Organic homestead in the Finger Lakes

New York

11 reviews • Updated 11 months ago

We are homesteading on a beautiful 60-acre farm between Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes region of Western New York. We have 40 acres of meadow bordered by a small wooded stream valley. The farm is located on traditional Seneca lands and the current farmhouse and barn were built in the 1800s. We have completed a farming season of spring, summer, and fall with WWOOF volunteers and it's been a fantastic experience! We've enjoyed having people from around the country (and the world!) join us and we have really enjoyed their company. Plus our gardens and harvest have been improved thanks to their help. It's also been really fun sharing food from the farm with appreciative (and hungry) people. And it's been lovely experiencing people enjoying the beauty of the land and sky here. We have a large vegetable garden, a Three Sisters garden, and many flower beds. Our poultry include laying hens, meat chickens, and occasionally other poultry such as turkeys, ducks, or geese. We have a small flock of sheep. Some of our ewes are on the older side and have given us lambs for many years, so we have found a fantastic home for our ram to give the ladies a rest in their final years. We are still shearing and usually have a backlog of wool to work with. We also have a goat, a donkey, a Haflinger horse, an English Shepherd/farm collie, and two cats. We produce our own maple syrup and are dreaming of re-stocking our beehives. The fruit-bearing trees that came with the farm are in decline, so we have started a new orchard. This year it will be complete with pears, apricots, apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, and cherries. The land includes wild (or gone wild) hickory, cherry, and pear trees. We are working to be self-sustaining with food, but are not there yet. Our farm is a good place to experience farm-to-table food. Overall we are working to recreate many of the ways the farm originally functioned, without the stress of making a living from the land. We are working to maintain a healthy meadow for both wildlife and hay, and preserving woodlands for trees and wildlife. Projects that WWOOFers could take part in really vary season to season, but they all involve figuring out ways to make the farm an organic whole (pardon the pun). In the past week, we had to figure out to keep weasels out of a previously predator-proof chicken house, schedule shearing for the sheep, use old fence posts and stones to raise a garden bed, move seedlings outdoors, weed, move compost around, clear out stalls, etc. In spring a lot of our work is preparing garden beds, as well as seasonal animal care. Planting season runs from late March to early June, with a second planting midsummer. Harvesting and keeping the harvest comes in waves, with long stretches of happy dinner picking from the garden. Other projects involve ways to maintain or move fencing for animals, working on smaller animal structures, etc. As fall approaches we work to harvest vegetables from the garden and get them into the freezer in various forms. For example, we have a Beet Bonanza this year, so making and freezing borscht soup is on our agenda. For tomatoes we need to dice some to go into the freezer and slice the other half to go in the dehydrator. Peppers, berries, turnips, greens, squash...all of these need to be preserved one way or another. Along with the harvest comes garden clean up, as well as barn clean up. Twice a year we have about 15 meat chickens to get into the freezer as well, and this year we are raising turkeys too. (Of course, this work is only for people who want to learn this part of homesteading.) Here are some tasks on our farm, organized by season. Winter Sugaring: tapping trees, gathering sap, boiling, enjoying maple syrup! Sheep: prepping the lambing jugs, helping with lambing, bottle feeding lambs if necessary. Spring Gardens: Soil prep. Early planting. Seedlings. Weeding, weeding, weeding. Sheep: shearing, prepping wool for use, hoof trimming, moving electric fences, cleaning out the lambing pen. Poultry: Chicks. Chick cage cleaning and prep. Predator proofing. Summer Gardens: Early harvest. Putting up. Eating. Midsummer planting. Weeding. Poultry: Slaughtering meat birds, plucking, prepping, wrapping. Sheep: Putting up hay for winter. Fall Gardens: Harvest, harvest, harvest. Putting up food by freezing, drying, cooking. Prep for four season gardening. Sheep: Lambs to market or freezer. Animal care is, of course, year round. We have a lovely old farm house that we have almost completely beautified. We have 2-3 guest bedrooms and will feed WWOOFies with our family for dinner and give folks access to our kitchen to make food for breakfast and lunch. When our farm is filled with family from out of town, we may not be available to host.

Learning opportunities

Vegetable farming

Fruit or nut farming

Poultry farming

Sheep or goat farming

Raising of other farm animals

Meat processing

Vegetable or fruit preservation

Methods or systems

Biological pest control

Regenerative agriculture

Host type

Self-sufficiency property

24.3 Hectares | 60 Acres

Accommodation

2 WWOOFers

Bedroom

Children not accepted

Pets not accepted

Meals

Omnivore

Vegetarian

Vegan

Length of stay

1 day (local)

Weekend

Less than a week

Catherine

Member since 2022

Languages spoken: English, French Response rate: 86% Response time: typically within 1 day

November 2025

Open

Planned visit

Closed

MapLibre | Protomaps | © OpenStreetMap

New York

Rochester, NY has a bus station, train station, and airport. We are also fairly close to I-90, which crosses the US from east to west.

Reviews

Mark

New Zealand • September 2025

I spent four days helping out at this farm Catherine was very accommodating of my short notice request and also letting me stay on another day once I realised I’d miscalculated that. I helped bed down the house and three sisters gardens for winter, planted a garlic bed, cleared the floor of the beautiful old barn of loose hay and did some vegetation thinning. Catherine, Wil and Taran were delightful company and kept me well fed and watered. Red also kept me seriously entertained. The stay was not without drama as I fell through an old camp chair while cooling my feet in the paddling pool! Thank you so much good people!

Sara

United States • September 2025

I wish I can give Catherine 10 stars! This was my very first wwoofer experience and it was amazing! Catherine and her family were very welcoming and kind, and their dog Red was so good, friendly and energetic! Really the best dog ever! Most of time was spent working on the Three Sisters Garden, weeding and cleaning. but I also got to collect peaches and tomatoes, made peach butter, dehydrated tomatoes and peaches, and helped making tomato sauce! Also this was my first experience with large animals, and Catherine was a wonderful instructor for all my interactions with the horse, donkey and the sheep! I came back from my visit with many new experiences and new knowledge about garden care! Highly recommend Catherine and her beautiful family!!

Sierra

United States • August 2025

This farm was absolutely wonderful!! Catherine and her family made me feel right at home immediately, and the farm was gorgeous! I was given plenty of options for work to do. Most work was independent, but Catherine or Wil were always close by if I had any questions. I would definitely recommend this farm to any level of WWOOFer!

Joey

United States • November 2024

Great experience good people and a good place.

June

United States • October 2024

I loved my experience with Catherine and my fellow woofers! I was able to work directly with her horse, donkey, goat and sheep during morning barn and animal chores and feeding. The work reminded me of how much I LOVE horses and allowed me to have personal contact with animals that were new to me. She had a list of tasks ready for us and provided specific direction as needed. During our time we worked on cleaning and closing out parts of their garden beds and harvesting a variety of vegetables for our meals and for preservation. We prepared tomatoes for freezing and also had the opportunity to dehydrate larger tomato slices. Meals were delicious and Catherine, her husband and son made all of feel like part of the family. If the opportunity presents itself in the future, I would happily stay with them again.

Louisa

United States • September 2024

Wow! This farm was truly an amazing experience. I was only there for two short days but I'd love to return. I woke up to breakfast and an easy morning. I have a few dietary restrictions but Catherine made sure I always had something to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and we'd all sit down to enjoy the meal. The mornings were relaxed and started with barn chores- feeding the chickens and cow and letting the goat, donkey, and horse out into the yard. I mostly worked in the garden, weeding and harvesting. I came in around 12:30 for lunch and only worked six hours total. After lunch and finishing my work in the garden, I rode Teddy, the horse, which was a great experience. Dinner was early evening and after playing a game of Yahtzee, we all settled into the family room to watch an episode of Dr. Pol before bed. I loved my experience here and would highly recommend this farm. Catherine was a kind, caring, and intelligent host. I loved talking with her and getting to know her. Wil, her husband, was also very knowledgeable, funny, and helpful. Their son, Taran, was a perfect mixture of them both as he was kind, funny and a joy to get to know. Thank you FP for a great two days 🫶🫶