Horsepower fuels Full Circus Farm

This is part five in a series of articles on Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) in the Tri-state region. To find the first four articles, go to www.tricornernews.com.

PINE PLAINS — You won’t hear the roar of a tractor engine when it’s time to prepare for planting at Full Circus Farm. Meet Sandy and Sunshine, the team of Haflinger draft horses that work the soil at Miriam Goler and Mark Stonehill’s organic vegetable CSA farm and tree nursery in Pine Plains. The two mares are 11 and 12 years old and spend their free time, when not pulling a plow, grazing on pasture.

Goler trained on several horse-powered farms and is the one who does all of the driving. 

“It’s just incredible to have a working relationship with an animal. I love that we get to be productive together.” 

Goler and Stonehill designed a horse-powered farm because horses, when compared with tractors, eat grass instead of fossil fuels, cause less soil compaction and contribute fertility. 

“But really,” said Stonehill, “we do the work with horses for the joy of it.”

CSA members who sign up ahead of the season get to hang out with Sandy and Sunshine as well, along with Full Circus’ chickens and cows, each Saturday morning during vegetable pick-up. 

“One of the things that’s really nice about our CSA is that it gives all of us the opportunity to connect with members and for them to meet each other,” Goler said.

In addition to growing vegetables for the CSA and Pine Plains purveyors such as Peck’s Food Market and Stissing House restaurant, Full Circus grows young fruit trees. 

According to Goler, the heirloom varieties they produce are particularly well suited to the Tri-state region and are selected on the basis of taste. Varieties such as the Esopus Spitzenburg apple were originally bred in the Hudson Valley and aren’t easy to find elsewhere. Goler and Stonehill sell their trees through the Hudson Valley Seed Company, a regional supplier of seeds and plants that are well adapted to local conditions. They also sell their trees directly to anyone who wants to pick up on the farm and will even do custom grafting. 

Saplings aren’t the only babies on the farm this season. Ezra Stonehill, age 4 months, joined the crew this winter and is finding his own niche among the different species that complement one another in the Full Circus farm system.

You can learn more about buying fruit trees or joining the CSA at www.fullcircusfarm.wordpress.com.