Will Bike For Food!

350 miles of hills, heat, and headwind saw me at the camping ground of my childhood. Along the way I met a score of great people, visited four farms, a state park, two countries, stepped in 9 kinds of poop, ate a lot of Raw Revolution bars, herded cattle, rode ATVs, shot guns, rode a horse, cooked over the fire, and much more.

It has taken me some time to start writing and editing photos. When you take two weeks off from work there is a lot of catch up to do when you get back, even in television production. I have been a little swamped but I am doing my best.

My first stop was at Grazin’ Angus Acres in Ghent, NY. There I stayed with Dan and Susan Gibson and worked cattle on the farm. Grazin’ Angus Acres is a 450 acres Angus farm that raises grass fed chickens and eggs as well. If I remember correctly they have about 300 head of cattle.

Dan will tell you that they are not cattle farmers but grass farmers. In an intricate and well balanced shuffle the cattle are moved to new pasture every day. Three days later, as the fly larvae are about to pop out of the cow poop, they let the chickens run free on the the pasture to eat the larvae, scratch the patties, and spread their own fertilizer. This system is great for the cattle, the chickens, and the grass. Truly economical, efficient, and healthy.

My next stop, after a 97 mile hilly ride into a headwind, with rain for the last mile and a half, was the Ortensi Family Farm in Richfield Springs, NY. Bernadette and Gregg Ortensi have a 500 acre farm with cows, turkeys, chickens, vegetables, hay, grains, and horses! All the animals at the farm are “on grass” meaning quite simply, that’s what they eat. Berni gives horse riding lessons as well, and was kind enough to instruct this cyclist how to ride something other than a bike.

It was a 145 mile jog between The Ortensi Farm and my next stop at Beartown Farms. Of course I wasn’t going to attempt to do it all in one shot, so I stayed at Whetstone Gulf State Park near Lowville, NY. I camped out for the night, made a fire, cooked over my camp stove, and was disappointed when a huge bus showed up at 10:30 p.m. and was quite noisy setting up their 20 some-odd tents.

After Whetstone Gulf State Park I stopped in at Lloyd’s of Lowville for a little breakfast. My family visits Lloyd’s every year on our way to Sugar Island. It’s a staple of any trip that finds you in upstate New York.

My next stop was at Beartown Farms to visit Gene and Veronica LaMothe. They have 1000 acres of old dairy farms in Antwerp, NY. There they raise a couple hundred head of cattle, a dozen horses, and around 600 sheep. Oh, and a llama… I was fortunate enough to be able to sample the lamb and the beef, they were amazing. All their animals are grass fed and raised naturally.

After I left Beartown Farm I went to visit a friend of theirs, Dani Baker at Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island, NY. Dani and David grow 200 different kinds of vegetables (many of them heirloom varieties), have pigs, goats, chickens, cows, and the strange looking guinea hens. A point of interest, they have set up camp sites on their 102 acres for adventurers much like myself to camp while enjoying delicious and obscure organic produce.

After crossing some rather annoying bridges I made it into Ontario Canada! It was a long journey but well worth it and a good view into the future.

The rest of the week was spent camping out and resting my legs with family on Sugar Island.

Notes and feelings on the trip:

Too much to fit into 10 days. The distances I covered were doable for me because I’m a little insane, but not doable for a long period of time (say..2 years). In the future when I don’t have to squeeze that distance into a vacation from work I will take my time. Also I don’t know if I could get Kate to ride those distances.

The numbers would not be quite so bad if I did not have a 95lb bike, all hills, and some fierce head-winds. I literally had 4 miles of tail winds the entire 350 miles, harsh.

All the farmers very incredibly nice and really very generous. I’ll say it until I am blue in the face, organic and sustainable farmers produce great food! There’s a transparency there that should sell itself. What other industry would eagerly tell you all their secrets? It’s food I can trust and quality I can taste.

Looking forward to getting a little netbook so I can update the site with pictures from the road. I sent pictures to Facebook via my phone but I really wanted to be able to write for the website as well. I might have been able to write from the farmer’s computers if I asked but I wouldn’t have been able to send pictures which are such a large part of what I am trying to share. All in good time.

I learned a TON about farming, raising live-stock, monetizing the whole operation because you have to live, how I want to lay out my future farm, and how I want to lay out my/our future trip.

This trip also strengthened my trust and belif in organic and sustainable farmers and their practices. It’s not a fad, not a niche thing, it is something we should all be concerned about. Maybe not as concerned as I am, for that would drive everyone crazy, but where you get your food and what goes into it deserves some serious thought.

All in all it was fantastic! The cycling was great, the farmers are great, and it was a good glimpse of the trip of a life time.

A shout out to Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs!