Schoolhouse Farms and Borodino Market give new meaning to the term “family farm.” On the day I came to visit, four children met me at the car and escorted me into the historic one-room schoolhouse that is now a delightful gourmet/specialty food market.
Photo provided by Julia Reich
Rebecca Muir-Malcolm stands inside of the Schoolhouse Farms/Borodino Market, which resembles a small European shop. This family business - where even the children help out - sells produce from the family farm including heirloom tomatoes - nearly 40 varieties - and specialty items such as local honey, French milled soaps and jams.
There the children comfortably assumed positions behind the sales counter, as if they ran the place; which, in fact, they do.
Finan, 12, Morel, 10, Brahm, 8, and Beryl, 3, are the children of farmers Rebecca and Richard Muir-Malcolm. The Muir-Malcolms started the farm 10 years ago, and the store two years ago, with a commitment to offering customers something unusual, healthy and delicious while also creating an educational family project.
The children participate in much of the farming operation. This includes the Borodino Market store located on the farm property (on the east side of Skaneateles Lake, just a few miles south of the village, off Route 41), along with a roadside farm stand. On a typical Saturday, the kids can be seen helping with the stand.
The Borodino Market is a gem of a food gift store, in many ways resembling a small European shop. The products - including loose tea, local honey, sea salt, Italian specialties, and French milled soap - won't be found in a supermarket. Each item has been carefully chosen out of a sense of nostalgia, because it comes from a family-run business or is considered an “artisanal” product (to see photos of items carried at the store, visit http://borodinomarket.blogspot.com/).
An entire meal could be planned around a trip to the farm, first by purchasing produce at the farm stand and then filling out ingredients for the meal in the store.
Although they grow and sell a variety of produce at the farm stand, the specialty at Schoolhouse Farms is heirloom tomatoes - nearly 40 varieties on 17 acres - as well as a few other specialty items that can't be found anywhere else in the area, such as purple and yellow “Dragon Tongue” beans, fingerling potatoes, currants and quince.
If customers are skeptical about trying something different - the odd-looking lumpy tomatoes can lead customers to question if the fruit is OK to consume - the children are the farm's most enthusiastic ambassadors, offering visitors samples of the sweet, juicy tomatoes. Once they get customers to sample heirloom tomatoes, they're hooked.
“People tell us they're thankful we encouraged them to try this,” Rebecca said.
Even the youngest child adores the taste. Rebecca smiles as she recounts a story when last summer they had one heirloom tomato left and the 3-year-old girl warded off the rest of the family so she could have it all to herself.
Supermarket-variety tomatoes can taste mealy and are bred with commercial interests in mind - such as thick skins to last longer during transport and on the shelf, consistent maturity, delayed ripening and disease resistance. On the other hand, heirloom tomatoes, which are available in a wide variety of colors, shapes, flavors and sizes, are generally thick, such as thick skins to last longer during transport and on the shelf, consistent maturity, delayed ripening and disease resistance. On the other hand, heirloom tomatoes, which are available in a wide variety of colors, shapes, flavors and sizes, are generally thick, juicy, sweet and nutritious. However, they can be a challenge to grow on a large scale: their skins are thin, making them difficult to transport without getting bruised, bear late-season fruit and in general are more labor-intensive to grow than “regular” tomatoes.
But such a delicious local bounty isn't unaffordable. The closest supermarket chain store occasionally carries heirlooms at about $4 per pound. An overflowing quart at Schoolhouse Farms is only $4 - a real bargain when you consider that just one tomato can weigh close to a pound.
Rebecca is a bit amused when people assume they have jumped on the “organic” bandwagon that is currently all the rage.
“We've been doing this for nine years,” she said. “We've always been concerned with providing food that is fresh and nutritious.”
Although the farm is not certified organic, they are pesticide-free and use sustainable methods whenever possible, in their own terminology, calling themselves an “Eco-ganic Micro-farm.”
Richard's mother is from Switzerland, resulting in a European food tradition that has been instilled in the family early on. This may explain the black currants and quince - a fruit that resembles a small golden orange that smells like citrus - that they grow and make into jam sold in the store. In addition to jam, the farmers make “quince cheese” through a process that involves boiling down the fruit and adding sugar, which eventually results in a sweet paste that is best eaten with cheese and crackers.
The Muir-Malcolms are fans of the Slow Food movement (www.slowfoodusa.org) - an international organization that encourages people to come together as a community of stakeholders and take pleasure in the food they prepare and consume. One Slow Food initiative is called the Ark of Taste, in which farms like Schoolhouse save seeds of plant varieties that are in danger of going extinct, chosen for their taste and for their regional historical importance.
Their other main inspiration is Alice Waters, one of the best-known and most influential American chefs, owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in California, author of numerous cookbooks and one of the first proponents in this country for cooking and eating fresh, nutritious meals made from food that is local, sustainably produced and high in quality.
Julia Reich, of Scipio Center is owner of Julia Reich Design, a graphic design studio, and
self-proclaimed “foodie,” with
interests in cooking (and eating)
Finan, 12, Morel, 10, Brahm, 8, and Beryl, 3, are the children of farmers Rebecca and Richard Muir-Malcolm. The Muir-Malcolms started the farm 10 years ago, and the store two years ago, with a commitment to offering customers something unusual, healthy and delicious while also creating an educational family project.
The children participate in much of the farming operation. This includes the Borodino Market store located on the farm property (on the east side of Skaneateles Lake, just a few miles south of the village, off Route 41), along with a roadside farm stand. On a typical Saturday, the kids can be seen helping with the stand.
The Borodino Market is a gem of a food gift store, in many ways resembling a small European shop. The products - including loose tea, local honey, sea salt, Italian specialties, and French milled soap - won't be found in a supermarket. Each item has been carefully chosen out of a sense of nostalgia, because it comes from a family-run business or is considered an “artisanal” product (to see photos of items carried at the store, visit http://borodinomarket.blogspot.com/).
An entire meal could be planned around a trip to the farm, first by purchasing produce at the farm stand and then filling out ingredients for the meal in the store.
Although they grow and sell a variety of produce at the farm stand, the specialty at Schoolhouse Farms is heirloom tomatoes - nearly 40 varieties on 17 acres - as well as a few other specialty items that can't be found anywhere else in the area, such as purple and yellow “Dragon Tongue” beans, fingerling potatoes, currants and quince.
If customers are skeptical about trying something different - the odd-looking lumpy tomatoes can lead customers to question if the fruit is OK to consume - the children are the farm's most enthusiastic ambassadors, offering visitors samples of the sweet, juicy tomatoes. Once they get customers to sample heirloom tomatoes, they're hooked.
“People tell us they're thankful we encouraged them to try this,” Rebecca said.
Even the youngest child adores the taste. Rebecca smiles as she recounts a story when last summer they had one heirloom tomato left and the 3-year-old girl warded off the rest of the family so she could have it all to herself.
Supermarket-variety tomatoes can taste mealy and are bred with commercial interests in mind - such as thick skins to last longer during transport and on the shelf, consistent maturity, delayed ripening and disease resistance. On the other hand, heirloom tomatoes, which are available in a wide variety of colors, shapes, flavors and sizes, are generally thick, such as thick skins to last longer during transport and on the shelf, consistent maturity, delayed ripening and disease resistance. On the other hand, heirloom tomatoes, which are available in a wide variety of colors, shapes, flavors and sizes, are generally thick, juicy, sweet and nutritious. However, they can be a challenge to grow on a large scale: their skins are thin, making them difficult to transport without getting bruised, bear late-season fruit and in general are more labor-intensive to grow than “regular” tomatoes.
But such a delicious local bounty isn't unaffordable. The closest supermarket chain store occasionally carries heirlooms at about $4 per pound. An overflowing quart at Schoolhouse Farms is only $4 - a real bargain when you consider that just one tomato can weigh close to a pound.
Rebecca is a bit amused when people assume they have jumped on the “organic” bandwagon that is currently all the rage.
“We've been doing this for nine years,” she said. “We've always been concerned with providing food that is fresh and nutritious.”
Although the farm is not certified organic, they are pesticide-free and use sustainable methods whenever possible, in their own terminology, calling themselves an “Eco-ganic Micro-farm.”
Richard's mother is from Switzerland, resulting in a European food tradition that has been instilled in the family early on. This may explain the black currants and quince - a fruit that resembles a small golden orange that smells like citrus - that they grow and make into jam sold in the store. In addition to jam, the farmers make “quince cheese” through a process that involves boiling down the fruit and adding sugar, which eventually results in a sweet paste that is best eaten with cheese and crackers.
The Muir-Malcolms are fans of the Slow Food movement (www.slowfoodusa.org) - an international organization that encourages people to come together as a community of stakeholders and take pleasure in the food they prepare and consume. One Slow Food initiative is called the Ark of Taste, in which farms like Schoolhouse save seeds of plant varieties that are in danger of going extinct, chosen for their taste and for their regional historical importance.
Their other main inspiration is Alice Waters, one of the best-known and most influential American chefs, owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in California, author of numerous cookbooks and one of the first proponents in this country for cooking and eating fresh, nutritious meals made from food that is local, sustainably produced and high in quality.
Julia Reich, of Scipio Center is owner of Julia Reich Design, a graphic design studio, and
self-proclaimed “foodie,” with
interests in cooking (and eating)
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