What do you want to be when you grow up?  Is a questioned posed to all youths at some point, and the answers are as many as the career options that are available in the world…a doctor? a fireman?  a lawyer?,,,a farmer?  A farmer?  Really?

Meet Your Meat, at Eagle Bridge Custom Meats and Smokehouse

The foodshed of the Mohawk and Hudson Valley is becoming renowned for its natural meat production.  It takes the dedication hard work of many of the farmers who raise the animals for this high quality food.  Perhaps the most important link in the bring the food from farm to fork is the processor – the facility that takes the live animal, performs the kill, and breaks down the carcass to produce the cuts that you choose at the market or direct from the farmer.  All meats that are sold to the public have to be USDA inspected.  While there are many farmers who raise meat animals, the bottleneck in the system is with the processing.  The few USDA processing facilities that do exist have a long waiting list – sometime upwards of three to four months in advance to get an open slot.

By Stacey Morris
Contributing Writer

Farm and Food photography by PJN Photography, LLC

LAKE GEORGE – It’s mid-spring and Kimberly Feeney and Kevin London are bracing themselves. As owners of the trail-blazing restaurant “The Farm House,” the husband and wife team have a little more on their ‘to do’ list than the average chef/owner of an eatery.

That’s because the Farm House extends beyond the confines of the kitchen and onto the five acres of carefully cultivated fields where much of their menu is grown. Fruits of the couple’s hand-sewn labors include striped heirloom eggplants, a confetti of buttery soft salad greens, beets in a rainbow of different colors, and minutes-old eggs from the farm’s 160 laying hens.

When they started six years ago, Feeney admitted that undertaking a farm-to-fork enterprise was a risk, but the couple didn’t think twice about taking it – despite its proximity to ubiquitous pizza parlors, steak houses, and all-you-can-eat buffets.

"My family already had the land here,” she explained. “Kevin and I looked at the property and really thought it would work for growing our own food. We knew it would be a challenge being a seasonal business, but like anything else there are pros and cons.”