Meet Steve

Steve Kettelle was born and raised in the small farming town of Foster, Rhode Island. He left the area in the early 80's when his family relocated to Florida. Before coming to Upstate New York, Steve spent most of his adult life in Corporate America working for Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate. In early 2004, Steve made some changes in his life that he thought were long overdue. "I just had this yearning to live life more simply and deliberately. I felt called back to the land" Steve explains. Steve pondered returning back to RI, but the cost and availability of land made that move out of reach. "I had vacationed in Upstate New York as a kid, so I knew a little bit about the area." Steve did some more research and found that land was both plentiful and relatively inexpensive. "This farm, with it's 80 acres, streams, post and beam barns and house could have easily cost a million dollars in Rhode Island" Steve says.

After purchasing the farm in Pine City, Steve got right to work. "While the place did function as a working farm at one time, little farming had been done here in decades" proclaims Steve. "We had to clear the trees and fence all of the fields. The soil here is very clay based, so we had to do much amending to the soil to improve fertility and PH. Two greenhouses were added. We also recently added a walk-in cooler in the barn." Today, the operation is still small, with Steve doing the majority of the work with help from family and close friends. "I have no desire to grow this operation to the point that I am a farm manager" says Steve. "My hands need to be in the soil for me to be content."