We stood in silence, staring at each other..we were at a crossroad. Egidio broke the silence. “What is a wedding venue? Look around.. This is a barn… where animals lived.. The floor is made of manure.” I responded with “Barn weddings are all the rage! Don’t you read anything or look at social media?” He exclaimed “Who in the world would want to get married in a barn??” Little did he know that HE would get married in a barn. That barn. The first of many, many weddings to take place at New Beginnings Farmstead.
I admit, he was right about a lot of things… The barn did house hundreds of cows and therefore the floor was made of manure. But I have never been afraid of hard work and have always agreed with the statement that when there is a will, there is a way! The farm had unlimited potential and it was going to take people with vision and skill to transform it. Fortunately, I knew just who those people could be!
We continued to walk the property and discussed the possibilities. If we were to buy it… what would we do with 130 acres?? We couldn't help but fall in love with the farm. We were taken back by the pure beauty of the land. There was a 20 acre field that was on a slight hill. The previous owners would hay the field for their cows. We had no intention of owning a dairy farm. Remember… city mouse…. I have never milked anything and didn’t plan to start then. We walked around the field and thought perhaps one day we would build a house back there. I pointed out that It was a very secluded area, and from the top of the hill it had amazing views of the Catskill Mountains. He pointed out that it would take a LOT of money to get electricity to the site and a new well would need to be drilled. (He is always such a downer!)
One of the big selling points for me was that the OW Rail Trail ran through the back of the farm. I have been a runner most of my adult life and the thought of being able to go from my back door, up the driveway, and through a path that leads me right onto the rail trail had me tickled pink! What else could a girl ask for??
The more we walked the more I fell in love. Egidio did too, he just doesn’t like to admit it. We agreed that if we bought a farm, we would need to farm. We couldn’t possibly afford the taxes without the credits from farming the land. Egidio mentioned the possibility of producing maple syrup. We had just spent January and February tapping maple trees and boiling sap at his mother’s house. His family made maple syrup when he was a little kid and I was very interested in giving it a try and we had a lot of fun doing it… more about that later.
With that in mind we started to walk through the woods to identify maple trees. Did we have enough maple trees on the farm to make that happen? We discovered two things on that walk… one, we did in fact have a LOT of maple trees…two, (with Egidio yelling “stop… you’re embarrassing yourself!”) I do not know the difference between a maple tree and oak, poplar, or ash trees…. I am such a city girl!!