Where FoxRun Farm Lives...

First, some HISTORY. Our North Fork, the North Fork of Long Island (hence NO FO) is truly historic country! Southold Village, the mother village of Southold Town was settled in 1640, over 375 years ago; population in 1654: fifty-three men listed by name. Our village of Cutchogue (originally Corchaug, for the local Indian tribe) was the first of Southold’s “colonies” and is the home of some truly old houses. “The Old House” on the village green dates back to 1649 is listed as a National Historic Monument. The Joshua Well’s “Old Place” was erected 1680, and both are about a mile from our Foxrun Farm.

The North Fork, Yennicot to its original Indian inhabitants, is a maritime-climate peninsula bounded by the old North Sea (now Long Island Sound) on the north and the Great Peconic Bay on the south. Beginning at Riverhead Town’s border, it stretches east on The King’s Highway (State Route 25) like a string of pearls (beads on a rosary) through nine New England-style villages and hamlets that form Southold Town. It reaches land’s end and the Atlantic Ocean in Oysterponds (now Orient village: ‘rising sun’) and finally Fishers Island, reached only by boat.

While time always brings changes, this is essentially the farming country it was 375 years ago. Travelling by car along the main Route 25 lined with homes, you can get the impression of a much-populated area, but flying over the NO FO, courtesy of Steve Amiaga, a professional aerial photographer, a much truer picture emerges: broad, unbroken sweeps of green farmland in the north and the intermittent settlements along and south of Route 25. Actually, “Yennicot” is still a rural, bucolic, uncrowded home for a relatively few full-time residents and a much-desired summer vacation destination. The land may be the same but fishing from the shore for menhaden, porpoises and whales are long gone; the North Fork is no longer devoted to raising Long Island Ducklings, potatoes, cauliflower or

dredging for oysters or sending out fishing fleets. Now it is strawberries, corn, pumpkins, fruits, aquaculture, flower-growing greenhouses, sod and tree farms and at the top of the list, miles of vineyards producing world-class wines; all favored by our unique ‘island’ climate. And still the NO FO boasts the best farm stands for local vegetables you can find anywhere!

ABOUT FOXRUN FARM

Now let’s talk Foxrun Farm: 25 acres of beautiful, gently sloping, open tillable fields and woodlands we purchased in 1980. In short order, inspired by the Governor Lee house in Wiscasset, Maine, we designed and had our present two-story New England Colonial constructed. The horse barn and 2-acre wood-fenced pastures followed in 1985. With Palmer Vineyards bordering us on the east, North East Nurseries’ tree farms to our north, and old-timer Leander “Junie” Glover’s general farm across Cox Lane to the west, this is one of the prettiest farming lanes in Southold. And located less than 800 feet north of the main road, State Route 25, we are an easily accessible farm, an ideal and inviting setting for a horse farm.

We built the barn in 1985 patterned after the family-style stable of Amy Jo Davidson, our daughter’s horse trainer at Strawberry Fields in Mattituck. It’s custom-built the old-fashioned way, out of solid wood by noted contractor Eugene Burger; it has 10 foot-high, north-south doors, a combined tack/feed room, 10 matted, fully bedded box stalls and a 600-bale capacity hay loft which we have filled with our own hay. We left the trees around the barn to provide generous shaded turnouts for each horse’ turnouts large enough in which to give riding lessons. As time went by, we ended up with a total of 7 acres of fenced grass pastures. Of course, year-round water, electricity and a stone-floored wash-up area.

Seems like a farm will never let you stop and say “finished”! Later, we added a 4-stall annex with its own exercise yard and shaded turnouts. And

now an outdoor practice Show-Jumping course and soon a round riding ring and relaxing, picnic area.

Early on, we began developing trails through our many acres of heavily-wooded land and open fields for our trainer and boarders. We know that trail-riding areas for non-boarders are few and we are open to suggestions on how best to use our trails. Contact us.

Soon the barn housed a couple of huge, feather-footed Clydesdale mares, three of their Warmblood foals sired by a Thoroughbred stallion and our daughter’s Thoroughbred. And goats

Foxrun Farm – Cox Lane Cutchogue, NY