Held at Quigley’s Restaurant
573 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY 12061

Members Attending (16): Phil Kellerman, Murray Forth, Dick Drumm, Bill Dowd, Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Kevin Leyhane, Terry Brewer, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Pat Bailey, Andy Leyhane, Wells Packard, Charlie Foote, Julius Frankel, Carol Orvis.

Guests (1): Paige Johnson.

MEETING NOTES: President Phil presided, welcoming members and visiting Rotarian Paige Johnson. … Reminder to all Board members that we will be meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 22, in the rear conference room of Community Care Physicians, 35 Empire State Boulevard, off Miller Road, Castleton. Sandwiches and beverages will be provided.

… We will be making a go/no-go decision on the proposed 2020 Rotary Run for Good by next week. Peter Brown remarked that he thought that, with proper planning, we could achieve a goal of recruiting at least 60 volunteers to staff the event, one of the major potential stumbling blocks mentioned in last week’s discussion. Wells Packard said he knew in the past the District might provide some matching funds for events that involve more than one Rotary club. Since our preliminary planning mentioned the possibility of including one or two Columbia County clubs, he suggested Dick Drumm check on such funding when he attends the Rotary Leadership Institute this Saturday. (It should be noted, however, that Columbia County is not part of our District 7190, so involvement from there may not be of interest to 7190.)

… Phil said he once again plans to sell gourmet coffees for the holiday season ($15 each, two for $25), with $5 from the purchase price of each package to go toward the club’s ShelterBox contribution. This would help supplement the ShelterBox funds we are raising through the ongoing Clynk container redemption effort. … Next Thursday’s dinner meeting will include a panel discussion for World Polio Day, with polio treatment pioneer Dr. Martha Lepow and Center for Global Health director John Justino. An 8 p.m. live-streaming event will begin at 8 p.m. for those who wish to stay.

PROGRAM: Paige Johnson, a visiting Rotarian from Vermont who is spending time marketing her family’s local business, presented a brief look at the operation — from its founding by her great-grandparents Fred and Jessie Lemka on June 1, 1910, as the Glenwood Fruit Farm to its present existence as the iconic Kristy’s Barn and Farm, a century farm owned by her parents, Ken and Kristine Johnson.

Glenwood morphed into Appleland and sold its produce on Routes 9 and 20 until the Johnsons moved the sales farm stand to the farm proper and changed the name to Kristy’s. The farm itself covers 250 acres, much of it wooded or wetlands but with about 100 acres under cultivation.

Paige, a onetime Rotary Exchange Student who SRC sponsored for a year in Finland, explained some of the plusses and minuses of modern  farming — location and logistics of marketing in a region where the Hudson River looms as a mental barrier between communities; installation of solar panels; education efforts; labor recruitment — although on the latter topic she said some seasonal workers have been coming  to Kristy’s for 25 years and seem like part of the family; and, the question of what the fourth generation — Paige, her brother, and their sister — will or will not do as far as ownership of the farm. She said her parents are on “the retirement track, looking down the road five or six years or so.”