Our Story

We are Ardy (Harris) and Gil Gillespie. Harrisdale Farmstead is our experiment in ecological and locally-oriented farming that we pursue on the building site of Ardy’s family’s farm. It includes a 1921 farmhouse and 1920 barn, both built by Ardy’s grandparents, areas that were formerly cattle lots, and the farm windbreak. We began this adventure in 2004 when we bought the six-acre place from Ardy’s siblings. A friend, LaVon Eblen, ran Harrisdale Homestead, a bed & breakfast and education center, here until 2014 when we “retired” here after spending 36 years at Cornell University.

We’ve made many changes since 2004. We’ve made some improvements to the house, repaired and re-roofed the barn, had a decaying corn crib and an old barn taken down, and built a new garage and workshop. Starting in 2015 we ‘ve planted about two acres of former cattle lots to a wide variety of fruit and nut trees and to various food-producing bushes and brambles. We have also been growing annual vegetables in the alleyways between the rows of trees and using row covers and plastic covering on hoops to extend our growing season. In 2017 we acquired a small flock of sheep for vegetation management, improving our soil fertility, and providing meat for sale. During the grazing season, we rotate the sheep through our farmstead and two others, using portable electric fencing to make small areas (paddocks) where the sheep eat down the vegetation before being moved to fresh forage in the next area.