How I Found Home on a Catskills Farm

Each week, cookbook author and recipe developer Alexis deBoschnek offers a peek into life on her Catskills farm—whether it’s tending the land, raising chickens, or cooking with the seasons. First up, she shares how she went from city life to farm life.

As I’m sitting down to write this, an image of one of those old billboards keeps popping up in my head that says Greetings from the Catskills. Picture this: you’re driving the car with the windows down, there’s a light breeze, and all you can see is green mountains for miles. That’s what I see when I look up from my computer. I’m Alexis, a cookbook author and recipe developer based in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. My second cookbook, Nights and Weekends, was just published last week, which makes this a perfect time to dive into another project.

While I was born in New York City, my parents moved to this area when I was a toddler, so for all intents and purposes this is home. As a kid, I remember playing in my treehouse that sat in this giant willow tree where I would sing Petula Clark’s Downtown—I was completely enamored by the idea of what it would be like to live, well, anywhere but here. At the time I couldn’t quite grasp the magic that is hunting for chanterelles in pine forests, picking buckets of blueberries that grow on our own hill to stash in the freezer for winter, or seeing miles of maple trees getting tapped for syrup come February. While I appreciated that the first ramps emerging from the ground signified spring or that you could always grab eggs from a neighbor’s chickens if you ran out, I didn’t understand the real meaning of community, or how special it was to live guided by the seasons.

I graduated early from high school and headed straight for New York City. After attending college and culinary school, I moved to Los Angeles and thought I’d stay in California forever. If you’re ever tasted a raspberry in November from the Hollywood Farmers market, you’ll understand my thinking.

And then, the pandemic hit and turned my life upside down. My now-husband and I were both freelancers and out of work. He suggested we go back to my childhood home to hunker down with my mom for a few months to ride out the pandemic. Over the years the place that I couldn’t wait to leave had become increasingly alluring. There was an unavoidable sense of calm I felt whenever I came back to this familiar land. I agreed, with the understanding that we’d come back to Los Angeles within six months.

Five years later, we’re still here. Since then, we’ve helped my mom in taking over the management of her horse business where we board Icelandic horses, host riding clinics, and give lessons. We’ve also started raising pastured poultry. The first year we raised 300 chickens to sell to our family and friends, and this year we’ve raised over 1,300 so far this year. If you’re ever in Delhi, New York, come see us at the local farmers market on the town square, or try our chicken by ordering online. We have a massive vegetable garden, cutting garden for arrangements, and multiple perennial beds. We’ve hosted workshops at the farm and have aspirations to expand. We’re calling the whole thing Uplands Farm and Gardens.

From the Farm is going to cover what life is really like living on a small working farm in rural New York. While there will be occasional recipes, I’ll also cover how my family and I tend to the land; what we grow and raise on the farm; and how we find joy through all four seasons.

Until next week,

Alexis