Herondale Farm – Sometimes you don’t know what’s in your own backyard!

by Auntie M on Nov 19, 2009

I’ve driven by Herondale Farm in Ancramdale a hundred times knowing they raise and sell organic beef, pork, lamb and chicken. Like many of you, I’ve seen Herondale listed as suppliers of organic meats on many local restaurant menus but I had never really visited the farm or talked to owner Jerry Peele, about his thriving business. So, I was happy to get this blog assignment from Joan. She thought it would make a great Thanksgiving story…and it is…but it’s so much more.

Jerry and his wife, Iva, moved to our area 7 years ago from NYC after spending only weekends here for several years. Like so many of us, they dreamt of being able to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind and create a sustainable life in the country. Not everyone is able to do it but the Peele’s have…and with great success!

Herondale Farm is a well-respected mixed livestock certified organic farm and is one of a very few “pasture-based” farms in our area.

“It was a dairy farm and we have gradually transformed the barns and pastures to accommodate the new inhabitants—our British White and Murray Grey cattle, our Berkshire and Berkshire cross pigs and our Cornish cross rock chickens (along with a motley crew of guinea hens and laying chickens who patrol for flies and ticks). We like to raise healthy and happy animals, who spend as much time as they want in the pastures… In essence we are trying to turn back the clock—to produce meat and poultry that tastes as good as it did several decades ago before farms got turned into factories…
Our chickens are a seasonal business, from spring through late fall, to ensure that they have grass as a big part of their diet. The pigs have access to the barn in the winter to stave off the cold, and they eat a lot of alfalfa baleage in the winter as well as an organic grain and soy mix. For the rest of the year they are rooting up marginal fields or woodlots. And the cows graze the fields as long as the grass grows, after which they enjoy the alfalfa baleage and hay that we put up for the winter.” — Jerry Peele

Herondale’s Farm Store is open all day on weekends BUT if you call or go to the farm and ring the buzzer…someone will always be available to help you.

In addition to meats, Herondale has also teamed up with Andy Szymanowicz of Sol Flower Farm (a CSA) to provide fresh, seasonal, flowers and organic produce for the farm store…apples, carrots, cabbage, chard, kale, squash, arugula and Brussels sprouts are still available fresh from the fields. And, they carry local honey from Kathy Blackshaw at Pine Hill Farm.

Store Manager, Christine Herrington, introduced me to a few of the happy animals at the farm. They really are happy and content and treated with care. Christine told me that even when they load cattle to move them to a different pasture…they’re never prodded or hit… “How would you like it if someone slapped your butt like that?”, Christine said with a smile. “With some gentle leading they eventually go where you want them to go.”

A guilty carnivore, I left the farm feeling better about eating organic meat but worse about the fact that I often unknowingly (and knowingly) support corporate factory-farms. It’s sometimes hard to avoid buying meat that is raised inhumanely but with Herondale Farm right in my own backyard, it’s now hard to come up with a good excuse to keep doing it.

Click here to see a great article on how to avoid factory-farm food.

Herondale Farm
90 Wiltsie Bridge Rd
Ancramdale, NY 12503-5112
(518) 329-3769
www.herondalefarm.com

[click photos to enlarge]