I’m not sure that I’ve ever met a farmer before.
Betsy and Rich Sadlon
When Roger was planning the route for the XCBR (our shorthand for the Cross- Country Bicycle Ride), he was chatting with our friend Elizabeth, who was delighted to hear that we would be going near the town in upstate New York where she was raised. She was sure that her parents would love to have us spend the night at their farmhouse if we could route the ride there. After Elizabeth contacted her parents, Rich and Betsy, and put us in touch with each other, we received several warm, welcoming emails that resulted in plans for us to stay there, as well as some advance menu planning where Betsy and I would get to cook in her kitchen together.
We arrived in Cazenovia, NY, a town of lush, green farmland and rolling hills dotted with houses. A tall, shiny blue silo with the family name on it told me that we were in the right place as I pulled into the driveway and Roger rode in on his bicycle. Betsy and Rich came out and greeted us with open arms. Their daughter Pamela (Elizabeth’s youngest sister) also showed up to give us welcoming hugs.
We had a delightful evening in which we cooked and ate dinner, then I took a short walk up and down the road while Roger stayed back to work on his blog post. It was a peacefully quiet evening, and all I could hear were several different kinds of birds singing their songs, each with different notes, timbre and tempo, yet creating a beautiful choir.
I spent some time swapping stories with Betsy and Rich in the living room of their 150-year old farmhouse. They proudly showed me the framed photos of their children and grandchildren (Elizabeth is one of four children), and several aerial photos taken of their farm over the years.
Betsy and Rich have been married for 55 years, and for 48 of those years, they were active dairy farmers. In its heyday, their property (located near Cazenovia Lake) measured 547 acres. They also rented another 200 acres from other farmers. They had 100 cows and 100 heifers (young female cows not yet ready to produce milk), and once their dairy farm was established, they produced 2 million pounds of milk per year. On their farm, they also grew corn, soy beans, oats, wheat and barley. They grew hay to feed their dairy animals and sold the surplus to other farmers. They harvested about 30,000 bales of hay per year, some of which ended up feeding the horses at Belmont Horse Track. After they retired, Rich and Betsy sold some of their property and now rent out much of their land to another farmer.
The next morning, Betsy went to the trouble of making an early breakfast so that Roger could get started on the day’s ride, and we were joined by Pamela and her husband, Chris. I was talking with Rich and confirming some of the farming facts mentioned in the previous paragraph, and he made a wonderful comment: “The most important crop on our farm was our kids.“ Their kids and grandkids are everything to them. Elizabeth and her husband live the farthest away, in Southern California. Daughter Rebecca lives in Albany, son John and his husband live in Manhattan, and daughter Pamela and her husband live near the farm.
When we get back home, I can’t wait to talk to Elizabeth about what it was like for her to grow up on a farm.