Farmer Friday: The Trudeau Family Farm

Wednesdays are dedicated family time for the Trudeaus. And a tour around the one hundred plus acre property, tucked away in Edwards, NY, explains why. free time is not something Bobbie Trudeau finds herself having much of. Just five minutes into a conversation about the family farm, it becomes apparent that Bobbie doesn’t like to sit down.

The Trudeau's manage a vegetable garden, raise chickens along with turkeys for meat and eggs, breed rams, ewes, and lambs, and have three dogs to protect the animals. Like many farmers, Bobbie finds gardening therapeutic. Unable to recount the moment she decided to pursue farming, especially since she grew up within a family dairy farm, she recounts fond memories of summer days spent helping her grandmother in the garden. The enjoyment of being outside and accomplishment from filling her refrigerator with food that the Trudeau's are responsible for producing, serve as motivation to continue farming.

The sheep, rams, and ewes came to graze. The land is fenced and divided to allow the animals to feed. Once a year someone comes to sheer their wool, many are for sale and leave the farm, some they are butchered for meat, and many are chosen to continue cross breeding. But for the Tudeau's, farming is a family affair. Many of the animals names are chosen by Bobbie’s daughters. They are consistent with themes; many are given character names from a favorite movie. Snow White, Smokey, Bandit, and Pablo are just a sample of the many.

Vegetables growing on the property

There seems to be a constant stream of project ideas going on in the mind of Bobbie Trudeau. “Every year we expand a little more”, she says. They most recently have been building a greenhouse and installing a walk in cooler for the vegetables that quickly become abundant with produce the day before the Canton Farmers Market. Next year she plans to expand and spread out the vegetable garden, plant blueberry bushes, and hopes to begin building a barn.

Whenever Bobbie does find “free time”, she puts her effort into creating wooden signs sold through her Pretty & Prim Etsy account. The summer, busy as it is, allows Bobbie to slow down. Both her and her husband have full time jobs and farm on the side. In the fall Bobbie has to balance farmwork with teaching and coaching cross country. She calls it “organized chaos”.

The Trudeau Family Farm sell their products at the Canton Farmers Market along with a roadside stand at Bob’s Market.