Branchwater Farms

06/14/2024

Fridays at the Farm is an opportunity for us to showcase the spirits we produce here in a new context, in cocktails. For those of you who’ve visited our tasting room before, you may have done a tasting flight of our spirits, experiencing them pure, as they are. That’s intentional.

Because we distill at such a high proof-in pursuit of quality over quantity-we want you to notice how approachable our spirits are on their own. For our fruit distillates, we make them in the eau de vie tradition, which are typically enjoyed on their own, after a meal.

But we love cocktails as much as you do! So we’re doing a fun little series this summer. And we want you to come along with us on this journey, an experiment of sorts. If this takes off, we may do more of these in the future. Maybe it becomes a regular fixture in the ole calendar.

First up: our firstborn—GIN. Friday, June 21st 4-7pm

Our gin is made from 100% organically grown wheat from our farm, with certified organic botanicals. It makes a mean martini and lends itself effortlessly to so many classic gin-based cocktails.

Our friend , an owner and partner of the award-winning has been concocting lots of delicious cocktails with our spirits. We can’t wait to share them with you.

See you next Friday at the Farm!

***a few extras and some ground rules***
-light fare will be available for purchase and you can also shop provisions at our farm store
-bottle sales of the featured spirit will receive a 10% discount that evening
-drink responsibly, NA options will also be available
-if you must bring your dog, it must be leashed at all times. This is a working farm.

06/07/2024

***NEW SPIRIT RELEASE***

Our beloved Bartlett gets a darker, broodier sister soulmate. Meet Bosc.

As with many of our farming stories, this one too begins with some loss and trauma…

While processing our 2022 Bartlett pears, our pump exploded. We quickly moved the remaining fruit into cold storage while we tried to get the pump fixed. We ultimately were able to borrow a pump from friends but when we brought the Bartletts back for fermentation, many were riper than we wanted for the style of our fruit distillates. We decided to put them into a used apple brandy barrel (stay tuned for that release). To make up for the loss of fruit, our friends at came up with a few bins of Bosc pears for us in 2022. Then, in 2023, we got more Bosc from Bob to make up the volume.

The result is a blend of 2022 and 2023 Bosc from the Hudson Valley that, while wildly different from Bartlett, still expresses the full orchard experience of biting into a perfectly ripe pear. This time, the flavors are darker, earthier, and more subtle. Brunette not blonde.

412 bottles are at the distillery waiting to be claimed!

06/07/2024

Summer is almost here and we have been busy planting, distilling, bottling, cleaning, organizing and preparing for the busiest season of all. The farm store and distillery are open Thursday-Sunday 12-5 until the end of the year now, so you don’t need to wait until the weekend to pick up your farm fresh eggs or coffee or bacon.

Have you been to our store? We offer local meat and dairy as well as a curated selection of dry goods and pantry items. We also have New York State beer, wine, cider and spirits. We keep it local as much as possible, which isn’t hard given the abundance of amazing products to be found here. Stop by and say hi. We love when our insta friends become real life friends.

05/31/2024

We are excited to announce our summer series of Fridays at the Farm!

Join us on select Fridays this summer for cocktails featuring our spirits. Each event will highlight one of the spirits we produce here at Branchwater with several cocktail variations. We will also offer other standard cocktails, as well as wine, cider, beer and NA options. Light fare will be available for purchase and you can also shop provisions from our farm store.

First up: GIN
See you Friday, June 21st, 4-7pm

05/03/2024

Holy wowza y’all, it’s May!

May is a special month. In May, we celebrate mothers, we honor the fallen, it’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we commemorate Mexican victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on Cinco de Mayo, and lots of interesting people (& dogs) were born in May too.

As if May weren’t already cool enough, we’re declaring this not only duck egg month but CARBONARA month! For those of you who have been following our antics long enough, you know we’re big fans of the eggs that ducks bestow upon us. So versatile, so extra! And our favorite way to showcase their abilities is in the classic Spaghetti alla Carbonara preparation. Kevin has perfected a recipe. He’s happy to share it with anyone who swings by the store. We’re happy to share all the duck egg recipes with you!

We are strong believers in keeping an open mind and trying new things. So if duck eggs felt beyond your comfort zone before, let us help you take the bold leap into a new egg experience! We’re here to help you on your duck egg journey.

We’re happy to share the bounty of what our ducks are bringing forth this time of year. Whereas winter is a slower time for ducks and chickens to lay eggs, all that extra sunlight translates into more eggs. Lucky all of us!

For the entire month of May we’ll be offering a free 6-pk of our pasture raised duck eggs with the purchase of a Rigatino and a spaghetti. It’s the perfect trifecta. And if you’re new to this game you are definitely going to thank us once you try it.

We’re open Sat-Sun 12-5. AND we’ll be moving to Fri-Mon in June. So there’s that. See you soon!

04/23/2024

We’re proud to be included with other local businesses committed to combatting climate change 💚

04/14/2024

While every new spirit release is exciting for us, emotions are running very high around here with the arrival of our first rye whiskey. What makes it so different?

It feels like the culmination of something really big, a collective sigh of relief. We’ve done this. And we are proud.

So much has gone into getting to this point in our farm distillery dream, beginning with the first 7 of our 10 years here, before we even produced our first spirit. We’ve experienced sleepless nights, steep learning curves, incredible highs and gut-punching lows, humbling losses and grateful gains, and here we are. Ready to share the fruits of our labor with you.

We are not many things—we suck at self-promotion and we don’t have cool merch. The only way most of you know about us is through word of mouth, for which we are incredibly grateful. But we are a few things that have made this all a very good fit.

We are committed - to one another, to our land and to our community. Our choices are guided by our principles. We are not interested in a “bigger is better” business model and we will remain true to our size and scale. We are transparent about our farming and distilling processes and we invite you to engage with us about them. We are uncompromising when it comes to quality.

Our rye is grown in the field next to our home. It is our favorite grain - both to grow and to drink. We are excited to celebrate this noble grain with other like-minded friends on Sunday, April 21st (12-3pm). We hope you can join us for this inaugural release and celebration of rye.

04/03/2024

Please join us on Sunday, April 21st (12-3) for a celebration of rye! Branchwater Rye Whiskey will be making its big debut (over 2 years in the making) and we are extremely proud and excited to share it with you.

We will be joined by friends and sharing the fruits of their labors, and we will be offering a full lineup of delicious brews from .

There’s nothing we love more than bringing together our community for these events - to showcase the bounty and abundance of this valley and the talents it sustains. We hope you can join us and please help spread the word.

03/18/2024

Rosie was one of our beloved yardbirds, the chickens that truly free range about our house and farm, refusing to be fenced in or to live with roosters. We enjoy keeping a small flock of almost pet chickens, with names to match.

We love looking out the kitchen window and seeing them taking their dust baths as we do dishes, or being shaken down by them anytime we open the garage door, because they know that’s where we keep the treats. We love that they eat the ticks in our yard and we enjoy hearing the sweet noises they make as they go about their day.

Having our small flock of yardbirds reminds us why we do this in the first place, and to see each animal as an individual. Rosie was definitely that.

She was extremely outspoken, hated to be handled, liked some alone time and was almost always the last to go into the coop at night. She had a slightly off-centered comb that lent a silly aspect to her otherwise rather severe demeanor. She had beautiful golden flecks, like an ornate shawl around her neck, which contrasted beautifully with her gray plumage. She laid beautiful deep pink colored eggs, rarely in the same place twice.

When she didn’t show up for bedtime last night, Kevin went looking for her. He found her beneath a rhododendron against the front of our house, with no sign of trauma or injury.

We are grateful that we were able to say a proper goodbye to Rosie, and to thank her for all the gifts she bestowed upon this farm. A farm isn’t really a farm without chickens. And she was a great chicken.

02/27/2024

We’re back!

Branchwater Provisions will reopen this weekend after a productive little break. We‘ve been producing, bottling, labeling and packaging more of the good stuff to share with you. We did some deep cleaning, soul searching and even some reading, traveling and relaxing.

We are looking forward to seeing familiar faces again and making new friends. We have some exciting things planned for the seasons ahead. New spirits releases, fun collaborations, additional opening hours…

Come see us in the big red barn where we offer tasting flights of our homegrown spirits as well as offer a selection of Hudson Valley (& beyond) abundance.

Branchwater Provisions
Sat & Sun 12-5 (with additional days to come)

02/23/2024

Labeling the last of our 2021 Wheat. This was a small batch release of around 600 bottles (we’ll let you know the exact number when we’re done labeling!)

Because everything we distill at Branchwater is distilled above 160 proof, we cannot use the terms “Wheat Whiskey,” “Rye Whiskey,” “Bourbon” or “Straight Rye,” etc. Also, the TTB requires one to transfer into new oak at 62.5% ABV in order to use these type and class designations, and we go into barrel at a much higher proof. So, technically, this is a “Whiskey made from Wheat.”

This bottling is made from 100% wheat grown by us at Branchwater using organic practices (no herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and some biodynamic treatments (like compost sprays), and some regenerative practices (cover crops and overseeding the grains with clover to improve nitrogen pick-up and help suppress w**d pressure). The wheat and rye seeds we purchase to plant are certified organic.

Nearly all the wheat we grow here is used for our gin production. But we always have small quantities of wheat whiskey from the first two runs (before the third, botanical run) that we put into new oak barrels for aging. This is the first release of this from the wheat we distilled in 2021.

The whiskey aged for 12 months in new, American oak with various chars, and then finished for 6 months
in used pinot noir barrels from Raj Parr and used chardonnay barrels. It was chill filtered and bottled at
45% ABV.

Our main brown grain spirit will be our rye, which we plan to release this April. You still have time to pick up a bottle or two of the wheat. It’s not like any other you’ve tried.

02/01/2024

Slow Food Hudson Valley Winter Potluck is our first community event on the agenda for 2024. We hope you’ll join us for a casual afternoon potluck — Slow Food style!

Let’s all slow the fork down together and have a fun afternoon. This is our inaugural event of the Slow Food Hudson Valley relaunch, and we want to share what we have planned for 2024 and hear from you. What would you like to see this chapter do? What types of events and initiatives are of interest to you? We seek ways to engage our vast and diverse Hudson Valley community and would love your feedback.

Come to taste & share: We will provide pulled pork from Overlook Farms. Our Board members will also be there, sharing dishes from their kitchens. We hope you’ll also sign up to bring something homemade, ideally from your favorite locally sourced provisions. Please also bring a beverage to share, wine or nonalcoholic. A minimum $15 donation for Slow Food members or $20 for non-members is suggested.

Here’s what to do!
1) RSVP @ www.slowfoodhudsonvalley.org/events

2) Tell us what deliciousness you will bring to the potluck. You can use our online sign up at Perfect Potluck.

3) Become a member of Slow Food and save on events like these while supporting our mission (please select Slow Food Hudson Valley as your local chapter)

At the potluck, we will tell you a little about our farm, and you will be able to sample our homegrown spirits. These items and locally curated goods will also be available in our farm store.

Let’s all get involved to promote Good, Clean, Fair Food for a healthier us and a healthier planet that we all share together.

01/16/2024

Although our weekend farm store is closed through February, we are still collecting eggs every day! Check with or to see if they have some in stock.

01/03/2024

Taking our cue from Momma N., the big mammals of Branchwater are going to use the winter months to hunker down and plan for the seasons ahead. We have so much in store for 2024, and we are excited to share developments at the farm and distillery with you as new products are launched and events are announced.

Our weekend farm store, Branchwater Provisions will be on a temporary hiatus until early March but please reach out to schedule a tasting or visit the store. We are mostly around, but with just the two of us, we need time to focus on production and plan for the busier months here in the Valley.

Be on the lookout for our Rye Whiskey launch, hopefully in March. We are throwing around some ideas for other events too because there’s nothing we love more than hosting a good party!

And we are back with meat birds this year too. We will be offering fresh, pasture raised, organically fed chickens and ducks several times throughout the season. So don’t touch that dial!

12/24/2023

***New Cocktail***

Many of you have asked us for cocktails using our brandies. Here’s one that really highlights Branchwater Pear Brandy. The botanicals in our gin support the more tropical notes of the pear, making pear the dominate flavor in this cocktail. Instead of the classic lime, we substitute bergamot because we have a small obsession with the fruit and with who keeps the scurvy at bay this time of year. But feel free to play around with this. If you use lemon or lime, add a touch more of simple syrup.

“A PEAR REVIEWED COCKTAIL”
(Makes 1 cocktail)

~1oz Branchwater Pear Brandy
~1oz Branchwater Gin
~1oz juiced fresh bergamot
~3/4oz simple syrup

Shaken with ice, strained into coup, garnished with Maraschino cherry. Enjoyed in good company.

12/24/2023

Wishing you the warmth that comes from true connection with community. We are so very grateful to be a part of ours. The world is a complex place and it takes real life real time connections to help make sense of it sometimes.
Happy Holidays!

12/13/2023

'Tis the Season! We are now taking pre-orders for Caviar and Perigord Truffles for Christmas and New Year's. Order deadline for Christmas is Tuesday, December 19th at 4pm. Order deadline for NYE is Tuesday, December 26th at 4pm. Farm pick up only.

Perigord Truffle: $60/oz

American Paddlefish (Polyodon Spathula)
30g $25
50g $41
125g $100

American Hackelback (Sturgeon)
30g $32
50g $53
125g $130
250g $260

Galielee Ossetra (Gueldenstaedtii)
30g $90
50g $150

12/02/2023

If “friend” is a word reserved only for the bond we share with other humans, what do we call the bond that is created with a member of another species? Companion?

If so, Big Red, aka #15, is a companion chicken. She’s part of our flock of just under 100 chickens and while not particularly remarkable in her plumage, she stands out in her behavior. She actively seeks me out every time I visit the yard and circles me, clucking and pecking at my boots and my hands. I often times will crouch down and set her on my knee and we remain like that, observing the goings on of the yard together. I don’t even have to bribe her with treats. She just wants to be near me. And so she has singled herself out as a special friend. Or companion.

Wonder what the airlines will say when I try to fly with my companion chicken?!?!

12/01/2023

12/01/2023

A favorite holiday get together for old friends and new at the farm. See you there!



jupiter

11/29/2023

Thank you for having us on, David! Radio Free Rhinecliff

11/19/2023

A couple of Thanksgiving week reminders and announcements:

We are open every day through Wednesday 11/22 for your Thanksgiving needs.

Hours are 11-5

turkey pickup for those of you who pre-ordered: your turkeys are here, they are gorgeous and they are fresh.

and pie pre-order deadline is today! Visit the link in our bio to secure yours. These will be available for pickup on Wednesday from 11-3

We will be mixing up Bloody Winstons (Bloody Marys but with gin) for some pre-holiday cheer on Wednesday. Join us!

We will be closed the weekend after Thanksgiving.

***Q-Tip would like to let you in on her little secret to obtaining boss pies— duck eggs for the win!***

11/19/2023

11/14/2023

***Partner Appreciation post***
(It Takes a Village is back!!!)

We’ve been wanting to spotlight for some time now and since today is .inherlightmind ‘s birthday, what better time to do this?!

Locals are undoubtedly familiar with the Montgomery Place Orchards Farmstand (aka Wayside) on 9G. It’s everyone’s favorite farmstand and for good reason. It is charming. It is welcoming. It is always abundantly adorned with the best and freshest produce of that particular moment, as well as products from the wider farming community. And everyone who works there is kind and helpful and palpably happy to be there. It is an open-aired and seasonal market, so there is a deep longing for it during the seemingly endless winter months when it closes for the season.

Robin met Caroline at the very beginning of our farm’s spirit-producing chapter, just after launching our gin in the summer of 2021. She was tasting with a customer where Caroline happened to be shopping, recognized her from MPO and invited her to try the gin. Caroline liked it but wasn’t sure if her license allowed her to sell alcohol at the farmstand. Once it was established she could, it was off to the races!

MPO sold more gin that season than we could have ever imagined, introducing so many new customers to our farm and sharing our story with them. And as we continue to expand and release new spirits, they continue to reserve very coveted shelf space for our products. Every time we shop there, we are filled with pride to see our babies in the wild, amongst such amazing local offerings.

The heart of Montgomery Place are the orchards that Caroline and her family tend (special shout-out to her extraordinary parents, Doug & Talea!!!), and it’s been a family-run farm for 36 seasons! Where so many of the things we consume come from faceless and nameless places, tended by hands we never consider, it is such a welcoming exception to go to a place that is filled with people from our community shopping for things grown and made by our farming community.

(Continued in comments)

11/09/2023

We are so excited to bring together the coolest gathering of local artisans in one place! Please join us Saturday, December 9th (12-3pm) for our 2nd annual holiday craft fair.

Do your holiday shopping in a meaningful way, by supporting people who make beautiful things with their own hands. Box stores are soulless!

You’ll find something for everyone on your list. Choose from a wide array of products - jewelry, tinctures, skincare products, hand-made quilts, honey and products made from beeswax, photographs, ceramics, linens, hand-spun yarns and felted creations, ornaments, furniture and cutting boards, baked goods and specialty food items, and cider, beer and spirits.

We’ll be mixing up some holiday cheer as well with alcoholic and non-alcoholic options, as well as some holiday bites.

See you at the farm on Sat, Dec 9th. And please help spread the word!

11/03/2023

Thanksgiving is around the corner. Let’s have some fun with it!

Our farm store will be open the Mon, Tues and Wed before Thanksgiving (Nov 20-22).
In addition to offering a pick-up for your pre-ordered turkeys, we will be hosting Elana Carlson of for a bagel and pie pop up on Wed, Nov 22nd. Elana recently relocated herself and her business to the Hudson Valley from Martha’s Vineyard so let’s give her a warm welcome and grab some amazing bagel kits and pies from her friend . We’ll also be mixing up some Bloody Winstons (gin instead of vodka) to get you into Thanksgiving prep mode!

with .repost
・・・
We are making bagels again, and in our new neck of the woods! And better yet, our dear friend & talented pastry chef is making pies!

Bagel kits for sale only, going back to our roots!

Huge thanks to for hosting! They will be serving bloody marys to help fuel the pre thanksgiving prep.

While you are at it, order a turkey from , stock up from beautiful grocery & NY made bev shop.

Head to the link in bio to order :)

10/19/2023

Get your tickets to the third annual Hudson Valley Cider Symposium next Sunday, October 29th from 11-4 . There will be a series of lectures, talks and workshops by Hudson Valley based cider, orchard and apple luminaries including our very own Kevin Pike. Kevin will lead a discussion and tasting about Apple Brandy and fruit distillates at 2:30.
Hudson Valley. Fall. Apples. Rose Hill Farm. What’s not to love?
Link to tickets in bio.

10/12/2023

Our birds are currently molting, which is the process of shedding old feathers to make room for new ones. This process requires a lot of energy, so birds slow down or shut down egg production entirely while they are molting.

We doubled our flock of laying hens this year, to try to meet the demand for chicken eggs, and we will have more to offer you next year. But for the remainder of this year, we will have a much slower trickle. This is part of the many cycles of a farm. Eggs are seasonal.

10/10/2023

Hey everyone, it’s superhuman Kevin Pike’s birthday today. While he’s buried in accounting hell, please take a moment to send good juju into the universe for this incredible human.

Kevin is the heartbeat of this farm and this farm is the perfect reflection of the best qualities of Kevin: a dreamer with vision, an avid learner willing to take on unknowns, an eternal optimist who believes things will work out, a hard worker who puts his heart and soul into every undertaking, whether cleaning gutters or putting together a meal for 20, a generous soul who loves nurturing and caring for others and a lover of life.

This farm wouldn’t exist without Kevin’s vision and commitment and we are all wowed on a daily basis with his accomplishments and abilities. Thank you, Kevin for being the amazing human that you are.

Happiest of Birthdays to the best of the best,
Love,
your wifey, your kids and all the critters of Branchwater. 💚