Sunrise Cayuga Farm educates community

When Rod Porter took over as owner of Sunrise Cayuga Farm in 2004, he continued the family legacy for the Trumansburg community along with his daughter Stefani FitzPatrick, head event organizer and employee, and farmhand Jason Carpenter. They continued a longstanding family tradition of ethical and organic farming that aims to provide education, free community events and sustainable goods to Trumansburg and the surrounding communities.

Prior to Porter taking ownership of Sunrise Cayuga Farm, it had been strictly a dairy farm. His father-in-law had owned the farm since 1980.

“My father-in-law actually worked milking cows here when he was a teenager and he’s 89 now,” Porter said.

As the farm evolved and the community’s needs expanded and changed, Porter began to focus on livestock. With beef cows that are 100% grass-fed and pigs that are fed solely organic feed, Porter remained committed to staying a spray-free and organic operation. All of the beef cows raised on the property are certified organic.

Boasting 700 acres filled with possibilities, Porter also decided to grow corn and hay, which supplies other local farmers around the region. Like all the endeavors at Sunrise Farm, this one also started and is maintained as 100% organic.

Any corn left over at the end of the season is used as supplemental feed to the pigs. Once the hay is cultivated, Porter uses bail wrap that allows a natural fermentation process that no longer requires silos and can be easily distributed. The cows on the property are fed the same hay he sells to the surrounding farmers in the region.

New York’s erratic weather can often pose a challenge to a fully organic farm when combatting weather, insects and weeds.

“We mostly deal with it by keeping plants nutritionally balanced,” Porter said.

With a longstanding Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription, the farm has been able to provide the community with organic sustainable meat subscriptions that are generally for six months, though these can be purchased month by month as well.

Porter noted that during the pandemic, when food shortages were becoming critical, the farm acquired a new following of CSA members who were in need of food when supply was becoming harder and harder to find.

Porter wanted to expand the farm’s offerings, so when he saw a need in his community, he looked for ways to meet those needs. He and his daughter FitzPatrick decided to start planting pumpkins in 2019.

With pumpkin seeds planted in June, they found that they had full patches by September that they could open to the community for choosing the perfect u-pick pumpkin. The response was overwhelming, which led FitzPatrick to expand the u-pick experience to a community that the family is proud to be a part of and loves dearly.

The first year’s crop was so plentiful that they decided to offer a u-pick pumpkin patch to the community and make it a yearly event.

FitzPatrick explained that this was a way to offer something back rather than an addition to improve sales. With that, she started creating events at the farm that include hayrides, a bale zone and a Culvert pipe for children to play and explore.

She also developed a maze where visitors can enjoy exploring with their families. It is made from Sorghum, a plant from the grass family that can grow up to 8 feet tall, which is loved by their cows. There are also pumpkin slingshots, where guests can launch pumpkins on the property at targets and beyond.

“It was a way for us to offer something back to a community that has supported us and that we love,” FitzPatrick said. “We can’t thank this community enough for their support over the years and during the recent difficult times everyone’s faced.”

Another way that the farm gives back to the community is by holding events for local schools.

FitzPatrick has now brought events for Trumansburg Central School children closer. This allows them to continue to learn about agriculture and farming without being limited by pandemic restraints on guidelines and limited transportation.

On Oct. 20, the farm hosted an education event at Trumansburg Fairgrounds for a kindergarten class from Trumansburg Central School to learn about pumpkins and celebrate the upcoming Halloween holiday. With the fairgrounds being less than a mile away from the school, the children could easily and safely come to learn about farming pumpkins.

FitzPatrick and Carpenter taught the students about how pumpkins are planted, their growing cycle and the pollination process, as well as how to cultivate a pumpkin patch. Children got to see and touch a variety of pumpkins, move them around and stick their hands inside them. At the end of the demonstration, the farm provided each child with their own pumpkin to take back to school and then home to decorate.

“This was a kindergarten class, and they were very interactive and had a lot of questions about the different styles and colors of pumpkins,” FitzPatrick said. “They had a good time and were excited to have pumpkins to take home.”

The event was such a success that FitzPatrick and others have decided to offer it to the community regularly.

“We want to host these free events, as well as various others that we are developing to the community because we love it, and it’s our way of saying thank you and continuing to be a meaningful part of something we truly love,” she said.

Along with the Saturday and Sunday u-pick and collection of events they have been offering, Sunrise Cayuga Farm will have an end-of-the-season celebration for the community Oct. 30. In addition to their regular events, the celebration will feature 4-H clubs showing a collection of goats, sheep, rabbits and chickens.

A bonfire and a flashlight maze will take place later that evening between 6 and 8 p.m. Throughout the whole day, anyone coming in costume will get candy.

FitzPatrick and Porter said the event is “the farm’s way of saying thank you to a community we couldn’t be here without.”

Visit Sunrise Cayuga Farm at 9737 Route 96 in Trumansburg. The pumpkin patch is open weekends through Oct. 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information about its events, visit cayugasunrisefarm.wixsite.com/farm.