Our farm’s original deed, signed in 1770. The deed was written on either pig skin or goat skin, and is approximately 2’x3’.
One generation teaching the next, 1994.
From left to right: Dale Ryan, Brad Ryan, and Chris Ryan.
Farming Family Land Since 1770
The land that we are farming has been in our family for 11 generations. It was originally purchased by Michael Vandercook in 1770, and has been passed down from the Vandercooks, to the Hayners, and to the Ryans in the late 19th century. The original property totaled 6,600 acres (over 10 sq. miles) and stretched to the Hudson River (3 1/4 miles from the farm!). The size of the farm has steadily decreased since then to its current size of 103 acres. Although the total acreage is much more than many small farms, we are only farming approximately 2 acres.
While livestock such as beef, chicken, pigs, and sheep were an important component of the operation for the first 10 generations, we currently focus on growing fruits, vegetables, cover crops, and we recently added chickens for meat and eggs. In the first few years of taking over Ryan Valley Farm, we have added perennial crops such as apple, cherry, pear, plum, nectarine, and peach trees, as well as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, and gooseberries. Additionally, we grow more than 30 different types of vegetables each year. Our more popular choices include our unique salad greens, carrots, hakurei turnips, heirloom tomatoes and colorful bell peppers.
Our plan for the future is to increase the health and quality of our soil, improve biodiversity, and provide our community with healthy, quality produce grown with regenerative farming practices, while treating our farm as the ecosystem that it is.