OPEN flags are like babies. They change you for life. Just as pregnancy hormones alone started unraveling the do-good school girl in me, causing me to suddenly challenge doctors, stare down speeding cars when I approached a cross walk or stand up to pushy people; so too did the mere knowledge that … Read More >
The Radical Homemaker
Warning: Blending authenticity with joy may arouse contempt.
Welcome.
In 1979, Mom and Dad plunked their ideals and $40,000 down on some of the poorest farmland in one of the poorest counties in New York State. They dreamed of living off that land, of their children living off that land. And from the first night I laid my head down to rest on Sap Bush Hollow Farm as a child, I never wanted anything else. As I grew to adulthood and began a family of my own, I realized that this little farm was more than just a pastoral dream. It was an antidote to industrial food, climate change, harried living and social injustices. But how was one little grassfed livestock farm high in the mountains going to support two families? I looked to my Appalachian neighbors, who had lived well up here for generations, with little to no cash. If they could do it, so could we. We would simply have to learn to make what we couldn’t buy. I would become the radical homemaker.
I thought it was just a sensible choice. I didn’t know it would spark a revolution.
Thanks for dropping in. Feel free to look around and see what life is like for three generations of my family as we live, bicker, laugh, feast, farm and love high up here in these frost covered hills of Schoharie County, New York.
— Shannon Hayes, The Radical Homemaker
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Sap Bush Hollow Farm
Learn more about the farm where I grew up, one of the nation’s pioneering grassfed livestock farms. View our price lists, get directions, and find out when we’re open.
Naked Short Ribs
I was all about efficiency this week. I lit my grill to sear a steak for lunch, then used the flames to sear the cuts I would braise later in the week. Feeling flush with short ribs, and remembering how delicious short ribs were off the grill while studying asado techniques down in Argentina, I … Read More >
Customer Service
There is no Pepsi in our cooler. We offer regionally-made kombucha. There are no Snickers bars on our counter. We bake fresh pie every morning from local fruit. We don’t fry eggs to order. We can’t grow enough eggs to supply our local customers’ demand for fresh eggs as it is. We don’t sell … Read More >
Link-Ta-Touille
My life these days centers around ratatouille. It's easy, it tastes great hot or cold, leftovers are fabulous in a bone broth soup, and it's easy to pull the flavors in any number of directions: let the veggies shine on their own with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, or pull it in a new … Read More >
