Crown Hill Farm is more than a house, and more than a chunk of land. It is a story unto itself, both figuratively and literally. My stewardship of this farm is a continuation of that story, and I want this story to include you too. Welcome!
~ Missy Singer DuMars
What it's all about
While Crown Hill Farm is a farm, it’s a lot more than that. The purpose of this farm is simple: nourishment. Our vision is to create a sanctuary for community, food, animals and a business that are all mindfully grown. A visit to the farm is really immersion in a way of life centered around connection between all of the systems that sustain and enrich life. From pastoral quiet that invites you into peaceful reflection to food that grew just a minute’s walk from where it is eaten, the farm provides, and my mission as caretaker is to extend this nourishment of body, heart and soul to everyone who comes to visit and stay.
Crown Hill Farm represents my first full-time farming opportunity, so there’s a lot of learning every day of the year. The spirit of continuous improvement, and hands-on experiential learning runs deep in everything that happens on the farm. In learning, I’m committed to practices that are kind to the land, regenerate the natural resources here and can sustain in a way that gives to the land while receiving it’s gifts.
From the many chapters of my life, I bring an unorthodox pastiche of skills. With a deep background in business and technology, a life-long involvement in the arts, and a varied spiritual background, I channel the power of connecting people, cultivated aesthetics, sacred awareness, and inspired leadership to every endeavor I undertake.
Winding up in the farming world grew out of a desire to dig deep into health, wellness, and connection to the land. In an unconventional way, life at Crown Hill Farm is the sum of all the lessons learned along the way, fused with the incredible responsibility of working with the Earth’s natural rhythms. Every part of life on the farm is sculpted around conscious being, with extreme care and attention paid to empowering health, wellness, and simplicity.
A picture of Crown Hill Farm
Crown Hill Farm is situated aptly enough, on top of a hill in Eden, New York. From the front porch, you can spot Lake Erie on the horizon, and the land itself is flanked by vineyards, an organic hay field, and rich hardwood forests. A lazy creek runs through the property, where children of generations gone by would laugh and play. When you walk the land, you can feel the history. These images were definitely brought to life by visits from people who lived at the house in the 50s. We have been fortunate to know all of the former owners back to 1948. The growing season is remarkably long, with a Summer that has drawn people to the area for generations. Crown Hill is always graced with a pleasant breeze, and occasionally mercurial weather. Its variety is inextricably linked to its unique charm.
My personal story
I never set out to be a farmer. It was never a dream of mine. I grew up as a ’suburban/city-girl' where playing outside was on a golf course and manicured yards — not ponds and forests and fields. Animals were at zoos, not my backyard. Beyond the occasional houseplant, I had never grown a thing. I’ve had a range of careers in my life from the corporate entertainment industry to massage therapy and business coaching and undoubtedly, what always leads me is my insatiable curiosity and thirst to understand.
I stumbled my way into growing food. I’ve always had a passion for cooking, that began with helping my grandmother prepare holiday meals. Now, as an adult, I have chosen a specific dietary path and pay close attention to nutrition, health and the role food can play in natural wellness management. Growing food is a natural step in that quest to bring together more awareness of what goes into my body and creating beautiful, delicious meals.
I was definitely hesitant because farming was so far outside of anything I’d ever done before. I think it still scares me sometimes to take this venture on! Every day, I think I have no idea what I’m doing. I feel a deep responsibility to honor the sacred lives that are a part of this farm and often agonize over every decision, unsure if it is a good, wise, best choice. I think most farmers feel that regularly, whether seasoned multi-generation farmers or new like myself. Change is the one constant, but I have faith and trust in continuing to listen to what the land asks of me.
Farming has been rewarding beyond what I could imagine. I get to be outside every single day, breathing fresh air and deeply experiencing the changes of season and cycles of nature. I think that every lesson we need is available in the natural world: resiliency, beauty, abundance, gratitude, growth, change, death, rebirth and more. There is great pleasure in cooking food I have grown and nothing more rewarding than sitting down to a meal, looking at my plate and knowing every little detail of what went into that food. And, I’m so overjoyed to share that with others and witness their face light up at the same experience of delicious, simple nourishment of body and soul.
How I landed here
You could say in some ways that the farm found me. My partner at the time and I decided to move from Colorado in 2016 in search of someplace with “arable land, affordability, and access to an international airport.” After spotting Crown Hill Farm on Trulia, it became the high bar for places after it. After two in-person visits to view the property, as well as a handful of other houses, we knew that Crown Hill Farm was it. It took me some time for my love affair with Crown Hill to develop, but here I am and the rest is history.
Of course, meet Daisy:
Our main predator protection is with our pure-bred Maremma Sheepdog, Daisy. A Maremma is an old-world livestock guarding dog, bred in Italy for centuries to guard large flocks of sheep on the plains and in the mountains. They are bred to all types of weather and to take responsibility for keeping the flock safe from 4-legged predators, as well as from 2-legged thieves. Daisy is wicked smart, loving, wise and lives with her flocks 24/7, 365 days of the year. We have not lost a single bird to predators since she joined our team.
