Lisa Kilmer with Kinder
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Terry and Lisa Kilmer own 10 acres of property in northern Dutchess County”™s Clinton Corners where they raise chickens, turkeys and pigs and in the age-old tradition make hay when the sun shines: certified organic hay.
The couple is getting ready for Tuesday, Aug. 25, when they will show off the fruits of their sweat during the six-day agricultural spectacular known as the Dutchess County Fair at the fairgrounds in Rhinebeck. Terry is an organizer, as well.
High school sweethearts, Lisa was diagnosed with Crohn”™s disease at age 20. Doctors predicted she wouldn”™t see her 30th birthday.
“That didn”™t work for us,” said Terry Kilmer. “It didn”™t work at all.” The couple copiously studied the possible causes, myriad of medicines and miracle cures, but focused on one essential: healthy eating.
“We didn”™t start farming because we wanted to become farmers,” said Terry Kilmer, home on his lunch break from his day job. While his grandfather was a dairy farmer, dad was strictly “an IBM guy.” Kilmer puts a 50-hour week in with American Heating and Cooling in Poughkeepsie as its co-owner. “We got into organic farming because we believed foods without additives or pesticides would give Lisa a healthier life.”
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Terry and Lisa Kilmer, owners of Gray Horse Farm, with daughter Gretah, 2.
The Kilmers started raising chickens, using organic feed, eating the eggs of the “layers” and the meat of others in their flock, while raising garden vegetables without the use of pesticides. They bought beef from a certified organic farm, McEnroe Organic Farms in Millerton. Both noted a visible improvement in Lisa”™s health. (While there is no current cure for Crohn”™s ”“ an intestinal disorder ”“ the Kilmers, like many who study the disease, believe nutritious food is a key factor in controlling it.)
After graduation, Lisa Kilmer began teaching kindergarteners in Dutchess County”™s Arlington School District, but decided to “retire” when daughter Gretah was born. That”™s when farming became not just pastime to keep Lisa healthy, but a business both husband and wife embraced and took on full-steam ahead. After his day-job demands, Terry puts in another 25-30 working the farm, while Lisa devotes her days to the flocks of chickens, turkeys and their eggs, which eventually make their way to Hudson Valley tables.
Their draft horses are used to clear the land and the stables Kilmer originally built for them are now homes for the newly-hatched chicks and baby turkeys. The horses have tidy stables, but the chicks and turkeys rule the roost in the fancier stables. Eventually, those babies get big enough to go “free ranging … and that means truly free,” said Terry. “A chicken or turkey can be classified as ”˜free range”™ as long as it”™s not in a cage, but they may never see the light of day. Our chickens and turkeys get out and roam the yard and truly are free in that sense of the word. The grain they eat comes from a certified organic feed grower, Lightning Tree Farm in Millbrook.” The porkers in Mrs. Ingalls”™ piglet brood have already been sold, with the Kilmers retaining a few for breeding purposes. The piglets will eventually end up as pork chops when they are old enough to face the final curtain or may, like the amazing pig Wilbur in “Charlotte”™s Web,” be spared the butcher block and become a pet.
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Mrs. Ingalls tends to her newborn piglets.
When it”™s time to say goodbye, the livestock is brought to a USDA-approved slaughterhouse, prepared and packaged for sale. “We started with 25 chicks, one pig and five horses,” said Terry Kilmer. “Today, we have 400 layers, 600 meat chickens and 150 turkeys. We were farming organically for five years before we applied for USDA approval. Through the Northeast Organic Farming Association, we are only one of two certified organic farms in Dutchess County. The other is our friend and fellow farmer Ray McEnroe, who raises the beef we sell here.”
Getting and maintaining the federal and regional organic approval costs approximately $640 a year, and “the price of grain has gone up 100 percent,” said Lisa Kilmer. “When you have small farmers trying to compete with conglomerates, they control the prices. The folks we buy our grain from, Lightning Tree Farm, try to raise as much of their own as possible to keep costs down for the local farmers here.”
“There is no ”˜fortune in farming”™ for the small farmer,” Terry said. “You just have to love what you do, and Lisa and I can”™t imagine life any other way.”
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It ain”™t just hay ”“ these bales are certified organic!
In order to keep their USDA certification as an organic farm, the Kilmers re-apply each year. “We have one fairly detailed inspection to make sure we are in compliance, and then another surprise inspection just to be sure we are doing what we say we are,” said Terry. “It”™s there to protect our reputation as well as to let the public know we are truly USDA certified.”
The farm is gearing up for the Dutchess County Fair. Terry sits on the board of directors for the Farm Bureau and is team leader for the 4-H Gentle Giants for draft horses. The Kilmers plan to enter chicks, as well as the hay they are growing. “The quality and percentage of legumes, grasses, coarseness and texture are all part of what makes its quality,” said Kilmer. “The Dutchess County Fair is above and beyond for farmers what it is to other visitors.”
Indeed, the Dutchess County Fair is second in the state when it comes to popularity only to the Great New York State Fair, which takes place in Syracuse and draws an estimated 1 million visitors each year. Dutchess County Fair has been packing people in for more than 160 years. It has stayed in touch with its original roots in the 1840s when it was a venue for farmers to showcase livestock, vegetables and milk products. The state committed all of $157 to get it going.
The Dutchess County Fair opens its gates Aug. 25 and runs through Sunday, August 30. Visit dutchesscountyfair.com for more information.
