Sage Hen Farm

Lodi, NY

Sage Hen Farm in Lodi, NY, is in heart of the Finger Lakes, between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. We moved to Lodi in 2001, but the land has been farmed since the early 19th century. We raise chickens for eggs, tend an orchard, grow garlic, and maintain a diverse market garden. Our focus is on heirloom and uncommon varieties. That applies to chickens, garlic, fruits and berries, herbs, greens, potatoes and other vegetables. It is our goal to practice sustainable growing methods and offer cultivars and crop varieties that you won't find in the grocery store.

We raise free-ranging chickens for eggs in a rainbow assortment of colors and sizes. Each dozen we sell will include a mix of green/blue, white or cream, and light to dark brown eggs. The size and diversity of the flock varies, but it has ranged from 60 to more than 100 birds. We've had as many as twenty different breeds and varieties at the same time. They also have a much smaller flock of ducks and a few turkeys.

In our orchard are more than 200 fruit trees and almost that many varieties of apple, peach, pear, cherry, and plums. We have more apple trees than all the other fruit trees combined. We have concentrated on varieties that are cold hardy, have been venerated in past generations, and have regional significance. One of our favorite times of the year is October, when we can host cider pressing parties.

Margaret's specialty is garlic. We offer more than 70 varieties of garlic. The most frequent comment we here at farmers market is "I didn't know there so many kinds of garlic. There are: softnecks including many varieties each of silverskin and artichoke garlics; hardnecks including many varieties each of rocambole, porcelain and purple stripe. Some garlics have only a few large cloves; others have many layers of smaller cloves. Whether you are looking for a mild long-keeping garlic or a full bodied (either hot or just strong), white or brown or purply, we have a garlic for you.

We also keep honeybees. We do it mostly so that our fruit trees and other crops will have plenty of pollinizers, but having our own honey is a treat. What is fascinating about honey, when you extract it from your own hives, is the different tastes, shades, and colors it has depending what flowering plants were in bloom when the bees collected nectar and pollen.

We mostly sell our farm's produce to friends, colleagues, and neighbors, but nothing long distance. From third week of May to the end of October, you can find us Wednesday afternoons at the Trumansburg Farmers Market. We've now been doing this for about two decades.

Members of NOFA-NY (Northeast Organic Farmers Association -- New York), we are not a certified organic farm, but try to use ecologically sound and sustainable methods: no chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or GMOs (genetically modified organisms). To us, it seems the right thing to do.

We are Margaret Shepard and John Henderson. Our address in Lodi is 2343 Parmenter Road. It is about three miles south of the village of Lodi and about nine miles northwest of Trumansburg, NY. You can contact Margaret at [margaretbshepard @ gmail.com]. John can be reached at [jhenderson @ ithaca.edu].

You can find pictures, news, and other information about the farm on Facebook.

This page written and maintained by John R. Henderson [jrhenderson9@ gmail.com].
Last modified: March 8, 2021