This Week on Upstater: Create Your Own Farmstead in the Hudson Valley & Catskills

  |  February 6, 2017

681 Hardscrabble Road, Roxbury: $545,000

If you’re thinking about farms in the Upstater area, you are not alone. Just look at the amount of agritourism opportunities in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley region. And, when the desire grows beyond tourism, there are plenty of resources available for new farmers, like the Hudson Valley Farmhub, which connects farmers to other farmers as well as training opportunities, information on resilient farming practices, and seed protection. Likewise, Catskills Farmlink helps out agribusiness by providing information on training, underutilized farmland up for sale/lease, and networking for Catskill Mountain region farmers. Grants like those offered by the Cornell Small Farms Program and Empire State Development New Farms Grant Fund encourages would-be farmers to start growing their own agribusinesses in the Hudson Valley/Catskills, and all that local farm production helps bolster the local economy. The upshot? Farming is encouraged in the area, and you’ll likely find plenty of support and advice should you choose to pursue it.

But what about a small family farm? Even if your goals don’t include selling what you cultivate, there are plenty of more modest farmstead properties currently on the market in the Upstater area. Fixer-upper farmhouses are plentiful, particularly in Delaware County, but we rolled up our sleeves, got out our rakes, and started sifting for farmsteads residents on the affordable side that don’t need full renovations. Spoiler Alert: There are more listings than we can post about in just one week.

Stay tuned this week for farm properties on the real estate market, and prepare to dream of a life rooted in the fertile soils of the Hudson Valley & Catskills…

Read On, Reader...