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AI Return to the Family Farm
n 1913, Henry Morgenthau of apple cider in September 2016. Manhattan bought farmland in Fishkill also brings its produce to Fishkill. Later, while serving as a handful of farmers’ markets across
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Morgenthaupurchasedmorefarmland in the Fishkill area, and put his son Robert in charge of the farm operation, known as Fishkill Farms.
Robert Morgenthau served in the Navy, then for 35 years as Manhattan district attorney. His youngest son, Josh, grew up in Manhattan, but would visit the family farm on weekends.
“I always had the fortune of having this farm in the family, and having it as a refuge from the city and a place where I learned how to work,” says Josh Morgenthau.
Though Morgenthau studied painting and English in college, he returned to the farm in 2008 and loved being involved in the family business. Today, he oversees the farm operation at Fishkill Farms.
Morgenthau says he’s motivated to preserve his family’s land while keeping the farm an integral part of the Dutchess County agricultural community. Though he never received a formal agricultural education, he relies partly on extensive family knowledge, the local farming community, and the Cornell Cooperative Extension as sources of advice when running the farm.
Since Morgenthau moved back to the farm, Fishkill Farms has increased fruit and vegetable production from 40 to more than 100 acres. Fishkill also has pasture-raised hens, fruit trees, a pick-your-own CSA, and an apple orchard with 80 varieties that attracts up to 9,000 visitors during busy fall weekends.
In2015,Williams-Sonomafeatured Fishkill Farms in its Open Kitchen series, telling the story of the farm and hosting a farm dinner with local growers and chefs. Fishkill also operates its own farm cidery, where it bottled its rst
the New York Metropolitan area, underscoring Morgenthau’s mission of supplying local communities with organic farm food grown using sustainable practices.
“We’ve been able to connect to communities in the Hudson Valley, Westchester, and farther south that really want local food and want to be getting it from farms they trust, farms that have a commitment to higher quality,” says Morgenthau.
This kind of connection is crucial to why Morgenthau lives and works in Dutchess County. It’s an agricultural center devoted to growing better food and serving the people, just as it was more than 100 years ago when his grandfather started the farm.
“I’ve been struck by how much the landscape has changed over the past 15 years, in terms of a cultural renaissance in food and farming in the county,” says Morgenthau. “Whereas some years ago you may have missed some of the great food culture that New York City has, now I think you have a stronger, unique food system that’s close to the land, and that’s the source of the local ingredients.”
The Morgenthau family has been a consistent part of this food system, evolving to become an organic producer
for the New York Metropol- itan area. Through every change, Fishkill Farms has remained an inte- gral part of the Dutch-
ess County agrarian tradition, rooted in the past and growing toward
the future.
Henry Morgenthau began Fishkill Farms in 1913. Now a third-generation farm, it includes more than 100 acres of produce with an abundant apple crop.
In 2015, Williams-Sonoma wrote about Fishkill Farms' legacy of more than 100 years. The farm also hosted a dinner, where guests included other local growers and chefs.
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