By Gavi Klein

Photo courtesy of Heermance Farm

Farming has never been the most financially sustainable career path, and farmland across the country is increasingly being forfeited by farmers in search of an easier life. Not so with Heermance Farm in Tivoli, which was first established way back in 1730, and has remained a fully operating farm since then. The property gets its name from the Heermance family, who built the property’s most historically notable feature in 1745: the 18th century Dutch stone farmhouse, which, in 1980, was officially registered in the National Register of Historic Places as being “architecturally significant.” Over the course of the 19th century, the farm traded hands five times, until Henry Redder purchased the property in 1896 and passed it on to his daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Peter Bulkeley, whose family maintained ownership of the farm until 2012. Heermance Farm is a working farm today, with three active campuses, all within minutes of each other: Heermance Farm, producing vegetables and custom blend-fed eggs; Five Star Farm, working with hydroponics and steelhead trout; and Pleasant Vale Farm, raising hogs, turkeys, and heirloom laying hens. The property is the site of events like community hog roasts, and their New York City bodega, Heermance Farm Purveyors, brings the fresh taste of Dutchess county to the big city.