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Battenkill Fibers, located in the Upper Hudson Valley Town of Greenwich, is buying fleeces from regional sheep, goat, llama and alpaca farms. The mill offers custom processing as well as their own product line which features a 100 percent New York produced wool, certified by the Pride of New York, named Easton, after a nearby town. The mill will also have a factory store on site. Mill owner Mary Jean Packer expects to process 100 pounds of wool a day. The average sheep fleece weighs 10 pounds.
Packer anticipates that half of the mill’s business will be in custom work with the other half in sales of Battenkill Fibers products. According to Packer, who owns two other yarn shops, there are 1,200 yarn stores in the United States with 29 of those in the five boroughs of New York City. Packer has been making preliminary sales calls. Her inquiries have been answered with what Packer calls “a resounding ‘Yes’” from yarn shop owners.
Packer also plans to seek grant funding to offer education to farmers on how to produce high quality wool and what types of wool are coming into fashion. “We can tell farmers what the market trends are,” says Packer. “For example, the fashion forecasts for this fall are calling for big chunky yarns.”
Battenkill Fibers is funded with a loan from the Washington County Local Development Corporation. “This is another way for farmers to add value to their products,” says Packer. “Such economic opportunities help farms stay in business.”
The rural town of Parma, located outside Rochester, was New York state’s first town to adopt an agriculture and farmland protection plan. It is now putting that plan into action. Last month, residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of using town funds to purchase the development rights to 114 acres of farmland. This land is farmed by the fourth generation of the Martin family and produces soybeans, wheat and vegetables. The town will pay half the cost of the agricultural conservation easement. The remainder will come from Monroe County’s Greenspace Initiative grant, which is funded by a Philip Morris tobacco settlement.
 This new food processing and contract packaging facility in a retrofitted cafeteria at Tech City, a former IBM plant in Kingston, is an economic shot in the arm for Hudson Valley farmers.
Farm to Table Co-Packers, the brainchild of partners Jim Hyland and Luc Roels, is fully licensed and includes a dedicated processing line and a full bakery. The facility has three loading docks and storage space for refrigerated, frozen and dry goods. The range of foods includes frozen vegetables, pies, soups, jarred pickles, sauces and meat products.
The project was funded by the Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corporation, which obtained money from the federal government with help from Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY). "The opening of Farm to Table’s operations at Tech City represents a new era of opportunity for farms in the Hudson Valley," said Hinchey. "There is a strong demand for local food from the Hudson Valley and Farm to Table will help meet that demand in a very impressive way that will benefit local farms and create jobs here in the Hudson Valley."
“We are here. Our doors are open. We are ready for opportunity,” declared Farm to Table partner Jim Hyland And so were their clients including companies such as Rick’s Picks, a pickler of locally produced veggies and The Manhattan Chili Co., whose owners hope to leverage their new processing location into better connections with local farmers.
Saratoga County’s 15th annual Sundae on the Farm event was held on Father’s Day, June 20th at Arnoldhaven Farm, a Charlton dairy farm. Fifty years ago there were 1,800 farms in Saratoga County. Today only 641 remain. Sundae on the Farm allows people to visit a real working farm. Over 2,000 people visited Arnoldhaven Farm to tour the dairy barn, pet farm animals, go on horse drawn wagon rides and much more. This annual event is sponsored by a partnership of local organizations including American Farmland Trust whose New York office is based in Saratoga Springs.
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| Photo credit (left and right): Times Union |
See more pictures from the event.
Western New York Roundtable
 American Farmland Trust hosted a roundtable in Western New York to discuss municipal agricultural and farmland protection plans and town support for agriculture. The roundtable was held at the Genesee Community College in Batavia on June 15th. Sixty participants, including town officials, planners and others involved in local land use planning shared strategies, questions and concerns. Over 25 towns participated along with representatives from Senator Ranzenhofer’s office, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Genesee Valley Conservancy, the Western New York Land Conservancy, the Genesee County Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning and the Genesee County Department of Planning.
Central New York Roundtable
 Over 50 farmers, town officials, county representatives and local planners gathered at the Roundtable Discussion on Municipal Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plans hosted by American Farmland Trust and held at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County in Auburn. “This was a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and know that we are not alone in the process of creating a farmland protection plan for our community,” said one participant. View sample completed town plans:
Hudson Valley Fresh Screenings 
A series of screenings of the documentary Fresh, hosted by American Farmland Trust and Edible Hudson Valley has drawn crowds and inspired discussion about farms and food in the Hudson Valley, which American Farmland Trust’s Farming on the Edge study ranks as the nation’s 10th most threatened agricultural region. Screenings were held at the Stone Barns Center for Agriculture, in Tarrytown, The Moviehouse, in Millerton, and the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. Each screening was followed by a panel discussion with David Haight, Director of American Farmland Trust’s New York Office, and local farmers, chefs and farm and food policy makers.
View the full-size flyer for the screenings.
Read Liz Neumark's Huffington Post article about the film and the panelists.
Listen to an interview with AFT's David Haight about the film on WHDD Robin Hood Radio.
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| Fresh panelists, David Haight, Cheryl Rogowski, Todd Erling, Daniel Turgeon, and moderator Jen Small |
Students attending the Fresh screening at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park |
Read bios of the panelists from each of the events:
Family Preserves Madison County Farm
 On a chilly October morning Matthew and Juanita Critz welcomed community and state leaders to their Cazenovia farm, while the fields thronged with schoolchildren picking pumpkins. Cups of hot cider were lifted in celebration of the permanent protection of this farm with a grant for the purchase of development rights from New York’s Farmland Protection Program. “This is a positive for the local economy,” said Matthew Critz, who’s farm employs over 50 people and recently built a new barn. “We have immediately invested back into the community by buying local products from the hardware store, the lumberyard and equipment dealers.”
Green Valley Farms, LLC, is located in the heart of farmland protection activity in Cayuga County and will become the latest in the region to be protected. The 760-acre soybean and corn operation has within it an enterprise that roasts, grinds and sells soybeans to nearby dairies for feed, creating a nucleus of cooperative farms. GVF’s goal is to work in conjunction with neighboring farms to strengthen the viability of local farming. The Du Monds: Eric, Marjorie, and son Todd feel that protecting their land is a natural progression in the growth of their business and the agricultural area.
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