STILL GROWING STRONG
Wilton farmer fights to continue family legacy
WILTON, N.Y. >> Pumpkins by the hundreds are ripe for picking at Vincek Farm, which dates to the late 1700s, long before Wilton – its bicentennial is this year – was even founded as a township.
Located on Smith Bridge Road, the farm is almost directly across from Gavin Park, the town’s recreation complex where many community activities are held. But in many ways, the farm is the true heart and soul of this fast-growing town, a pastoral landmark in an area marked by relentless commercial and residential development.
Josh Vincek, 36, is doing his best to keep the operation going as he juggles life between two worlds as a New York City police officer and hardworking farmer, determined to keep his family’s agricultural heritage alive
“I think it’s just the history of it,” he said. “We’re coming up on our 100th anniversary. 1920 is when my great-grandfather, George, got the deed to the farm. I think it’s just amazing that he came up from the city and got a mortgage on it at that time.”
Josh joined the NYPD in 2004, inspired by the heroism of New York police, fire and rescue workers he witnessed following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His plan was to work 20 years, retire early and come back home to help his father, John Vincek, run the farm.
But that all changed when John passed away last year following a lengthy battle with cancer.
“Life is so unpredictable,” Josh said. “My wife, Erica, and
I had just gotten married, purchased a home on Long Island and then I was floored by finding out my father was sick. We put our life on hold. Now we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to do.”
Vincek Farm is perhaps best well-known for its large flock of turkeys, sold fresh at Thanksgiving time, to customers from throughout the region.
But it also supplies large amounts of hay for some of the nation’s top thoroughbreds stabled at nearby Five Oak Farm and Old Tavern Farm, in Saratoga Springs.
“We also work with the senior residence Prestwick Chase,” Josh said. “They buy a lot of our corn and produce. The chef actually comes and gets it, and we want to do more farm-to-table things with SUNY Adirondack’s culinary program. We do pasture-raised eggs and we’re going to start doing more meat chickens.”
But with Halloween coming up, pumpkins are currently in highest demand at Vincek’s busy farm-based retail stand, near the corner of Jones Road. Another stand is set up at the Biss Farm on Route 50.
“We got lucky,” Josh said. “I heard through the grapevine that a lot of other large pumpkin growers lost a lot to the rain. The season started off very nice. Then it turned in in mid-July. I know of one farm that lost 75 percent of its crop.”
“We were very diligent this year about keeping up with the weeds and the soil my father built up with compost,” he said. “The ground is very rich now. We have numerous varieties.”
Corn stalks, popular as autumn decoration, are cut with an antique harvesting machine that dates to the early 1900s.
“I couldn’t do this without Erica,” Josh said. “While I’m out working in the field, she’s here taking care of business in the store. She even planted and raised our pumpkins this year.”
Originally from Round Lake, Erica didn’t realize she’d become a farmer’s wife some day. For that matter, she didn’t believe Josh at first, when he told her he was a New York City police officer.
“He goofs around and is so funny that I didn’t believe him until I went down to the city and saw him in uniform,” she said, smiling.
Josh was previously an officer on Manhattan’s upper West Side, where he developed a strong rapport in the community. “If there was a theft, people would call his cell phone first instead of the precinct,” Erica said. “Everybody knew him. He was always on the street, very active.”
But she realizes how much Josh is truly a farm boy at heart.
“Anytime he had any vacation time this is where we’d go,” Erica said. “This is our vacation, our special place to be. We would take four-wheelers out, or just help John with the farm. Josh would never be the same without it.”
More recently, since his father’s passing, Josh has changed roles with the police department to an administrative job, which allows him to spend three days per week at home in Wilton.
“I’m very blessed to have good superior officers who have let me have some time until I figure out what I’m going to do,” he said. “If it wasn’t for them it would have been tough.”
Josh will mark 15 years on the job in January. Early retirement is possible, but he’d be giving up quite a bit of financial security for a business fraught with a great deal of economic uncertainty.
Josh’s uncle, Andrew Vincek, and long-time local friends of John Vincek such as Jim Howard, Otis Groff and Bill Slater have pitched in to help Josh take over managing the farm, which his mother, Laura Vincek, still owns.
“They’re very loyal to the farm,” Josh said. “Retired farmer Don Tooker, my grandfather’s best friend, has also been very helpful. He’s in his 90s. You can’t pay for the advice he has. We use his barns and part of his farm now, too.”
Family friend Keith Bull lends a hand regularly as well.
“John Vincek and I were buddies since we were kids,” Bull said. “I always helped with planting pumpkins and harvesting. I helped with turkeys for 20-plus years. I hope this stays a farm instead of becoming a housing development. Josh is trying. God bless him.”
Erica said this type of support resonates with every customer who stops in.
“I love the interaction with people, just chatting and getting to know everybody,” she said. “They come here and tell us, ‘We moved here just to be next to the farm.’ That really gives us a lot of energy to keep it going. Sometimes you’re tired and just want to go to bed and pull the sheets over your head. But people come and say, ‘You’re doing a great job, keep it going. We would sell our house if this farm wasn’t here.’”
“That’s what gives us renewed energy to keep going,” she said.