It soon became clear that new retail and cold storage facilities were needed, and plans were drawn up for a roadside stand. The Zinkes and their two daughters moved into the farmhouse at the Van Buren Farm in 1955. In 1953, Harry and Edwina Van Buren sold the 42-acre home farm and several smaller plots to their orchard manager Daniel Zinke, who was also managing another local farm at the time. Orchards covered the land here an aerial map from 1948 shows apple trees growing on both sides of US Route 9 where it intersects with Route 9H, and the Van Buren Farm was at the very center.ĭaniel and Madeline Zinke opened the Roadstand in 1957. Although there is no direct connection between the two Van Buren families, President Van Buren was also a farmer, and was particularly interested in innovative farming techniques.Īpple production in Columbia County reached its historical peak in the late 1940s, with about 1.5 million bushels harvested annually. President, lived much of his life at his estate in Kinderhook, just a few miles away. Three buildings on the farm survive from this era – the farmhouse, the equipment shed and the red barn.įor many years this orchard was known as the Van Buren Farm. In 1932, Barent sold a 42-acre section of this farm another Van Buren family, Harry and Edwina Van Buren, who grew apples on the land for another two decades. In the 1920s, the land between Route 9 and State Farm Road, currently our Home Farm and State Farm orchards, belonged to a fruit farmer named Barent Van Buren. This is nearly the precise location of present-day Golden Harvest, which shows that apple farms have existed in our immediate vicinity at least as early as the 1870s. The climate and soil composition is especially good for growing apples, especially in Columbia County, where the largest apple farm in the US was located in the 1800s, according to historical sources.Ī bird’s-eye view of Valatie from 1881 shows a large, full-grown apple orchard located just to the north, along the New York – Albany Road (now U.S.

The apple orchards of the upper Hudson Valley are some of the most productive in the world, and have a history that goes back hundreds of years.

Golden Harvest was established in the 1950s, but the story of apples growing on our land goes back much further.

Golden harvest farms valatie, ny