Free farm tour hits six Saratoga County growers October 3

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County will run its second annual Saratoga County Horticulture Tour on Saturday, October 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The self-guided tour is free and stops at six farms and garden businesses in Ballston Spa, Charlton, Rexford, Gansevoort, Clifton Park and Queensbury, all within a half hour of Saratoga Springs, according to the extension’s event page and a WNYT report published September 24.

The tour is a drive-yourself loop. Visitors pick the stops they want, travel between them on their own and get a mix of guided and self-guided walks depending on the farm. The extension says the goal is to raise awareness of the county’s horticulture businesses, which include nurseries and tree farms as well as food growers, and to connect residents with growers they can come back to through the year. There is no registration. Questions go to Jessica Holmes at the extension office in Ballston Spa, (518) 885-8995.

The six stops

The extension’s tour flyer lists the participating businesses and what each one does. Here they are, roughly north to south.

• Taste NY at the Adirondacks Welcome Center, on Interstate 87 northbound between Exits 17 and 18 in Queensbury. The state’s buy-local market sells food and drinks made by New York producers, many of them from Saratoga and Warren counties.
• Sorano’s Greenhouses, 7 Pettis Road in Gansevoort, grows seasonal plants, mums and poinsettias from seed and rooted cuttings on site.
• Goode Trees & Wreaths, 1179 Goode Road in Ballston Spa, a Christmas tree farm started in 1986 with about 30 acres of trees plus blueberry and vegetable fields.
• Fogg Hollow Farm, 166 Stage Road in Charlton, a family choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm with a wreath and garland shop in the barn.
• Riverview Orchards, 660 Riverview Road in Rexford, a fifth-generation apple farm on the old Erie Canal with pick-your-own apples and a farm store.
• Native Sun Flowers, 1470A Route 9 in Clifton Park, a family greenhouse growing annuals, perennials and vegetable starts.

Two of the stops are in the Town of Ballston and Charlton area west of the village, two are along the Northway in Clifton Park and Gansevoort, and the Taste NY stop is over the county line in Warren County. Plan on about an hour of driving if you try to hit all six, which is why the extension suggests picking a few.

What you will see at each farm

The tour lands at a useful moment for the Christmas tree farms, which spend October shaping and tagging trees before the Thanksgiving weekend rush. Goode Trees & Wreaths has been selling trees for close to 30 years, according to the tour flyer, and sells cut-your-own and pre-cut trees along with wreaths, canned goods, syrup and honey once the season opens. The flyer notes there are other farms in the county with similar names and asks visitors to use the Goode Road address.

The smaller, family-run tree farm on the list is Fogg Hollow Farm in Charlton, a farm whose website describes relatively flat, walkable fields, a tree shaker to clean off debris before the tree goes on your car, and a barn stocked with handmade wreaths and holiday decor. The farm takes cash or check only. The farm’s mailing address is Ballston Lake, but the farm says to use Charlton in your GPS, so do that.

The stop most families will recognize is Riverview Orchards. The Rexford orchard, which sits in the Town of Clifton Park along the Mohawk River, has been in the same family for five generations and runs pick-your-own apples, a farm store and weekend entertainment every fall. The orchard is known for apple cider donuts, according to the tour flyer, and the farm’s website says the store is open seven days a week through December.

The two greenhouses round out the list. The Clifton Park stop, Native Sun Flowers, opened in 2021 and is in a fifth year in the Halfmoon and Clifton Park area, according to the business’s website, which also says the greenhouse grows its own plants rather than reselling. Sorano’s Greenhouses in Gansevoort, on the north end of the county, is the fall-mum and poinsettia stop. The extension’s flyer says the staff there have years of gardening and landscaping experience and will answer questions.

Tips for the day

A few practical points for anyone planning the loop.

1. Start north or south, not in the middle. Queensbury and Gansevoort are 30 to 40 minutes from Rexford and Clifton Park, so a north-to-south or south-to-north route saves backtracking.
2. Bring cash. At least one stop, Fogg Hollow, does not take cards, and farm stores in general are easier with cash.
3. Wear boots. Tree fields and orchard rows are wet in October, and the tour runs rain or shine unless the extension says otherwise.
4. Ask about the season. The tree farms are not selling trees yet in early October, so the visit is about seeing how the trees are grown and what will be available in late November.

The extension is at 50 West High St. in Ballston Spa. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County runs the county’s master gardener program, 4-H and agriculture programs, and the tour is part of its horticulture outreach. Last year’s tour was the first, and the extension said in the WNYT report that it hopes visitors treat this year’s stops as places to return to for pumpkins, trees and plants through the rest of the season.

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