A year spent at Olde Homestead Farm has witnessed changes of all kinds.

There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. 

– Rachel Carson

In the spring of 2022, we first visited this historic treasure that bridges the gap between Marstons Mills’ pastoral past and today’s informed farming culture. On that gray day in March, the paddocks and newly renovated barn were largely unutilized as owners Joan Spiegel and Russell Giammarco were at the end of the major renovations of the farm’s infrastructure that awaited the final elements of their vision: the myriad of species—plant, fowl and mammal—that would reap the benefit of their heartfelt and intellect-driven care and consideration. 

Today the couple’s original stock, bees, are complemented by waving fields of lavender, flowering fruit trees, blueberry bushes and other cultivars; a herd of Alpacas; scores of chickens; Guinea Hens and turkeys. Four cats—both house and barn varieties—round out the menagerie. The number of alpaca has grown with the addition of 4 new crias and a pregnant hembra (female alpaca), purchased recently from Buck Brook Alpaca farm of Roscoe, NY. As the herd has become comfortable with their farm in Marstons Mills, Spiegel and Giammarco have become more relaxed. The fencing now encircles the entire farm providing much needed safety against coyotes, and allows the herd to travel freely anywhere on the property.