We headed south to Greenfield this month to chat with Tabor Ellsworth of Greenfield’s Forever about their delicious pickles (and raspberries, and blueberries…), as well as their pickling process - from cucumber to jar!
On Starting a Farm
I started our farm in 2009. At the time, I was looking for a new career. I attended a farm conference that year and decided to give it a try.
Our farm and house was established in 1792. After the American revolution, they were giving out 1,000 acre tracts of land to settle the upper Hudson Valley. The Kronkhite family got one of the tracts and moved here from Dutchess County. My great grandparents were immigrants and purchased what was remaining of the original farm in 1908 and operated as a dairy farm. They stopped farming in the 1960’s.
Tabor Ellsworth at Greenfield’s Forever | Photo: Bri Lyons
The Offerings
I currently have six acres under cultivation. I grow blueberries, raspberries, apples, pears and plums for fruit. Our vegetable offerings include asparagus and cucumbers.
We offer u-pick for our fruit and also sell the fruit from our farm stand. The asparagus is sold at the farm stand as well, and we use our cucumbers to make pickles.
On Food Processing
We have a value added products business which has been part of our farm business from the start. We make pickles, which is our biggest item by far. Americans eat 9 lbs of pickles per year per capita! We also make pickled beans, pickled beets, pickled carrots, pickled red onions, pickled asparagus, pickled peppers, pickled garlic and fruit jam. We have grown our business to include several brands, which include Farmer T’s and Food Union Family Farms.
We started out by renting space seasonally from a friend who has a commercial kitchen. In 2016, we constructed a processing facility on our farm and now do all of our processing here.
At first, we grew everything for our value added business. Now that we’ve expanded, we purchase the vast majority of the product that we don’t grow directly from other local New York State Farms.
The Process
Our all natural pickles are made from fresh cucumbers packaged directly into the jars within days of harvesting. We have unique recipes and a different brine for each flavor to compliment the herbs and spices used for that flavor. We make garlic dill, amish sweet dill, bread & butter, over the top garlic and hot pickles.
On Distributing Product
We have a few products sold to regional distributors within the northeastern United States. Most of our business is local, from Warrensburg to Kingston. We have approximately 15 outlets that sell our product within 8 miles of our farm.
On Farm Life
I like working for myself, though farming is difficult. I have worked in the food business and manufacturing for 37 years. By far, the most successful farmers are the best businesspeople. Most other businesses can simply order in whatever they need and then resell it to generate revenue. Farmers have to grow, raise or produce everything that they sell and deal with all of the challenges of that, many which are beyond their control - like weather and disease. Then we process, package and ultimately sell the product.
On The Future
If I was younger when I started, I would have a more diverse farm business. I hope to attract other farmers to collaborate with and have their own business on our farm.
Instead of me managing all aspects, I’d love to have independent businesspeople running their operation. We want to continue to grow our food products business and we have a business plan in place forecasting just that.
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Special thanks to Taste NY for making this series possible!
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