Schmitz Farms has been in existence since 1861 when my great-great-grandfather moved his family from Germany to the United States. At the time my great-grandfather was 2 years old. From that time until the 1940’s Schmitz farm existed for the sole purpose of providing food and shelter for the current Schmitz family that lived there.
In fact, while I have been told this should not be possible, every year we eat asparagus from a small bed that my great-grandfather planted. I do not know the year that it was planted, but he died in 1939, so I know the bed is over 80 years old. In some way, this feels like he is still here watching out for and caring for the Schmitz farm, just as he did when he was alive.
It was in the 1940s, when my dad took control, that Schmitz Farms came into being as a for-profit entity. At that time he (my dad) started raising Black Angus cattle and took a great deal of pride in the fact that the meat he raised was sought after by the best restaurants in New York City. Cattle remained a large part of Schmitz Farms until my dad’s death in 2002. When I took over, I could not continue raising cattle. For one thing, I made pets of them all and could not send them to market. When my dad passed, we still had 4 cows and while I knew what to do, I didn’t. All 4 cows died of old age right here on the farm where they were born.
This brings us to today. A few years ago I decided berries were the way to go and so we started growing blackberries and blueberries, but I also decided that I wanted to provide information about the food we eat and how what we eat impacts our body to keep us healthy or make us sick. Thus, the idea for this blog and website began to grow in my mind. We hope to pass on the knowledge we have gained over the years and to hopefully make it fun for young and old alike.
As we have been watching the weeks and months go by (now year 2023) we have become aware of the changes that are occurring around us. Since these changes affect our food supply, we are adding climate change as another focus of our website.