From April 26-28, people from all around are invited to attend the Southern Adirondack Homesteading Festival.

The weekend-long event will be hosted at the Washington County Fairgrounds (located at 392 Old Schuylerville Road, Greenwich, NY 12834). Guests can expect to hear from several different speakers, enjoy food trucks, and participate in a variety of hands-on events. The whole family is sure to learn something new, and have lots of fun in the process.

This year’s keynote speaker is Jill Winger, traveling to New York for the first time all the way from Wyoming. She bought her homestead in 2008 with her husband, and fell in love with the old fashioned lifestyle.

However, she found it hard to find people who shared her interests, which led to the creation of The Prairie Homestead. “I needed an outlet and so I decided to start a blog,” said Jill. As she posted more about her lifestyle, her views began to grow as well. Today, The Prairie Homestead reaches an immense audience and obtains millions of views daily. In addition to her online space, she has released multiple books. In 2019, she published The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, and in 2023 she published Old Fashioned on Purpose which instantly became an Amazon best seller. In addition to her publications, she also has amassed over 7 million downloads on her podcast Old Fashioned on Purpose.

Through owning a homestead and working on her platform, Jill discovered her love for entrepreneurship. She runs Genuine Beef Company, shipping grass-finished beef nationwide. She is also the owner of the Chugwater Soda Fountain, Wyoming’s oldest operating soda fountain. “The soda fountain was in pretty bad shape when we bought it,” explained Jill, “I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it’s been really worthwhile just to see the community rally around it.”

Overall, Jill’s goal is to help people realize that becoming a homesteader or living a more old-fashioned lifestyle, is obtainable to everybody. “If they have this same inclination that I do toward old-fashioned things I want them to know it’s possible and they don’t have to have a lot of land. They don’t have to have a big fancy farmhouse, but there’s a lot of really good things that come to us when we start to become producers instead of just consumers,” said Jill.

During the event, Jill will be giving two talks. The first focuses on why homesteading matters overall and is a worthwhile thing to do, regardless of where you live. Her second talk will be a more interactive discussion of the secrets to an old fashioned kitchen; centering around how to make more food at home.

There will also be time scheduled into the day for a Q&A with Jill. People should leave the event feeling inspired and more confident in their own abilities, regardless of where they live. “That’s one of my biggest passion points,” shared Jill, “Is that you do not need acres of land to do this. You can do so much even in just a neighborhood, even in an apartment. This is really a mindset in my opinion.”

The event will kick off on Friday, April 26 with self-guided farm tours. Everyone is welcome to attend and enjoy multiple different food trucks, entertainment, and demonstrations without an admissions charge.

Starting Saturday, be sure to register ahead of time and get your ticket to participate in all the different activities. There are many different options for registration such as day passes, family packages, and weekend passes. Whether you can come for one day or enjoy the whole weekend, there is an option for you.

These days will be filled with even more great speakers and hands-on activities including: Gardening 101, Beekeeping, Maple Production, Advanced Soap Making, and more.

In addition, there will be several classes covering homestead entrepreneurship, perfect for homesteaders looking to venture into the business world. This family friendly event is perfect for anyone regardless of their experience level. Whether you are going to learn more about what you already do at home, are just starting, or have no clue where to begin.

The Adirondack Homesteading Festival is a great way to connect with a community of people who share a passion for bringing an old-fashioned lifestyle back into the modern world.

To buy tickets or see the full schedule of events, you can visit their website at www.adkhomesteading.com.

Three generations of the Imbimbo family work together at Slate Valley Farms to produce honey and maple syrup.

Both natural sweeteners are sticky, viscous, amber-colored liquids used as alternatives to table sugar. Each offers beneficial vitamins, minerals, and protective antioxidants. Which you choose often depends on what you are creating in the kitchen – but it takes both for this family farm to survive. “The seasons aren’t the same so, in a normal year, you’re coming out of maple season and going right into bee-keeping season,” said Pat Imbimbo.

This Season’s Buzz

This year has not been a normal year. The weather has been “off” in the Northeast, the only place in the country where real maple syrup is produced from the sap of tapped maple trees high in sugar during early spring. While it’s still good quality, the quantity of syrup being generated from his 3,200 maple trees has been much less than for those experiencing cooler weather patterns further north.

Concurrently on the farm, while the sap suffered, the bees thrived. The mild winter had their 44 hives buzzing ahead of schedule.

Busy Bees

During its lifetime, the average bee produces just one-quarter of a tablespoon of honey. Like maple syrup, honey is harvested, manually, in a labor-intensive process.

Now in retirement, Pat says he works harder than before he retired. He’ll be ready pretty soon to pass the reins of the family business down to his daughter, Gina Brackeen and her husband, he said.

“Maple is big business in this area. I like selling it and I like when people tell us they enjoy it and come back for more,” said Pat. “The same stuff I sell to the public is what I feed to my own kids and grandkids. It’s a great life working with the grandkids, and living on a farm, but it costs a lot of money to live on a farm. We’re unique because it’s all family, so when times get tough, everyone pulls together.”

Gina received a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and greenhouse management from SUNY Cobleskill and now lives in a tiny house on the property, handling much of the farm’s business. She has introduced new ideas and products, like Slate Valley Farm’s unusual red hibiscus syrup, their intriguing bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, and their popular seasonal lavender lemonade. Additionally, they offer many other traditional and infused maple syrups, maple sugar, raw wildflower honey, and beeswax goods.

Eco- Conscious Ingenuity

In 1999, Pat purchased Slate Valley Farm’s 101-acre property in Granville and began transforming it. Originally named New England Farms, they kept getting mistaken for a chain of convenience stores. He changed the name to Slate Valley Farms and began carrying a line of products under the Uncle Pat’s General Store label.

The farm, which centers around sustainability, is home to chickens, pigs, and a horse. They produce their own meat and vegetables, and utilize eco-conscious construction methods and energy production techniques. The barn and sugar house are built from shipping containers, and the greenhouse, sap house, and track house have been constructed from repurposed materials (like fence rail).

Resourcefulness Meets Wherewithal

Because of the unpredictability of the business, Slate Valley Farms is constantly introducing new products to supplement their income stream. Last year, they harvested 13,000 plants used to produce organic dyes. During his two-week Christmas break, after spending seven days/week working on the farm year-round, Pat could be found in his woodshop, building oval-shaped Shaker boxes and trays (which they used to create holiday gift packages loaded with farm goods).

Saving The Hives

Pat had first been introduced to bee-keeping in 1982 while serving as a police officer in Hendry County (Alligator Alley), Florida. During a traffic stop, he discovered stolen hives. After returning them to their rightful owner (and caging the bird that took them) Pat received his first hive as a ‘thank you’ gift.

“I enjoy the solitude. When working with the bees, no one else comes near you,” he said. Pat, who is Italian, said he prefers working with Italian bees because they build-up quickly in the spring and are gentle enough for students and his autistic grandchildren to work with, as well.

Worker Bee

Bees produce honey from the sugary nectar of wildflowers, imbuing it with the natural floral flavors of their environment. There are 82 different plants and trees at Slate Valley Farms that produce nectar for the bees. Despite his allergies, Pat only mows once a year in the fall to allow the goldenrod and nettle (that the bees love!) to continue to bloom.

For the past five years, Pat, a mason, has also been the Grand Beekeeper tending the hives at the Masonic Care Community in Utica, NY. He started the community with Bill Sardone and Bob Butler to encourage blossom pollination in the community’s apple orchard.

Today, their project has grown to include 12 bee colonies, each engraved with the donor’s name, and sheltered in a bee house year-round. Slate Valley Farms’ booths can be found at most Washington County Fairground events and in the County Bounty Building during their agricultural fair in August.

Slate Valley Farms is also at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Schenectady Green Market on Sundays, and are very happy to be among the items for sale at the Hicks Orchard Stores in Granville and Glens Falls.

This summer, they will also be participating in the Shirt Factory’s Thursday Farm Markets.For more information, go to www.slatevalleyfarms.com

A SALESMAN AND A VETERAN WALK INTO A BAR…

No, it’s not a setup for a joke, but rather the origin of an ever-growing fundraiser, known as Operation Give Back, that is making life a little bit better for a number of veterans in and around the South Glens Falls area.

The salesman in question is Jacque Ecuyer, a well-known figure in and around his hometown of Hudson Falls who had stopped into Slickfin Brewing Co. in Fort Edward one night about two years ago with his wife’s brother in tow. According to Heather March, who runs the brewery along with her husband, Ecuyer told her of his dream. “We were just talking one day, and he said, ‘I would really love to start a fundraiser for veterans,’” said March, who, along with husband Kris and Ecuyer’s brother-in-law, is a Marine Corps veteran. “So I said we would love to partner up with you.”

The Marches did just that in what became, in 2022, the inaugural event. On Saturday, May 11, the third annual Operation Give Back/Military Appreciation Day will be held at Slickfin’s location at 147-149 Broadway from noon to 10 p.m. And Ecuyer has high hopes for it. That first year, he said, “we (raised) $3500 in about three hours. Last year, we raised $7500. This year, our goal is $10,000.” And, he added, at this event, “one hundred percent of the proceeds go directly to local veteran organizations.”

Like the first two years of the benefit, Allen LaPell, owner of the Vested Veteran Grill in Corinth, will be providing plenty of food. When he got wind of the venture in 2022, LaPell, a U.S. Army vet, was all in. “He wanted to be a part of it, to be the food source,” said Ecuyer, who was more than happy to accommodate his wish.

This year, in addition to LaPell’s enterprise, Carnivore Brothers BBQ and Catering of Hadley will be the primary food vendors at the event, at which a large turnout is expected. Although the number of people who patronized the inaugural fundraiser is not known, Ecuyer estimated that between 500 and 700 people showed up throughout the day for it last year.

“It’s growing every year, and we get more and more people wanting to be involved,” said Ecuyer. The event will include a silent auction, raffles for numerous donated items, two food trucks (both veteran owned), and seven musical acts (four solo artists and three bands). Two of the musicians, according to Ecuyer, are veterans. “If you do things for veterans, you try to keep everything, as much as you can, veteran based,” Ecuyer said. “That’s what brings the whole thing together. When you’re bringing military families in, they want to support veteran-owned businesses. When you have a veteran-owned brewery, you have veteran-owned food trucks, you have veteran musical artists, it really solidifies the entire event.”

The first year, the beneficiaries were American Legion Post 574 of Hudson Falls and Adirondack Vets House of Glens Falls. Last year, in addition to the vets house, the local American Gold Star Mothers organization received funding. According to Heather Marsh, at this year’s fundraiser, “if we raise more (money), we’d be able to choose more than two organizations,” as beneficiaries.

Though Ecuyer, a route salesman for Freihofer’s, did not serve in the armed forces, he shares a kinship with vets. Helping them, he said, is “a passion of mine because so many of my friends are veterans, and they just weren’t able to (make it) on their own, so I decided to step in and try to do my part.”

Veterans, he added, “are sort of a forgotten group as we have moved on through the years. They can’t always get the help they need, not only with mental health, but with housing, and so on and so forth. If we can give local organizations a little bump rather than waiting on grants and such, that definitely helps their bottom line to be able to help more and more veterans each year.” His organization, 4s4life, is sponsoring the event (the four “S’s” stand for strength, struggle, sacrifice, and survival).

“I started this organization because I have lived through what I consider the mental health minefield,” said Ecuyer. “I was bullied as a kid, I’m 30 years in recovery from drug addiction, I’ve battled depression, PTSD, and survived multiple suicide attempts. So I decided to turn my pain into my purpose, and that’s why I do what I do.”

For further information, look for Operation Giveback on Facebook. Ecuyer can be reached on social media or by phone at 518-926-9018. Heather Marsh can be reached at 518-223-0264.