the sagamore farm
Milkmaid (and milkee,) Sagamore farm, ca. 1920s
the sagamore farm
By Robert Engel
Great Camp Sagamore’s Historian
Growing food in the Adirondacks is hard work.
Roots and rocks will bend your plow and break your heart. The soil is thin and acidic, especially in the higher country, and the season between killing frosts can be less than four months. “Hey, if summer falls on a weekend this year, let’s have a picnic!”
Livestock tends to need larger areas cleared for grazing than in the lower valleys. The ferns, mosses, and woody shrubs that grow naturally when you clear the forest offer scant nutrition. And if you try to break the ground to plant grasses, you will find rocks.
Holsteins at the Sagamore farm, dreaming of switchgrass and clover, ca. 1930
Settlers in the mid-19th Century had no choice but to try. Behind the author’s 1871 Adirondack farmhouse, on a hilly plateau 40 miles east of Sagamore, are dozens of old rock piles – tens of thousands of rocks, lifted, loaded onto carts, and dumped into piles. One pile is almost a quarter mile long. All that lifting was to create a few good grazing acres and maybe a small cash crop of hops or rye.
Wealthy camp owners also had limited access to outside food markets. Camps Sagamore, Uncas, and Santanoni, all built in the 1890s, all established farms. Not only were there guests to feed, but each had year-round staffs to provision.
Much of Sagamore’s original food infrastructure – buildings for food production, storage, preparation, and service – remains in use. Ok, the root cellar now houses lawnmower gas, but we’re still using it.
Richard Collins, Sagamore’s first superintendent, grew up with nine siblings on a small farm just outside North Creek. His farming experience was crucial to developing Sagamore into a self-sustaining community.
The Sagamore farm grew the bulkier crops like potatoes, hay and perhaps corn or other grains to supplement the chicken and livestock feed. The chickens, and the more delicate vegetables, were grown at the main camp complex where they could be better protected from deer and coyotes.
The farm also provided warm weather pasture for the Holstein cows. A horse-drawn cart would deliver fresh milk to camp every morning. No physical evidence remains of beef, pork, or lamb production. Meats other than poultry may have been sourced from other area growers. Early Sagamore menus did include an abundance of fresh venison and trout, perhaps provided by guests.
The Sagamore farm site is just across the lake from camp. It’s about a ten-minute walk from the Lake Trail’s trailhead, now part of the New York State Forest Preserve. The farm has been out of production since the 1940s, but the fields, fence posts, and foundations are easily discovered.
Abandoned sap buckets and hay rakes poke up through the tall grasses and berry brambles. (Please know that it’s illegal to disturb or remove such artifacts from state land.) Wide, bushy pines dot the fields. And the old sugar house foundation is easily found. It’s well worth the stroll. Bring your own potatoes, preferably in chip form.
Workers digging potatoes, Sagamore farm, ca. 1930
Learn more . . .
Why is Adirondack soil so acidic?
Why is Adirondack soil so rocky?
Historically, a lot of hops were grown in the Adirondacks. What are hops used for?
What was Sagamore’s root cellar originally used to store? (Hint: see photo above.)
