Natural Choice Vacation

You are here: Home

Features

Blueberry Picking

It’s midsummer and blueberries are ripe on bushes all across Tioga County, where we have twice as many blueberry farms as any of the neighboring New York counties. So no corner of our county is too farm from a place where friends and family can gather for an enjoyable outing of blueberry picking.

The nutritious blue morsels require little bending or stooping to pick, freeze easily, are great in muffins, cobblers, jams, jellies, pancakes and pies (or just gobbled raw), and can be found on a farm that’s distinct in character.

At TLC Blueberry Farm, which is a mile west of Smithboro at 2053 Rt. 17C (607-222-2697), you’ll find the berries on a rustic hillside that overlooks the Susquehanna River valley. And you can even get a ride up the hill if you don’t want to walk. TLC, by the way, stands for “Tender Loving Care.”

At Gary’s Berries, which is about 6 miles east of Owego at 5603 Rt. 17C in Campville (607-748-0286), you’ll find the berries on bushes surrounded by carefully manicured lawns. This blueberry patch is so popular that the “Closed for Ripening” sign is often up on Mondays after a busy picking weekend.

At Our Green Acres farm, which is just west of Owego on Rt. 17C at 3965 Waverly Road (607-687-2874), you’ll find the berries in a broad valley after traveling down a rocky road whose sign states, “Toll Road, FREE for customers of Our Green Acres.” The squawking birds you’ll hear come from a recording played to keep the starlings and robins from the berries.

At Locust Woods Farm, which is at 420 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer (607-589-4502), y ou’ll find the berries in tunnel-like rows of bushes on a hilltop that provides a scenic view of the surrounding area. The free-range chickens you’ll see on the lawn love the blueberries, and you can buy their fresh eggs at the stand.

At Mill’s Berry and Sheep Farm, which is off West Creek Road at 424 Upper Fairfield Road, Newark Valley (607-659-5904), you’ll find the berries in a beautiful creek valley surrounded by sheep pastures and a goose pond, where the feathery residents keep tabs on the comings and goings of pickers.

And at Traues Blueberries, which is off Sibley Road at 2498 Upper Briggs Hollow Road, Owego (607-699-7246), you’ll find the berries adorning huge ancient bushes unlike any other in the county.

The individual character of each blueberry farm also comes from the different farmers, who are often on hand to chat as you depart the patch with bucket brimming. They’re all friendly personalities who love their land and enjoy their customers.

But don’t wait too long to go. The blueberries won’t be around much beyond the middle of August.

IMG_0565-1

Why Buy Local Farm Products?

For quality, freshness, and taste:

Local is usually fresher and tastes better.
Fresher food is more nutritious.

Keep your money local:

Local farms mean more local jobs for local people.
The economic “multiplier effect” of family farms is higher than other business sectors. Every dollar is turned over up to 5 times when farmers buy supplies, equipment, and fuel.
When you buy directly from farmers, the farm family receives more of the food dollars spent.
The more farms, the more economic opportunity for people in rural communities.
Suppliers, processors, distributors and retailers all benefit from diverse local agriculture.
Owner-operated farms offer individuals self-employment and business management opportunities.
You support your community. When you buy local, your money stays local.

Preserve bio-diversity, open space, rural aesthetics and a cleaner environment:

Diversity of farms and cropping systems contributes to biological diversity.
Diversity of farms contributes to an aesthetically-pleasing rural landscape.
Keeping local farms in business preserves open space and wildlife habitat.
Farms help maintain high water quality by reducing water run-off.
Fuel consumption is lowered when food is purchased locally.
Air quality is higher when fuel usage is reduced.

Get better value with local food:

Local food is a better value. You pay for freshness and taste, not packaging and freight.
Connections to local farms assure that more people in a community have access to culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate food through local non-emergency sources.

Sustain heritage, tradition, community, and quality of life:

Farms enhance our quality of life.
Farms often provide recreational opportunities.
Agriculture preserves our heritage and enhances our community experience.
Farms contribute more in taxes than they cost in services.

Maintain a diversity of farm size, crops, and marketing:

A broad spectrum of farms translates into diversity of ownership, cropping systems, landscapes, biological organization, culture, and traditions.
A diversity of farms contributes to a healthy, vibrant agricultural economy.

For more information about how you can support local agriculture:
Contact NY Farms! - 1-888-NYFARMS - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Forget-Me-Not-Farm

A new agri-attraction to Tioga County is Forget-Me-Not-Farm in Candor, NY owned by Jenn and Dean Whitmore. Along with the farm, the family also runs Small Graces B&B.

The farm is home to Jacob and Jacob/cross sheep, a guard donkey named Whiskey, four horses and a pony, organically raised poultry and pigs. They raise several rare and heritage breeds of poultry. Lambs and organic pork is available in the fall. Jenn is a fiber artist, and her six children are in training! They spin, knit and felt using their own wool and other various fibers as well. Their oldest daughter, Blessing, also designed an earache pillow using wool with a little lanolin stuffed inside. This pillow soothes ear infections and is a best seller at the farm shop and at festivals.
The family became interested in organic farming about seven years ago when Jenn was diagnosed with celiac disease. She started reading labels on foods and finding out what was really in their food. The whole family felt much healthier, and it's good for the planet, so who loses?

Our healthy B&B cottage sprouted naturally from that point on. The cottage has a Sun-Mar composting toilet, low VOC paint, and is made from natural materials. All natural soaps, sheets and towels are organic. They serve organic breakfasts, catering to gluten-free, vegetarian and other special diets.

The Whitmore’s are a home schooling family with eight children, several adopted. They love having the flexibility that a home-based business provides. It allows Jenn to be a full time mom, because everything they do, they do together.

There is a little bit of everything here when it comes to animals, because the children are very involved in 4-H. When getting wood or plowing with Angel, their Morgan horse and the boys, our team of Haflingers, even the work seems like play.

Their children’s names are: Blessing,12; Alina Grace, 8; Samuel, 6; Abigale, 4; Micah, 2; Isaiah,1; and newly adopted Princess DiDi, 11, and Lovetta, 13, from Liberia.

In the spring (farm tour time) the Whitmore’s have baby chicks, ducks, geese, lambs, and pigs and welcome all to visit.

Side Hill Acres Goat Dairy Farm

What started as a hobby over 20 years ago for Rita Kellogg and her children has turned into a thriving business that produces some of the best goat cheeses in the state. At the 2006 New York State Fair, Side Hill Acres Goat Dairy in Candor took the gold medal for its Rosemary Garlic cheese, and it has regularly walked away with top honors at the fair. But it wasn't easy getting there.

Back when the goat dairy was still just a hobby for the family, Rita sold the milk from their 20 goats to a cheese plant in Interlaken. She delivered the milk in old fashioned milk cans packed into a tiny Ford Escort.

The cheese plant was willing to take as much milk as Rita could deliver, so in 1994 she decided to quit her day job, increase the herd to 300 goats and replace the hatch-back car with a pickup truck.

Then one day in 1996 when Rita arrived to deliver milk she found padlocks on the doors of the cheese plant. The business had gone bankrupt and the Kelloggs suddenly had no place to sell their milk.

girl_and_goats

Of course the family was dismayed, but the indomitable Rita Kellogg trotted up to Cornell University to talk to David Brown, a dairy specialist in the Department of Food Science. “I want to learn how to make goat cheese," she said to him, "I’m not going to quit!”

Brown decided to offer a special class on cheese making for a handful of students, which allowed Rita to make her cheese at Cornell’s pilot plant for six months while her own cheese room was being built in Candor.

Today the family run dairy has 87 goats and makes cheese right at the farm. Rita’s mother, husband, daughters, sons-in-law, and even her grandkids work together to make the prize-winning goat cheese. “One thing that makes our cheese different," Rita says, "is that every curd gets tender loving care.”

They make several types of cheeses, from cream cheese and soft spreadable cheese flavored with various herbs to mozzarella, cheddar, and feta cheeses. They are all available in the gift shop at the farm at 79 Spencer Road, Candor.

boy_and_goats

Also available at the gift shop are goat milk, goat milk fudge and goat milk ice cream. In addition, they offer a variety of beauty products made from goat milk, including face creams and scrubs, hand and body creams, soap, shampoo, bath and shower gel and lip balm.

The family even offers free tours where visitors can experience the goats first hand. Upon walking into the barn you're engulfed by a gentle wave of curious goats, nibbling at shirt hems and plucking at zippers. Other goats lounge in front of the fans or mosey out to pasture. The inquisitive animals have lots of character and welcome guests, and according to Rita, "They just love the attention."

Hiawatha Island

From colonial cattle farm to Underground Railway refuge, from Victorian vacation resort to family farm, HIAWATHA ISLAND, New York’s largest island in the Susquehanna River, near Owego, NY has been at the center of local history for two centuries.

Most of its 112 acres is within the 100 year floodplain, and yet for the most of the year it is above water. It provides a diverse mix of wet woods, open fields, overgrown meadows and forests. Wildlife abounds on the island. Several large trees can be found on the island including specimen trees of sugar maple, black walnut, white ash and others.

In the 1870’s, a hotel, Hiawatha House, was built on the island and operated there for about 20 years. At that time, the island was almost entirely cleared. After it closed, the hotel and outbuildings were dismantled. Other buildings were built on the island, some burned, others fell into disrepair. At this time, only two structures remain intact on the island (one being used to store maintenance equipment, and the other an open structure).

In 1988, the “Island of Big Dreams” was put up for auction. With the threat of companies using the island for its timber and gravel resources, concerned local citizens mortgaged their homes and purchased the 112-acre island for $386,000. Within 5 years of fundraising, the island was paid off and donated to the Waterman Conservation Education Center for use as a nature reserve, preserving the island’s unique place in local history for perpetuity.

Waterman’s effort includes preservation of existing historical structures: milking parlor, blacksmith shop, ice house, farm foundation, and hotel sight. To date, Indian arrow heads and pottery have been discovered. Numerous events take place on the island, including historical, nature, river and Native American program tours for school children; interpretive trails; bird watching, day camps, elderhostels, an annual living history event called “Walk Through Time,” island breakfasts and steak dinners, corporate meetings and competitive nature challenges.

Natural Awareness School

Wilderness Way Primitive Skills, Tracking, and Natural Awareness School is located in Owego, NY on 40 wooded acres comprised of woods, meadows, footpaths, a small lake, and stream that becomes one of the many classrooms for practicing the skills taught here. Founded in 1993, they offer fundamental training in outdoor living and survival. These are primarily primitive, traditional and self-sufficiency skills taught with an emphasis on respect for the earth and natural resources. For the basic needs of shelter, water, fire and food, the student is guided through hands-on practice to a comfort level of proficiency. Founder and chief instructor, Michael J. Head, is an outdoor enthusiast and primitive technologist committed to enabling others to feel safe, secure, and at ease in the wild.

Follow Us!

Choices Menu