Thurman producers open their barns for Fall Farm Tour 2022

Randy Galusha’s adventures in maple syrup production began more than 50 years ago when he was only 10 years old. “I remember my grandmother doing it,” he says, “and others in the family.” He and his brother gathered old equipment, taps and such, and attempted to collect syrup from the sugar maples on his family’s property in Thurman, New York. His initial efforts, he recalls, were not successful, but his father, seeing the boys were earnest, helped them get properly set up. “…and that’s how all this began,” says Galusha.

“All this” is Toad Hill Maple Farm, 900 acres that include a 50-acre sugarbush that last year produce 1,040 gallons of maple syrup. Toad Hill is one of nine farms that participated in the 2022 Thurman Fall Farm Tour. The tour, which is sponsored by the Thurman Community Association, is held the Saturday of Columbus Day Weekend (per the Fall Farm Tour brochure) to“…celebrate autumn’s bounteous harvest and meet the women and men who work fields and forests to tease out the fresh foods we love.”

At Toad Hill, owners Randy and Jill Galusha invited the public into the sugarhouse to get an up-close look at their operations. The sugarhouse, built in 2010, houses a wood-fired evaporator, a candy-making kitchen, and a gift shop. Visitors were offered free samples of maple candy and maple butter. Outside, pony rides and a petting zoo kept children entertained. A tractor-pulled hay wagon, driven by Nate Galusha, brought guests through the farm’s covered bridge and into the sugarbush to learn about the process of collecting sap through lengths of blue tubing.

Photos: Toad Hill Maple Farm

Evelyn Wood of Windy Ridge Farm also welcomed guests during the Fall Farm Tour. The 120-acre farm, a mix of rolling fields divided by old stone walls, orchards and forest has been in the Wood family since the American Revolution. The farm grows vegetables, which they sell at farmers’ markets, and it produces honey and maple syrup.

Mini, a miniature pony, greeted guests in the yard and a flock of very noisy geese stood guard at the barn, protecting the chickens and their eggs. Wood explains that they keep the geese for eggs, as pets, and to guard the farm. “They are our early warning system. Coyotes don’t sneak down here anymore.” Occasionally, Wood says, if a goose is particularly mean, it may end up as dinner.

Photos: Windy Ridge Farm

The Farm Fall Tour takes visitors along Mountain Road where they can paint pumpkins at Whitefield’s Farm and tour the old stone barn where they will be met by a gobbling flock of turkeys. Continuing north, Mountain Road becomes Valley Road where Martin’s Lumber is a hub of activity hosting arts and crafts vendors, guided plant and mushroom identification hikes and workshops in mushroom propagation.

Photo: Whitefield’s Family Farm

Heading towards Johnsburg, Valley Road becomes South Johnsburg Road and this brings farm tourists to Nettle Meadow Farm and Kemp Sanctuary. During the late 18th century, throughout the 19^th century and into the early 20^th century, the property, under different owners, had been a stock farm producing quality beef and dairy products.

The mid-20th century years saw the land used primarily for lumber. In 1990, the owner started goat farming and in 2005 Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan purchased the farm and began making artisan cheeses from fresh goat milk. Lambiase and Flanagan recently moved the cheese production and sales to the renovated old Hitching Post Tavern on Lake Avenue in Lake Luzerne and their herd of producing goats is tended off-site by a farmer’s co-operative. The South Johnsburg Road property is now primarily used as a sanctuary for retired and rescued animals.

The Kemp Sanctuary currently is home to 130 animals including horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, peacocks, llamas, rabbits, cats and dogs. It is a retirement home for working animals whose productive years are behind them and a safe shelter for neglected or unwanted pets. Farm Fall Tour guests could take a self-guided tour to meet the animals. Nettle Meadow also offered a lunch buffet, featuring their award-winning cheeses, in the loft of the restored barn that houses retired goats.

Animals are referred to the Sanctuary by animal protection organizations, local law enforcement, and area veterinarians. The Sanctuary also accepts pets that owners can no longer care for. The Kemp Sanctuary, named in memory of Lorraine’s brother-in-law Joseph F. Kemp, relies on donations to support its mission.

Photos: Nettle Meadow Farm and Kemp Sanctuary

Visitors will have another opportunity to explore Thurman farms the last three weekends in March 2023 when Thurman maple farms will be opening their sugarhouses to the public for tours during Thurman Maple Days.

Featured image: Members of the Lake George Examiner crew examine pumpkins at Whitefield’s Family Farm during the Thurman Fall Farm Tour.