Visitors and residents have been enjoying the local farmers’ market since it opened in June 2008, but area restaurants are also finding it to be a valuable resource as they seek out homegrown ingredients to offer in special entrees.
For the past few years, Jones Family Farm has been a vendor at the Old Forge market, providing such products as all-natural goat cheese, grass-fed meats, free-range eggs, and new to this year’s offerings, gelato.
Their food has become the basis of selections that appear regularly on the menu of Sisters Bistro, and for special events at Five Corners Café.
The Jones Family Farm, located in Herkimer, started almost 10 years ago with the motto, “Eat Well, Live Well. Locally.”
And they seem to be doing just that as they do most of their business in a 60-mile radius of the farm.
Their primary outlets for sale are at various Farmers’ Markets in Herkimer, Oneida, and Madison counties, and they also provide products to The Tailor and the Cook and the Bagel Grove in Utica, Nola’s in Clinton, and Peter’s Cornucopia in New Hartford.
Suzie Jones, the face of the operation, and her husband, both have farming in their backgrounds having grown up in Wisconsin and Minnesota, respectively.
After having their first child they left their nine-to-five jobs outside of Boston and settled in the Mohawk Valley to start the farm. The land prices were good, reminding them of their midwest roots.
“We found a great fit here,” said Suzie.
Wanting to “feed our community” and “to be diversified,” the Joneses began to raise and sell meat chickens and meat goats as well as produce goat, cow and sheep’s milk with milk purchased from four different neighboring farms. This summer they started making gelato.
The Old Forge Farmers’ Market is in operation every Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. through October. It is located on Park Avenue behind the Old Forge Hardware.
