The Olde Fogie Farm is home to a couple of the sweetest Old Fogies, Tom and Biz Fogie, who live at and run a farm bed and breakfast that is the cutest thing you've ever seen.
It's exactly what you picture when you think of Old McDonald's Farm.
Sam, the troublesome but lovable lab
Biz's son and daughter made this mural
One of the two llamas, standing proud
Smoky was the sweetest of the 4 barn cats.
Let me share a bit about our 5 day visit to the Olde Fogie Farm. Tom and Biz Fogie run this place. Biz is short for Busy -- a quite apparent personality trait of hers. I never did catch her real name. Despite her being 78 years old, Biz and Tom (80) are out pushing wheelbarrows and corralling the cows from dawn till dusk. Tom and Biz have 4 guest apartments at the Olde Fogie Farm. Upon entering our apartment, nicknamed The Hayloft, we are greeted with a placard reminding us not to let any chickens inside. Noted.
Tom getting ready to do some work.
The Olde Fogie farm has many residents:
- one beautiful brown horse named Pretty Boy,
- about 30 chickens and 2 roosters,
- 2 large bulls, 1 bottle-fed male calf,
- 5 goats, (2 of which are generously providing milk for morning coffee and the bottle-fed male calf, 3 of which are cutie babies and love to frolic),
- about a dozen guinea hens (great for mosquito and tick control, but loud as all get out),
- a flock of skittish sheep,
- a few large rabbits,
- 2 gigantic black pot-bellied pigs who will eat nearly anything,
- 1 playful but troublesome black lab named Sam, who became best friends with my kids and made me briefly consider having a dog one day. Briefly.
- 2 observant llamas
- an old French bulldog named Casey who was constantly smiling,
- 4 barn cats adept at catching mice, one of which would allow you to pet her but as soon as you stopped she'd slap you silly, and
- a swimming garden pond filled with orange, gray, yellow, and white koi, water lillies, and little waterfalls.
The sweet bottle-fed calf
The man in charge
Hungry pot-bellied piggies
The llamas did a lot of observing from the sidelines.
Oh hai
Pretty boy and Patsy
Tom and Biz are stewards of the land and of the animals. They treat each animal with the utmost respect, allowing everyone to roam freely around the fields and feed on the grasses, bugs, and plants. Of course, their diet is supplemented with hay and feed, but these animals are truly happy at Olde Fogie Farm. Since opening to the public, in 1987 as a place to spend the night and live the farm life, Tom and Biz have shifted focus a bit more toward taking in animals that would not be profitable otherwise. For example, they buy at auction the male calves that would normally be sold to a giant factory farm, and, a couple at a time, give these calves a life where they are hand-fed, massaged daily, and can freely graze, until they are full grown.
It's so important for us to learn exactly where our food comes from. The Olde Fogie farm does not try to cover up the ideas that animals are sometimes used for food. From milking the goats and drinking their milk straight away, to gathering eggs from the chickens, to learning that the cows are eventually used to feed people, we gained a deeper understanding of the relationship between humans and their food source. The difference at the Olde Fogie farm is in the way the animals are treated by people. There is a respect and caring there that teaches everyone appreciation and gratitude for the life of the animals and for the sustenance they provide for us.
Each morning at 7:45am sharp, we ring the chore bell to have all the guests (while we were there there was only 1 other family) gather for morning farm chores. The Olde Fogies spared us from mucking the stalls, and instead we all helped to feed the pigs, then Pretty Boy and the bulls.
The chore bell, rung every morning at 7:45 to call the guests to start chores
A neighboring barn
NOT the man in charge. Pecking order is serious business!
Head rooster looking over his gals.
Next, Tom and Biz's daughter Vicky helped us milk Patsy, one of the two generous goats, and then took us over to the calf to feed Patsy's milk to him, which he devoured in no time flat. If you've never bottle fed a calf, you're in for a wild ride. Make sure you've got a death grip on that bottle, because the calf drinks so intensely that I'm surprised that Momma cows can stay standing during feedings. After feeding the calf, we fed and gave fresh water to the silky soft bunnies, and let them out to cuddle for a bit.
Sunset over the Susquehanna
Placard in the garden. Biz and Tom's grandson Wilty helped build the beautiful gardens.
The chickens have a great view
We brought some pieces of bread and freshly picked mulberries to the hungry chickens and noisy guinea hens, all of whom scrambled in a huddle to be the first to gobble down little bites, while the 2 roosters stood tall, watching over their ladies. Finally, we gathered eggs from the nesting boxes, or discovered a pointy guinea hen egg lying around the field, so we could bring them upstairs to the Hayloft to cook up some fresh eggs for breakfast. One of the mornings I committed an absolute breakfast fail, which you can read about here. Don't judge.
Hello breakfast
The big old barn
Smoky on the lookout
After morning chores and breakfast, we would explore around the farm and property. More than 30 years ago, before the farm began welcoming guests, Tom and Biz grew and sold organic produce. In fact, they were part of the organic food movement before it was popularized. Pioneers, those Fogies are!
Training camp
Cheese!
The farm doesn't grow and sell produce anymore, but the gardening around the property is a beautiful mixture of ornamentals like sunflowers, coneflowers, butterfly bushes, irises, and black-eyed susans, among edibles, like celery, mint, cucumbers, tomatoes, and every herb you can imagine. Hummingbirds were darting from one flower to the next, seemingly living a dream.
Flowers and herbs are all around the swimming garden.
Cute reminder in our bathroom
Swinging bench over the cool stream
Pretty boy using his built in fly swatter
Another gorgeous Susquehanna sunset
Among one of the gardens is a little playhouse for the kids, equipped with all one would need for a play kitchen, and the heat certainly didn't stop them from spending lots of time "making" coffee, chicken, and ice cream for my husband and I. Around the bend past the swimming garden is a tree fort and with a tree swing overlooking the cool stream that feeds the swimming garden. A fire pit and grills were also available, but we're saving those activities for our next visit.
Treehouse by the stream
Hungry hungry
The koi fish were ever eager to devour their kibble, and once we were finished feeding them, they would double check our fingers and toes to make sure they didn't miss a single crumb. Once we were brave enough, we even grabbed our swimsuits and went for a swim with the fishies. After I got used to the slightly slimy bottom, it was so refreshing and relaxing to be swimming among these beautiful fish in the cool stream-fed swimming garden. Next time I'm bringing goggles so I can see them underwater.
One last walk around before bedtime
Guineas eating up all the ticks. Thank you sweeties!
Miss Patsy
On our last night at the farm, the kids were chasing lightning bugs while my husband and I sat around the patio table chatting with Tom and Biz. Biz was telling stories about her two children growing up on the farm and mentioned that her son, Tom Jr., now in his 40s, has always been a skateboarding fanatic, and had built by hand a skate ramp inside the big barn behind towering haystacks. Well wouldn't you know, she told the right guy, because my husband also happens to be borderline obsessed with skateboarding. Biz invited him in to check out the ramp the next morning before we packed up to leave. We snapped a few photos of the impressive hand-built barn ramp, which, according to some skateboarders, can be a cliche to build a skate ramp inside of a barn. Not here, though. This is the real deal, the original, and the genuine article. A real farm boy building a real skate ramp inside his real barn that houses haystacks, bulls, and goats.
Skate ramp in the barn.
The Fogies are also well known in their little town. They recommended Gigi's to us, a retro-themed diner and ice cream bar, in a one-stoplight kind of town adjacent to the Susquehanna River. While we were there (for the second visit), I noticed some familiar faces on the back wall: Tom and Biz Fogie.
We found amazing ice cream at Gigi's
Oh look who I found! It's Tom and Biz Fogie!
Being away from heavily congested suburbia was a much needed treat. Being among nature and animals, the kids reached an all time high level of glee, and the fresh air (you get past the farm smell pretty quickly, promise), the endless sea of lightning bugs over the fields at dusk, and the happy sounds of the healthy barnyard critters was a little piece of peaceful paradise away from the rush and rigor of the daily grind. We will definitely be returning to the Olde Fogie Farm again and again.
A storm's a-brewin'!
Paradise
Casey to the rescue!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please check out my blog and some of my other nature and photography posts:
- Leftover oatmeal got you down for the last time!
- Let's talk about rescued vegetables.
- Real Sourdough Baguette and Walnut Garden Pesto - Recipes and Food Photos
- Miso Ramen with Chicken and Recovered Veggies - Recipe and Food Photos
- Brookgreen Gardens - Where sculpture, poetry, and nature dance together
- Woodstock Vermont - roadside art, craft beer, covered bridges, and cow kisses
All content and photos by @jaymorebeet taken between 6/28/2017 and 7/2/2017 with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II and iPhone6s.