Birch Mill Farm: Sweet tender corn in a tough economic time

FALLS VILLAGE — A car with New Jersey plates rolled up to the farmstand at Birch Mill Farm.

Two ladies got out, wincing at the August afternoon heat. “You have corn?�

“Yes we do,� said Katlyn Hoskinson.

“Yellow and white?� asked the lady.

“We’ll have the bicolor in a week or so,� said Tim Kinsella.

“The yellow is really delicious,� said Hoskinson.

The ladies bought four ears, and started off.

Then they stopped. The car window came down.

“How do you cook it?�

Hoskinson issued precise directions, the ladies thanked her and went on their way.

Hoskinson and Kinsella are two graduates of Housatonic Valley Regional High School (class of 2006) who are keeping the farming tradition alive at the old Atwood farm at 185 Belden St.

The farm is owned by Betty Deeg, who lives in the house on the property. Hoskinson and Kinsella rent the farmland (20 acres, 7 for pasture) and buildings for their 75 cows (30 are being milked at the moment) and their sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, squash, feed corn and hay. They hit the one-year mark in May.

In a business with razor-thin margins, in the middle of a truly tough economic situation, the pair are cheerful and enthusiastic.

They certainly know their business. Hoskinson provided a thumbnail sketch of the milk business, with a bewildering amount of detail and a bottom line of about $1.

Yes, if you buy a gallon of milk the producers realize about a dollar from the sale.

Can you make a living? they were asked.

The question prompted laughter and a “yes, but ...� answer.

Hoskinson has a job as a milk tester, for Dairy One of Ithaca, N.Y. She said she spends about 15 days of the month on that job.

But they aren’t standard eight-hour days, so she gets back to the farm to join Kinsella, who is there most of the time.

Their idea is to expand the farmstand and start processing and selling their own milk. “We’re moving toward a more diverse small farm,� said Hoskinson.

Both Hoskinson and Kinsella have farming backgrounds. Hoskinson said she’s been keeping her Brown Swiss cows on the farm for years, when Denny Jasmine was working it.

“A lot of kids around here have some relation to farming,� Hoskinson said.

She was quick to praise the FFA program at the high school.

“The ag-ed teachers are amazing. They take kids who are less ambitious and get them interested in farming.

“Without FFA we would be in a much different place.�

Hoskinson said the pair considered the Community Supported Agriculture model (as practiced at Chubby Bunny Farm), but “we’d prefer to sell a retail product.�

Farmstand business is good. Birch Mill Farm benefits from the presence of the summer residents at the Pine Grove summer community, which is right across the road.

And day-trippers, often with kids in tow, stop for produce and wind up taking a look at the animals.

“Which is good, “ said Hoskinson. “We can show them the difference between actual farming and the public perception of farming.�

The discussion turned to the difference between actual tomatoes and their supermarket counterparts.

“There is nothing like a tomato right off the vine,� said Hoskinson. “Sometimes, when I’m picking, it’s one for me, two for the bucket....�

So, considering the back-breaking labor, the uncertain economy, the high overhead — nevermind the relentless sun that has chased the cows into the woods for relief and interfered with the growing of hay.... Was this a good idea?

When they were thinking about it, Hoskinson said, “we were trying to figure out if we were crazy enough to go into it.

“But we wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“If I’ve had a bad day, I  come to the farm, and maybe a calf is born. It’s pretty rewarding. Who can’t smile at a baby?â€�

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