Abundance Acres Farm

Pam and Chris are late-in-life farmers who purchased a 185-acre Amish dairy farm in 2014, in a rural upstate New York community where the farms are about half old-order Amish, half conventional dairy or monoculture feed crops. Abundance Acres Farm began with a small herd of rabbits, a few flats of veggie plants, and a desire to grow delicious, healthy food on expanses of grass that seem to extend to the edge of the Earth. Egg layers, turkeys, meat chickens, and pigs came shortly after—even before the house had hot water and electricity, never mind a toilet and a shower!

For market sales, Chris and Pam focus on pasture-raising animals for eggs and meat in a sustainable, regenerative way, always working toward improving processes and systems to reduce animal stress and increase animal welfare, both of which improve animal health and survivability. They avoid medicated animal feeds and chemical soil amendment. They use the land's resources by tapping the woods for maple syrup, creating more fenced areas as animal paddocks, growing corn for animal feed, and making hay to feed animals in winter. They also maintain a few perennial produce crops (asparagus, horseradish, rhubarb) and like to grow unique vegetable varieties in an organic kitchen garden.

Every year, farm production and focus evolves somewhat. But the practices used still are a pollinator-friendly mix of old-fashioned, organic, and (un)common sense that incorporates quality inputs, local partners, rotation, manure, and mulch.