Vernon Street Farm
After a couple days in Manhattan, Alex and I met up with our friends and boarded a train from the brand new Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station. We headed northward for two hours and arrived at Hudson Station for the farm portion of our New York trip. Our good friends Do-Hee and Josh had moved from San Francisco the year prior to live out their dream of having land and living closer to family on the East Coast. And now, with no prior experience but a lot of Youtube videos, they’re living the farm life and have a vegetable and flower farm called Vernon Street Farm in Athens, New York!
Five of us arrived at the Hudson train station, and Josh drove to come pick us up but then biked home since there was then one too many people for the car… or tried to, but then he got a flat tire on the bridge, so Alex went back to get him.
Alex and I stayed in the guest cottage. Love the scalloped jute rug and all the farm fresh flowers in every corner!
Cassie loves the house.
Our first venture out to the farm beds!
Sampling the perilla.
Baby eating a green bean.
Harvested a bunch of gigantic Japanese scallions.
Some new seed starts
Do-Hee drove me to the very tiny downtown of Athens to go buy milk.
So nice!
And then the rest of the crew arrived! House tour in the giant bathroom.
I had never seen this kind of a scallion knife with a bunch of blades in a row… but apparently it’s a very common Korean kitchen staple. Tempted to get one… but I don’t eat that many scallions.
Feast every day!
Gang’s all here!
Yes, we played mahjong.
Children inquiring about grownups’ computers.
Lunch break!
And of course, three photographers in the house, we did a quick little portrait session with everyone outside on the farm.
The farmstyle “tripod” setup from our group photo, haha.
Morning on the farm: working hard!
A trip into town for bread from Catskill Bread Co. Highly, highly recommend. Especially loved the olive foccacia.
Group dinner out on the riverfront.
Mooncakes from Yunhai in Brooklyn, in honor of the upcoming Mid Autumn Festival. And two little besties, even though they’re a year apart. Westy said multiple times, unprompted, “Leo is my best friend.”
Love.
The next day was farm stand day, so it started with an early morning of harvesting. Alex and I were on breakfast tacos and baby duty.
Every Saturday, these two are out here at the end of their driveway with this adorable farm stand, selling their veggies and flowers.
I am a big fan of my Vernon Street Farm tote. It’s nice and huge, perfect for the market!
New intern is taking photos for the point of sale system.
Baby bear is tired from farmstand day.
Then our friend Kait drove up from her home an hour away to come hang out for the afternoon. We all donned our rain gear for a trek around the town of Hudson.
Nice to see the newly released Made In Taiwan cookbook here in a bookshop.
Alex took a side trip to Cooperstown for the Baseball Hall of Fame one of these days (that will be its own post), and we stopped by the brewery Ommegang on the way back. I just really liked the cute little gnome and even got a pin for my hat from them. Also, Do-Hee’s famous panko fried shrimp tacos for dinner!
And just like that, it was time for Cassie and Michael to head home!
Alex and I had one more day on the farm, so we got to see their market day at the Catskill Farmers Market.
A very cute little market, I think extra small on this day because of the rainy weather.
So nice to briefly meet Josh and Do-Hee’s local friends!
So cool to see them living this life.
Brief walkabout in the town of Catskill. Found a record in the record shop!
And some goodies in this little Asian Market, Enoki Catskill.
Lunch from Ku-ki, and time to call it a day!
So lovely to be able to visit Vernon Street Farm and to spend time with these dear friends. Here’s hoping we get to do it again and again!
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She embraces any excuse to travel. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
