge – is it the top-notch organic produce and homemade goodies, or their personalized customer service that makes you feel like you’re part of the family as soon as you step foot in their quaint country store?

At Herkimer Home State Historical Site, you can participate in the traditional maple sugaring process, from the tree to the colonial kitchen. Learn a lesson or two in sap boiling, sap tasting, and spile making – a spile is the iron spigot driven into a sugar maple to produce syrup for those of you out there lacking syrup savvy. Take in a sweet mouthful of hot waffles and maple gingerbread cooked over an open hearth, and giddy up and go on a horse drawn wagon ride around the area!

For a schedule of farmers markets throughout the summer held in Herkimer County Villages, visit www.herkimercountychamber.com.