AllOtsego.com: Willy’s – Scenic Drive To Fun Destination

Willy’s – Scenic Drive To Fun Destination

10/16/09

By JIM KEVLIN SCHENEVUS

The “multiply” part came first for William and Mary Gartung.
The couple, who sold their Long Island farm and bought one north of here in 1960, produced seven boys and five girls.
The dozen kids produced more than 50 grandkids – let’s leave it at “more than 50,” as Mary Allen, sister Linda Clements and their brother’s daughter-in-law Cat Gartung kept losing count the other day as they tried to add them up.
And the 50-plus grandkids have so far produced more that 100 great-grandchildren.

The “fruitful” part – the apple part – came in 1992, when patriarch William died and the next generation had to think about how to keep the farm in the family for their mother’s sake.
At the time, Mary was living in Florida and sent a missive north to her brothers and sisters: Why not develop a seasonal cider mill, something like the Michaelses’ Fly Creek operation, to cover the taxes?
It would be easy, she reasoned. “I was wrong, it’s not that easy,” said Mary, who nonetheless brims with enthusiasm.
Another relative saw an old photo of Willy Gartung and a draft horse at his original farm and said, “Why not Willy’s Farm?”
And so Willy’s Farm & Cider Mill was launched in 1994, and it has survived today with the help of the many dozen offspring.
“Whoever shows up, we put them to work,” Mary said the other Friday – the operation was to open at noon – as Cat and Linda peeled apples in the kitchen.
Mom Mary, now 94, was over in the corner, sipping cider and taking a call from son Ernest, en route to home from Tennessee.
In the front room, baby Willa – granddaughter Ashley Wilkersen’s baby – was asleep in an apple box. Her brother, Eli, 16 months, was cheerfully underfoot.
At first, the family enhanced the cider selling with pumpkins and Indian corn, but has since added a corn maze, games for kids, a country-crafts store in the big barn, and horse-drawn wagon rides.
It was feared the wagon rides would come to an end when Mary’s brother John Gartung died two years ago, but since, two of his children, son John and daughter Diana Brady, have become certified wagon masters and keep the rides going in his memory.
Because of state regulations requiring pasteurizing, Willy’s Farm sells Beak & Skiff cider from Lafayette.
But, in Schenectady, the family acquired an antique press made by Thomas-Albright Co. of Goshen, Ind., and custom-presses apples for others’ personal use. (The other weekend, a longtime customer was due to arrive from Connecticut with a pick-up full of apples.)
The record press so far was 147 bushels, which made 75 gallons of cider.
Finding the press wasn’t hard, said Mary, but it arrived in boxes, and mechanically inclined relatives painstakingly put it together from a photo, quite a puzzle.
Driving up from Schenevus, a series of Burma-Shave-like signs keep customers coming.
“The pies are bakin’” says the first sign as you drive along the lovely Elk Creek valley on Route 34. And, a little beyond, “...you’d better get shakin’.”
Once you take a left up Badeau Hill Road and start to wonder if you’ve missed it, there’s “Don’t despair...” and a little farther, “you’re almost there.”
And so you are. Another

IF YOU GO: Willy’s Farm & Cider Mill is open noon-5 Fridays, 9-5 Saturdays, 11-5 Sundays. From Oneonta, take I-88 to Exit 18; left on Route 7, right on Route 34, and follow signs. From Cooperstown, take Murphy Hill Road to Route 166 south, left on Norton Cross, left on Route 35, right on 34A, right on 34 and follow the signs.

Labels: 10-23-09, AllOtsego, Frontpage

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM

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