Baldwinsville, N.Y. — Abbot Farms is a family owned farm that has been open since 1866. Nancy and Windsor Abbot are the fourth generation owners of the 350 acre farm.
Families can come to the Central New York farm for apple and pumpkin picking, visit the goats and roosters and enjoy homemade dessert. Children can run through the corn maze, go down a tube slide and jump on the rainbow trampoline.
The Farm offers plenty of fun activities, but Nancy Abbot knows people can learn a valuable lesson from the food her family grows.
“The thing we are concentrating on is giving people an idea of what it takes to grow food and what is involved,” Abbot said. “You have a lot of machinery and a lot of money involved for that and you don’t know where to start.”
Nancy Abbot, 80, used to be responsible for a greenhouse garden, but the farm no longer has as much flower picking as they did years ago. Now, Nancy overlooks most of the activities on the farm, but connecting with other people is most important to her.
“I don’t do as much as I used to because they have it organized differently now. So I’m sort of taking a back seat more or less,” Abbot said. “I like people and I like to help them if they need something in particular and I enjoy making friends of all ages.”
Nancy and her husband, Windsor, met in just the third grade and have been married since 1956. Her fondest memories at Abbot Farms involve Windsor and his family.
“I met a great person for my husband and we’ve enjoyed all the things that we’ve done together and his family has been very hospitable, willing to try something,” Abbot said smiling. “That’s important because in these days there’s a lot being changed.”
Abbot Farms now offers a special deal for families to come to the farm and form a deeper relationship with the owners. Nancy explained how this helps her build life-long bonds with visitors.
“People who have RVs can come here for free if they buy something in the stand and they can stay overnight. And we enjoy talking with them and where they’ve been and where’re they’re going,” Abbot said as she pulled out her list of yearly RV visitors.
Abbot Farms employees, like Angela Celi, can even sense the love from the Abbot family and customers. Celi, 25, has worked at the apple slingshot station for only four weeks, but loves working for the Abbots.
“I love it here. Everybody is really sweet here,” Celi said. “Like all the old people are very nice and the young people are very sweet.”
Nancy Abbot is proud to serve the Central New York area and be a part of the family history at Abbot Farms. She knows the family legacy will continue through generations to come.
