Transitions
We have reached the midpoint of our fourth year of operation having already served more people than we did in the entirety of any of our previous three seasons. During Upstate Art Weekend, Peter went through 34 dozen eggs and we closed early both days because everything had sold out! This year we frontloaded the events calendar hosting two wonderful “dinner and a show” evenings –one opera, the other Cuban Jazz–as well as a cooking class, art class, a pizza night, a guest chef evening, concerts while also partnering with both The Macedonia Institute to put on another great art show in the gallery barn (written up in Vogue and several other NYC media outlets) and with Spencertown Academy to present a lovely concert by Jim Lauderdale from Nashville.
An exciting three months, a lot for our family-run operation to handle, and we took this weekend off to recharge and reassess. What has become clear is it’s time for Julie and me to begin to step back. We started this “retirement” endeavor a little late in life, and did so without a real long term plan other than to share our beautiful 235 year-old farm with the community, serve really good food made with the freshest possible produce grown in our fields, and hopefully create a community around things important to us.
We wanted each member of our family to play a meaningful role in whatever The Kitchen became, and we hoped to build partnerships with local organizations that we believed in. And being relatively new to the area, we hoped to make new friendships.
Our dreamy new mural by William Rogers
We did little marketing other than the hand-painted signs out front, this irregularly written newsletter, and posting the daily menu on Instagram. Things worked out thanks to word of mouth and we grew, but managing a small farm and a business in your 60’s/70’s does take a toll. Next year Peter (and Matthew) plan to take charge, the exact shape of the new and improved Kitchen at Ten Barn Farm is still taking shape. Knowing that the end is near has energized us, and Julie and I would love to see you often in these final months in the cafe and hope you will attend one of the upcoming events.
Here are the upcoming events at the farm:
August 22
Harvest Dinner With Guest Chef Michael Castellano 7-9:30pm. Info and tickets here.
August 24
The inaugural meeting Ten Barn Farm-Kinderhook Books–Lit and Lunch Book Club 1-2pm Info and tickets here.
September 6
Chekhov in the Barn a benefit performance by The Camphill Hudson Players. 6-8:30. Info and tickets here.
September 13
9th Annual Ten Barn Farm-To-Table Dinner. Our signature event of the year and potentially our last hurrah, so we will be pulling out all the stops starting with champagne and fine wine reception + appetizer buffet on the upper patio as the sun sets. Then we move to candle-lit tables in The Kitchen for dinner, ending the evening with a bonfire. This event is sold out. Call Roby if you would like to be added to the waiting list 908-295-9978.
You can also check out the full 2025 events calendar here.
Coming in the next newsletter–Many folks come into the cafe, look around at all the ancient barns, the gorgeous animals and ask, “So this is your place and this is your family? Tell us the story.” I begin to explain, but because we have been so busy, Julie quickly gives me the side-eye as other orders need to be taken to other customers. In my final newsletter of the season, I will attempt to tell the story, share a few lessons learned and a few reasons why Columbia County (a place we moved to solely to be near Matthew) turned out to be such a great place for us and The Kitchen at Ten Barn Farm.