Day 3: McEnroe Organic Farm
Our second stop on the Sustainable Farming Program with the Natural Gourmet Institute was a visit to McEnroe Organic Farm in Millerton, New York.
McEnroe Organic Farm is made up of over 1,100 acres of fields, animals and greenhouses, all certified organic, as well as a market where you can buy their veggies, meats, local honey and jam, and more!
The first part of the farm we visited, was the greenhouses.
Greenhouses
Filled with rows and rows of tomatoes, strawberries and a few carrots, the greenhouses have a lot to offer, but the most abundant crop started in the greenhouses are tomatoes. McEnroe Organic Farm starts tomato seeds in the greenhouse where the plants are hung vertically and watered by a drip irrigation system. Once the tomatoes are big enough, they’re then transported to raised beds where they have room to grow. McEnroe Organic Farm harvests around 40 different varieties of tomatoes: heirloom, cherry, and more!
Tomatoes in the greenhouse.
A carrot peeping through.
Next up, compost!
Compost
McEnroe Organic Farm is widely known for their Organic Composts and Potting Soil. The Farm’s compost consists of organic food and plant scrap material, manure, leaves, and law clippings. They also offer a compost drop-off where individuals in the area can collect their own compost and bring to the farm in order to create less waste and add to their compost!
It’s a hill, it’s a mountain! Nope, that’s a compost pile.
That’s compost, baby.
Pastures
The farm also raises livestock including cattle, sheep, chickens and pigs. Many of the animals are raised in a free-range environment where they have plenty of room to roam. The animals are also raised and often fed organically with organic grain and/or hay that is grown from non-GMO seeds. They’re also raised using no antibiotics or hormones.
A couple of cuties, plus a curly q tail, playing in the mud!
Friends!
Market
The market at McEnroe Organic Farm contains some of their freshest produce, honey, meats, and more! We indulged in a delicious lunch, made from the kitchen in the market, which consisted of: veggie ratatouille, couscous, fresh mozzarella, bread, tomatoes we harvested ourselves, salad and some fresh made cookies.
Low spray blueberries for sale!
Gathering our harvest up for lunch.
Cleaning off some carrots.
A huge thank you goes out to everyone at McEnroe Organic Farm for showing us around, teaching us about tomatoes and livestock and for letting us harvest our own lunch!
Harvesting for lunch.