Living in Dryden

Organic dairy farming

I hoped yesterday that someone would get to the tour at the Sherman's dairy farm, and sure enough, this morning's Journal visits the farm and talks about what organic farming has to offer farmers and consumers:

Even in the transition, Williams [a farmer from Truxton] can taste the difference.

“The milk tastes different; it tastes better,� he said.

They raise much of the food on the family's table, from their garden to chickens and pigs. “Once you get started, you realize the food you buy (in stores) is questionable,� said Williams, whose parents gave up farming in Ulster County in eastern New York in the late 1960s. When short on their own eggs, the family buys organic eggs, but even those are not as good as their own.

“My yolks are orange; their yolks are yellow,� Williams said, noting that for organic milk as well, “demand is unbelievable here in the Northeast. Stores run out of it.�

...The switch to organic made all the difference for Sherman Farm.

“We would not be here if it wasn't for it,� said Sherman, who works the 1,400-acre hilly farm with his uncle Vaughn Sherman and Vaughn's son, Ryan Sherman. “We wouldn't go back to farming conventionally.�

Ernie Balch, 95, of Dryden, joined farmers of all ages, elders such as himself, teen girls and boys and at least one young Amish farmer to hike to the corn field where Zimmer and a group examined the crop and soil. He also walked to the pasture, where grazing and pasture practices were discussed. Balch grows “beets, carrots and posies.� Organic growing is nothing new to him. He said he started gardening organically in the 1940s.

Lots to think about. (And David Makar also wrote on organic dairy farming recently, if you'd like more, especially pictures.)

On the opinion page, Beverly Brown of Dryden encourages readers to visit the military museums in Sampson State Park on Seneca Lake.