DUANESBURG, N.Y. (News10) — As the costs of farming increase, one local family is finding unique ways to keep community at the heart of their work. The Field of Screams at Indian House Farm is a haunted family tradition that’s been growing since 2001.
“Farming has gotten much more difficult, much more expensive,” said co-owner Paul Hasbrouck.
Hasbrouck has been living at the farm since 1996, after his grandmother passed and transferred it to him. It’s been in the family for six generations, dating back to 1863. It began as a pony farm, then dairy farm, and finally a vegetable farm. He said in his experience in agriculture, costs have been rising rapidly.
“When I first started to grow sweet corn about twenty seven years ago, fertilizer was about seventy five to one hundred dollars a ton,” Hasbrouck explained. “Now it’s five hundred and fifty to six hundred dollars a ton. Diesel fuel was a dollar and a quarter. Last year, we paid over six dollars a gallon for diesel fuel. Pesticides, which are absolutely necessary in order to grow vegetables, they’ve tripled in price in the last ten years. And they’ve become much more difficult to obtain.”
Hasbrouck told us that many things in the industry are changing. Even access to critical tools, like pesticides.
“There is no one in the area anymore that sells them, I have to get them from down in southern New York, and they have to be brought up here” Hasbrouck noted. “They’ve made it difficult but still rewarding in being able to do the things that we do, with what we have, and to keep it within the community.”
Despite rising costs and adaptations, their focus remains with the community.
“We have to make some money in order to pay the taxes and the expenses, but we’re trying not to make it so expensive that a family of four can’t come and have a good time,” stated Hasbrouck.
Hasbrouck said the first corn maze was an effort to raise funds for Albany Medical Center, after his granddaughter faced multiple health complications. This year, proceeds will help offset costs to maintain the farm.
“In 2001, our granddaughter, my granddaughter was born, my daughter’s youngest, who had a number of of medical issues” explained Hasbrouck. “Albany Children’s Hospital, saved her life. We did it for ten years, amounted to over $30,000 that we gave over the period of time.”
In the years that followed, the community rallied around them through devastating loss.
“In 2006, we lost our nephew in Iraq, Captain Timothy J. Moshier, and so I did a design that laid out freedom isn’t free,” said Hasbrouck. “That one was very special for our family and for a lot of the veterans that came out.”
Hasbrouck’s daughter, Melanie Whiteley, told us the farm forever holds a special place in their hearts, and the maze is just one way to ensure they can keep the homestead alive.
“We love to have folks come out and see it because there is less and less farmland left” said Whiteley. “And it’s affordable, we price it at $15 a ticket. That’s on purpose.”
This is the last weekend of the season for Field of Screams. The last two dates are October 24 and 25, and tickets can be purchased upon arrival. The maze starts at 7:30 PM and is located at 2627 Giffords Church Rd in Duanesburg.
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