![Dairy farming in Dutchess: New ways to steward an old tradition at
Chaseholm Farm](https://millertonnews.com/media-library/sarah-chase-owner-of-chaseholm-farm-in-pine-plains-with-a-bull-she-uses-for-breeding-heifers-that-are-well-suited-to-grazing-a.jpg?id=51467059&width=1200&height=900)
Sarah Chase, owner of Chaseholm Farm in Pine Plains, with a bull she uses for breeding heifers that are well suited to grazing and organic production.
Janna Siller
Sarah Chase, owner of Chaseholm Farm in Pine Plains, with a bull she uses for breeding heifers that are well suited to grazing and organic production.
PINE PLAINS — Most mornings, you can find farmer Sarah Chase in the same place you could find her at the ages of 14, 10 and 6 — in the dairy barn her grandfather built.
Chaseholm Farm has weathered the immense challenges pitted against modern dairies to become the sibling partnership, local food presence and ecosystem steward that it is today. Chase and her crew maintain the organic, grass-fed dairy while her brother, Rory, turns the milk into Chaseholm Creamery’s line of award-winning artisan cheeses.
When Ken Chase bought three farms in the 1930s and combined them to start his business, there were over 40 dairy farms in Pine Plains. Today, Chaseholm is one of four.
Consolidation in the industry, price fluctuation and real estate development pressure have made business untenable for most family dairies in the region over the decades.
“Not everyone appreciates that the rolling, grassy hills people are drawn to in this region have been maintained by livestock farmers,” Chase shared last week, standing between two orderly rows of cows during morning milking. “As farms are sold off to development, a lot of brush is moving in.”
Chaseholm’s longevity is thanks to a combination of farmer ingenuity, vision, community support and luck.
When Chase returned to the farm after college, it was out of a longing to reconnect with the land and animals she had grown up with while her father, Barry Chase, was managing Chaseholm.
It was also with a new understanding that there was a potential market within local food economies.
“I had friends who were experimenting with small vegetable farms that sold directly to customers through CSAs [community supported agriculture] and markets,” said Chase. “I wondered if something similar might be possible with dairy.”
Ever since Chase took over the farm in 2013, connecting directly with customers has been central to the business.
Chaseholm now operates a small, on-site store mere feet from the barn where the cows march into their stanchions every morning. The store stocks raw milk as well as the farm’s yogurt, beef and pork, and other locally sourced groceries. The cheese Rory makes down the road out of Sarah’s milk is featured as well.
The farm also delivers to CSA pickup sites around the region and the cheeses are available at many local stores and farmers markets.
Most dairy farmers sell their milk to regional cooperatives that pick it up and bring it swiftly to be processed. While the co-ops play an important role in getting fresh milk to market on a large scale, farmers are at the whim of set prices.
“We used to sell that way, but prices are so low and volatile, we couldn’t make it work. There is just constant pressure that reduces the value of milk,” Chase explained while each of the cows waited patiently for a turn to be milked. “There is a saying that when prices are high, you buy more cows to reap the benefits, and when prices are low, you buy more cows to increase production enough to make any money.”
Sarah Chase, owner of Chaseholm Farm in Pine Plains, in the barn her grandfather built.Janna Siller
Getting bigger and bigger felt like a losing battle to Chase, especially with the grass-based practices she had in mind:
“I’m just like my dad — the reason I’m here is because I love the cows. The more I learned about the potential of grass-based grazing systems to regenerate land, it was like discovering that my favorite animal was a superhero.”
To explain why, Chase took a journey to the deep, carbon-sequestering soils of grasslands the world over where herbivores graze concentrated areas in short bursts before moving along to stay safe from predators. The animals stimulate root growth and microbial life by pruning the grasses and by dropping fertilizer in the form of manure.
“We intend to replicate the impact of the great migratory herds, but in miniature, on Chaseholm’s pastures,” Chase said. “We use electric fencing and some brain power to coordinate which plot of land the cows will graze that day and when and where hay will be cut to carry the herd through the winter.”
Rory sees the benefits of grazing on the flavor profile of his cheeses and Sarah sees it on the resilience of the land. “Moisture is being held better in soil. In drought years, we are able to continue grazing.”
Breeding is also a key component of the system. Dutchess County has long been known for its productive, high-quality Holsteins. Chase is adding compatibility with grazing systems to the mix of traits she breeds for in her Holstein-Jersey mixes.
The Chase family, with the support of local land trusts, state funds and local fundraising, has sold the development rights to almost 300 acres of their land, 100 of which are forested, and put it all into permanent conservancy. Chase leases an additional 500 acres of land for producing hay and baleage (think: pickled hay that is extra nutritious to cows).
While Chase is passionate about inviting customers to experience the nutrition, flavor and connection to land that the farm has to offer, she also wants to create access to the unique kind of good time that is only possible on farms. Chaseholm hosts events from June through November with bands playing in the pasture, burgers for sale on the lawn, and drag shows in the barn.
As for the future, Chase hopes to keep anomalously being able to employ farmers in the dairy industry — Chaseholm currently supports a combined two full-time, year-round positions. She also hopes to invest in the farm’s infrastructure with a new barn:
“I want to modernize our facilities so that we can spend more time doing the fun/creative/enterprising stuff and less time just doing chores. It will be a big morale booster around here to move away from our very manual 1930s-style winter feeding methods, and I think our cows will like the new system, too.”
Sarah Chase, owner of Chaseholm Farm in Pine Plains, in front of the farm store and the barn her grandfather built.Janna Siller
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.