Showing Our Roots 2015

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A Celebration Our Roots . . .

of

Agriculture

A special supplement to the SULLIVAN COUNTY DEMOCRAT • August 4, 2015

2R SHOWING OUR ROOTS SULLIVAN COUNTY DEMOCRAT AUGUST, 2015

Diehls have deep roots in the farming life Six generations have worked their land

BY MATT SHORTALL

For the past 170-plus years, theDiehl Homestead Farm hasbeen part of the rich history of

Sullivan County dairy farming. Sixgenerations after the first Diehlsarrived from Germany in 1842 tomake a living by working the landwith their own hands, the HomesteadFarm continues to carry on those tra-ditions.

Peter Diehl grew up on the farmand has led a fulfilling life there eversince.

“I had a very happy childhoodgrowing up with all the animals andopen spaces,” Pete reminisced. “I’mglad we can give our grandkids thesame thing.”

His wife, Alice, grew up inJeffersonville. They married and hadthree kids who grew into farmers and

Like many farmers in the early part of the20th century, the Diehls took in boarders tosupplement their income. Family and visitorsstayed in this house, built in 1906.

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AUGUST, 2015 SULLIVAN COUNTY DEMOCRAT SHOWING OUR ROOTS 3R

gave them half a dozen grandchil-dren. The farmhouse, which onceserved as a boarding house for travel-ers, is still an energetic place withpeople coming and going.

The grandkids often show livestockat the Little World’s Fair inGrahamsville.

But keeping the family farm aliveand profitable takes more than justhard work. It takes a lifelong dedica-tion to your family and your commu-nity.

“We get up at 5 a.m. every morningand there’s always work to be done,”said Adam Diehl. “I think it’s hard for

people who buy land to appreciate itin the same way that we do. We havedeep roots here.”

Milk production has never been anprofitable business, even when Pete’sgreat-grandparents only had six cowsand milked by the light of lanterns.The financial crisis of 2008 had impli-cations far beyond Wall Street.During the first years of the reces-sion, the Diehls saw the price of milktake a nosedive. Where as before theywere able to make a modest profit,now they struggled to break even.

“The retailer might pay us $13 per100 lbs of milk – which is a little lessthan 12 gallons,” explained familymatriarch Alice. “What they pay us$13 for cost us $26 to produce.”

To balance the budget and ensurethe family farm sees a seventh gener-ation of Diehl farmers, they’ve had todiversify their production portfolioand change the way they do busi-

ness.Besides milk production, the Diehls

have taken up beekeeping and maplesyrup – they have 3,000 taps. Theysell everything they grow at theirfarm store on 93 Diehl Rd. inCallicoon, open every day from 8a.m. to 8 p.m.

The farm store offers fresh produce,milk and eggs, as well as all natural

Left: Dairy farming has always been a part ofthe Diehls’ operations. The family currentlymilks over 50 head of cattle. But a drop inmilk prices forced them to turn to suchproducts as maple syrup (right) and honeyand eggs, which are sold in their store.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4R

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honey and maple products. “We’re of the ‘farm to table’ ideolo-

gy,” said Adam. “A lot of people could-n’t tell you where the food they eatcomes from, much less how its grownor what kind of pesticides they used.”

Alice is a delegate to the NationalDairy Producers Organization(NDPO) and a strong advocate for anational agriculture bill that wouldprotect the rights of farmers.

The black and white photos of Peter Diehl onthe cover and the ones on this page weretaken by commercial photographer BenHalpern, who has been documenting thechanging face of agriculture in SullivanCounty and the Catskills. Halpern, who grewup in Livingston Manor, will be profiled in afuture edition of the Sullivan CountyDemocrat. At near right is a photo of Peterand Alice Diehl, the current patriarch andmatriarch, showing off their maple syrupproducts. At far right is their son Adam,ready to apply a vacuum hose to the nippleof one of the cows. This is part of the auto-mated milking process that replaced thelabor-intensive hand milking of old.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3R

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“We have to become retailers aswell as producers,” said Alice. “That’sthe only way farmers will have morecontrol over their livelihoods.”

As is typical of farming families,everyone is expected to pitch in.Adam’s wife, Annette, started a garlicgarden as a hobby. Now, for a relative-ly low cost to produce, they’re sellingfresh garlic in the farm store. “

“A lot of our work started out as justa hobby,” said Adam. “We try some-thing out on a small scale first, and ifit works we run with it.

Annette has also been instrumentalin developing a modern brand for theDiehl Homestead Farm. She workedwith a graphic design company todevelop a unique and recognizablelogo. The farm even has its ownFacebook page.

“We’ve talked about branding for along time, but Annette is really the adriving force that made it happen,”said Alice.

With their kids starting to take overlabor and management on the farm,you might think Alice and Pete wouldsit back and enjoy the fruits of theirlabor, but that’s not the case. A farmeris happiest when there’s work to bedone and contributions to be made.

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December 11, 12, 13: It’s a Wonderful Life 13: Elections, holiday party, after showFebruary 12, 13, 14: Valentine’s Cabaret

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Root ’N Roost reflects owners’ passion for ag

learning, experimentation

STORY AND PHOTOSBY MARGARET BRUETSCH

‘Diversity is really the keyhere,” Cheyenne Zigmundexplained regarding the

vast produce Root ’N Roost farmoffers, “And people are also key here.We like to have a lot of people whoare willing to come and work, andlearn, and really see how it’s done ona sustainable scale.”

Sean Zigmund, a White SulphurSprings native, traveled and farmedacross the country through theWorldwide Opportunities on OrganicFarms (WOOF) program before

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Root ’N Roost covers 2½ acres in White Sulphur Springs and was started on owner Sean Zigmund’s childhood homestead. The farm currentlyoffers a community supported agriculture program, attends the “Eat Healthy Sullivan County” Market in Monticello, and sells produce attheir farm stand every weekend.


returning home to start a farm.Cheyenne Zigmund, a native of NewZealand, met her husband Sean dur-ing her internship at Apple PondFarm while under the tutelage of

Dick Riseling. Mrs. Zigmund soonfound herself helping out at herfuture husband’s homestead on herdays off, and Root ‘N Roost was offi-cially born in 2012 along with their

community supported agriculture(CSA) program. In the CSA, cus-tomers pre-pay and are entitled toreceive a certain amount of produce.

“Every year we increase and webuild a little bit more,” Mrs. Zigmundsaid. “This past year we finally got upthe ‘poly-tunnel’, that’s what we callour self-watering greenhouse. We didthe final underground designs forthat this spring, so it’s totally self-watering.”

At the center of the farm’s operationis the idea of focusing on permacul-ture and its three basic principles:care for the environment, care forother people, and the idea of every-thing being a fair share.

“The premise behind it is that youdesign your property, the area youfarm, to capture all nature’s energies

in the most efficient and effectiveway possible,” Mrs. Zigmundexplained. It’s a way of running abusiness while looking out for theearth and other creatures while alsobeing able to obtain a yield from thefarm.

In addition to farming vegetables,fruits, flowers and herbs, Root ‘NRoost also raises pigs for both pork

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Cheyenne Zigmund displays an example ofher gardening experiment where she used apallet to grow vegetables. “I’m alwaysthinking of ways for other people to growplants,” Mrs. Zigmund said.

Ducks are only some of the fowl Root ’NRoost has as produce. The ducks are sold formeat and eggs that can be purchased at thefarm.




and piglet production; various fowl,including chickens, ducks, andturkeys, for meat and egg produc-tion; offers jams, jellies, and bakedgoods at their farm stand; attendsthe “Eat Healthy Sullivan County”Farmers’ Market in Monticello everyMonday where it accepts WIC-VF,WIC and Senior FMNP checks; andthe farm offers its CSA, which runsfor 12 weeks in the summer, and 10weeks from October to lateDecember. The Zigmunds also offerclasses for those curious in learninghow to farm, build and most of allexperiment.

“We’re about educating people,showing them ‘this is how you exper-iment,’ ” Mrs. Zigmund said. “Youdon’t want to experiment crazily, butyou can be creative in how you farm.”

Classes range from learning how topreserve produce through pickling,canning and freezing to learning howto raise and process animals such aspigs and chickens, all the way tobuilding a shed out of recycled mate-rial or learning how to build a claypizza oven.

“It means that everyone involved in

that project is now attached to it.They have a bond and have a realrelationship with this piece of land,”Mrs. Zigmund said regarding thepizza oven that was built by classattendees. The idea extends to thepeople who come and help them runand work their no-machinery farm,“It’s really important people have thatrelationship with the land whetherit’s theirs or whether it’s someoneelse’s who they’ve stayed with.”

In addition to classes, theZigmunds offer tours of the farmwhere you can see exactly whatthey’re up to while getting up close totheir many animals. Tours are offeredevery week from Thursday throughFriday. The farm also offers Yogaclasses on Friday mornings andSunday evenings.

But despite all they offer Root ’NRoost Farm is happy working at theirsmall scale while focusing on sharingtheir knowledge with others.

“A seven day week can’t be brokendown into each one of the farm’sactivities, which means we have a lotof different stuff going on at onetime,” Mrs. Zigmund said. “So bykeeping it at a small scale, we’re keep-ing it so we’re always on our toes and

we’re always making sure we keepgoing because there’s always stuff tobe done.”

Root ’N Roost Farm is located at 64

Mineral Springs Rd. in White SulphurSprings. For more information seetheir website at www.rootnroost.comor call the farm at 292-9126.

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One of the most recent classes offered at Root ’N Roost was an Earthen Oven design/buildled by Matteo Lundgran of Cob therapy.


BY MATT SHORTALL

Cornell Cooperative Extension(CCE) is committed to Sulli-van County’s farmers even as

the face of agriculture has changedsince it was founded in 1914.

So committed, in fact, that theExtension has made it its mission totrain and educate the next genera-tion to carry on the rich agriculturalhistory of Sullivan County.

CCE’s agricultural education still a core part of its mission

Growing the farmers of tomorrow while helping the farmers of today

Now it’s called Ag DayFor many years, Down on the

Farm Day was a summer traditionin Sullivan County. It now hasbeen transformed to “Ag Day” atBethel Woods Center for the Arts,which features CCE Sullivan underthe main tent and highlights localagriculture. The second annualevent will be held September 20 aspart of the Harvest Festival atBethel Woods.

For more info, see our special sec-tion on the Harvest Festival whichwill be published on August 21.

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The high tunnel greenhouse captures earth’s natural heat to significantly extend the growing season.

CCE’s Farm to School Program, forexample, seeks to educate our youthon the importance of local farms tothe overall sustainability of ourcommunity. The Farm to Schoolprogram includes food and agricul-ture education in the classroom inaddition to supporting school gar-dens, field trips to local farms, andpreparing school lunches with local-ly sourced food.

With Sullivan BOCES literally astone’s throw away from CCE,Career and Tech students frequentlywork on exciting and innovative newprojects, such as CCE’s new “HighTunnel” greenhouse, which takesadvantage earth’s natural heat togrow vegetables earlier and earlierin the growing season.

“BOCES student involvement waspivotal in the construction of thestructures, alongside their instruc-tors and CCE staff,” said CCE Public


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In the student garden, rain water is directed from the gutters into drums for later use. This,along with using compost materials, are a few ways CCE is teaching the importance of sus-tainability.


Affairs Coordinator Nicole Slevin.Sullivan Renaissance has also

been a partner with CCE in both thegreenhouse and other projectsaround the county.

According to Slevin, CCE is work-ing with several partners to developa vegetable farm directory for Sulli-

van County. So far, a maple syrupdirectory and a farmers’ marketdirectory have been produced andare available to the public.

Just as important as educating kidson the science of farming, CCE istrying to inspire kids to think locallywhen it comes to the businesses

they support. In the spring, CCE held the first

“Grains to Grapes” beverage bustour that visited the growing craftbeer, wine and spirits enterprises inthe county. It is also planning afundraiser at BashaKill Vineyards inSeptember with local wine, food,

live music and eagle viewing/educa-tion.

One of CCE’s more important ini-tiatives regarding agriculture isencouraging the consumers to getthe food, whenever possible, from alocal source.

“We’re launching our ‘Buy Local’campaign to inspire people to sup-port their neighbors and their com-munities,” said Slevin. “It’s really amyth that you can’t eat healthy,locally sourced food on a budget.You can.”

In fact, the half dozen or so farm-ers’ markets throughout SullivanCounty all accept food stamps andother forms of government assis-tance, such as the SupplementalNutrition Assistance Program, aswell as the Women, Infants and Chil-dren assistance program.

Cornell Cooperative Extensionremains a vital resource for farmingin Sullivan County. But it’s muchmore. For more information visithttp://sullivancce.org or call 292-6180.

Mission StatementCornell Cooperative Extension puts

knowledge to work in pursuit of economicvitality, ecological sustainability, and socialwell-being. We bring local experience andresearch based solutions together, helpingNew York State families and communitiesthrive in our rapidly changing world.

Vision StatementCornell Cooperative Extension Sullivan

County will be a gateway to knowledge, lifeskills and experiences for better living. Wewill bring together and partner with gov-ernment, business and community basedgroups to serve all residents and visitors ofSullivan County. Cornell CooperativeExtension Sullivan County will continue toevolve to meet the changing needs of thecounty and its diverse population byemploying the latest technology, researchbased education and highly trained profes-sional staff.


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Showing Our Roots 2015

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