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We are excited to be bringing Harrisdale Farmstead ARONIA BERRIES to market this week!
Aronia berries, also called chokeberries by Native Americans, are native to North America. Although they look like blueberries, aronia berries are much tarter. Aronia berries contain high levels of antioxidants and are considered by many to be a superfood. They are often used in baked goods and to make juices, purées, jams, jellies, syrups, teas, and wines.
This is also a great opportunity to reintroduce Gil & Ardy Gillespie of Harrisdale Farmstead! We have partnered with Gil & Ardy on several projects over the years. You may remember that they helped us launch our Date Night CSA back in 2017 by providing vegetables and herbs while we transitioned farms and only had meat available. The next year we again had vegetables but Gil & Ardy continued to provide veggies here and there to help diversify our CSA meals until we paused the CSA following the 2021 season.
We have also worked together over the years to offer a diversity of meats and we love to offer our customers Harrisdale Farmstead lamb!
This year we are partnering with Harrisdale Farmstead to sell their produce alongside ours at Produce in the Park. This has allowed Gil & Ardy to continue growing produce for market while providing them a little more freedom and less stress through the growing season to either engage in deeper conversations while at the market or to tend to other farm needs while their produce gets sold.
As for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed their help setting up my market booth as well as being able to balance my market offerings!
Aronia berries, also called chokeberries by Native Americans, are native to North America. Although they look like blueberries, aronia berries are much tarter. Aronia berries contain high levels of antioxidants and are considered by many to be a superfood. They are often used in baked goods and to make juices, purées, jams, jellies, syrups, teas, and wines.
This is also a great opportunity to reintroduce Gil & Ardy Gillespie of Harrisdale Farmstead! We have partnered with Gil & Ardy on several projects over the years. You may remember that they helped us launch our Date Night CSA back in 2017 by providing vegetables and herbs while we transitioned farms and only had meat available. The next year we again had vegetables but Gil & Ardy continued to provide veggies here and there to help diversify our CSA meals until we paused the CSA following the 2021 season.
We have also worked together over the years to offer a diversity of meats and we love to offer our customers Harrisdale Farmstead lamb!
This year we are partnering with Harrisdale Farmstead to sell their produce alongside ours at Produce in the Park. This has allowed Gil & Ardy to continue growing produce for market while providing them a little more freedom and less stress through the growing season to either engage in deeper conversations while at the market or to tend to other farm needs while their produce gets sold.
As for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed their help setting up my market booth as well as being able to balance my market offerings!
Gil & Ardy are living on and farming Ardy’s family farmstead. You may recognize the Harrisdale name as their place was once known as Harrisdale Homestead and for around 10 years hosted numerous meetings, meals, and bed & breakfast guests.
Gil & Ardy share this brief history of their farm:
"Harrisdale Farmstead is a 6-acre tract that includes the 1921 farmhouse, the 1920 barn and other farm buildings, and the farm windbreak. It is surrounded on three sides by the Harris farmland. Since Ardy and Gil acquired the place in 2004, we have made some improvements to the house, repaired and re-roofed the barn, had the decaying corn crib and an old barn taken down, and built a new garage and workshop.In 2014, we “retired” to Harrisdale after spending 36 years at Cornell University. Starting in 2015 we planted about two acres of former cattle lots to a wide variety of fruit and nut trees and to various food-producing bushes and brambles. We have also been growing annual vegetables in the alleyways between the rows of trees and using row covers and plastic covering on hoops to extend our growing season. In 2017 we acquired sheep for providing meat to sell, for vegetation management, and for improving our soil fertility. During the grazing season, we rotate the sheep through our farmstead and two others,[including Brun Ko Farm], using portable electric fencing to make small areas (paddocks) in which the sheep eat down the vegetation before being moved to fresh forage in the next paddock."
Gil & Ardy have been avid supporters of our farm and our family over the last 8 years and we are honored to know and work with them to further local food farming in our area!
See you at Market!
Emily
Gil & Ardy share this brief history of their farm:
"Harrisdale Farmstead is a 6-acre tract that includes the 1921 farmhouse, the 1920 barn and other farm buildings, and the farm windbreak. It is surrounded on three sides by the Harris farmland. Since Ardy and Gil acquired the place in 2004, we have made some improvements to the house, repaired and re-roofed the barn, had the decaying corn crib and an old barn taken down, and built a new garage and workshop.In 2014, we “retired” to Harrisdale after spending 36 years at Cornell University. Starting in 2015 we planted about two acres of former cattle lots to a wide variety of fruit and nut trees and to various food-producing bushes and brambles. We have also been growing annual vegetables in the alleyways between the rows of trees and using row covers and plastic covering on hoops to extend our growing season. In 2017 we acquired sheep for providing meat to sell, for vegetation management, and for improving our soil fertility. During the grazing season, we rotate the sheep through our farmstead and two others,[including Brun Ko Farm], using portable electric fencing to make small areas (paddocks) in which the sheep eat down the vegetation before being moved to fresh forage in the next paddock."
Gil & Ardy have been avid supporters of our farm and our family over the last 8 years and we are honored to know and work with them to further local food farming in our area!
See you at Market!
Emily
Gil & Ardy stand with Nathan and Emily amidst the Harrisdale Sheep!
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