Courtesy Wm. H Buckley Farm
Saratoga PLAN finalized a second easement on Wm. H. Buckley Farm, a working farm situated on a picturesque ridge overlooking Ballston Lake, on Route 50 in the Town of Ballston.
The closing added 63 acres to the 252 acres conserved in 2015, for a total of 315 acres that will be protected for agricultural uses in perpetuity.
Property owner and farmer Mark Sacco, who donated a portion of the easement value, said there is a need not only to protect land in an area facing high rates of development, but also to farm it responsibly. With 315 acres of land protected in perpetuity, Sacco said he is fulfilling that obligation to the land.
Wm. H. Buckley Farm raises beef cattle, heritage breed pigs, chickens, and turkeys “the way nature intended,” their website reads. Animals are raised in open pasture and are fed an all-natural diet without hormones or antibiotics.
“Our meat moves a matter of feet,” Sacco said, noting that the meat, sold in a butcher shop on-site, is cleaner and healthier, with a flavor beyond compare. In keeping with natural management practices, the farm’s main defense against predators are a pack of maremma sheepdogs that patrol the property at night.
He said the farm has 3,000 animals, hundreds of fruit trees and five beehives producing 300 pounds of honey a year. In order to keep up with the farm’s costs, Sacco has opened a café, smokehouses, butcher shop, event venue, and rental farmhouses and cottages. Doing so allowed him to marry his three objectives of land conservation, farming, and business, “a blend of fitting into the environment, getting the land to produce, and growing the enterprise,” he said.
The butcher and café’s hours are listed on the Wm. H. Buckley Farm website, www.buckleyfarm.com. “I wouldn’t trade with anybody in the world,” Sacco said about his growing business. “I wouldn’t do it.” With this addition of 63 acres he noted, “the Buckley dream continues.”
Farmstays are available at two renovated farmhouses, Buckley Farmhouse and Lakeridge Farmhouse. That part of the business goes along with the butcher house and the cafe, not open for the season on weekends.
The farm also can host weddings and other private events.
Saratoga PLAN is continuing to continuing to expand its farmland conservation efforts throughout Saratoga County, with an additional 600 acres of farmland on the docket for 2019. To date Saratoga PLAN holds 26 easements, and has preserved over 7,000 acres of land.
For more information, call 518-587-554 or visit saratogaplan.org