By Michael Ryan
CORNWALLVILLE - There is a breath-calming view of an open field gently rising into the surrounding mountains that might make you briefly believe that’s why you came to the new/old farm stand at End of the Lane Farm.
After pausing for a few moments to take in the timeless grace of the rural pasture, you will remember the first reason for the trip is the simple products waiting within the oldtyme, rough cut wooden structure.
The list is not necessarily long, and it isn’t fancy inside where you can feel the weather whether it is August sultry or February not-so-much, but the neatly-shelved items are varied and unique and wholesome.
Jay and Amanda Sharkey are the proprietors, having operated an open-air roadside market across the street, along Sutton Road, the past few years.
Now they have moved to more luxurious, less exposed digs but basically in the same spot, a couple of miles up from the hamlet of Cornwallville and past the geese and ducks that wander freely in a neighbor’s yard.
Neighbors as the crow flies, that is, which is the way folks like it out in this neck of the woods with no blaring lights blocking the stars.
And while the location has slightly changed, the honor system of payment is still the same. The shop is open 24/7, working around your schedule, counting on the common sense goodness of customers.
That homespun pecuniary tradition is yet another reason to make the journey on-the-way to the middle-of-nowhere.
For generations, Jay Sharkey’s ancestors, the Suttons, worked what is now End of the Lane Farm, flowing down from higher hills of Ashland, getting a road respectfully named after them.
The spread was inactive for a spell until Jay retired from the NYPD, fondly remembering childhood meanderings here, partnering with Amanda to labor from cain’t see to cain’t see and even longer sometimes.
It is hard stuff, relying on the fickle northeast sun and rains, cutting hay ’til the cows come home, feeding the cows that, without them, there’d be no whole milk offered at the little farm stand.
On this shelf you will find maple syrup from the Cook family farm in Preston Hollow where the makers, similar to the Suttons, have their personal road.
Their syrup is boiled down from “the best sap around” say the quarts, pints and half-pints of sweet liquid available to clients.
On that shelf you can pick from Mrs. Miller’s homemade blueberry, cherry, blackberry, strawberry and raspberry jams, and New Hope Mills whole wheat pancake mix on which to eventually spread them.
Over here is End of the Lane Farm honey, Walnut Creek Mustard and ketchup, Stash herbal teas and spices like cloves and nutmeg.
Over there are jars of Better Than Bouillon (beef or garlic base), Himalayan salt, dried kiwi, raisins and papaya chunks and Amish Whoopie pies, chocolate covered peanut clusters and caramel turtles.
Open the doors of what, back in the day, used to be called ice boxes and select from Westmeadow butter, cheese curds and cheddar.
Perhaps purchase End of the Lane Farm cheese wedge and soft cheese, See & Be Bread and croissants, leg of lamb, shoulder and rib roast, drinkable goat yogurt, goat milk and eggs (chicken or duck).
Before exiting to take a last gander at that windswept field, and after remuneration, please make sure the ice boxes are closed tight.
Depending upon the season, the spaces between the rough cut boards let in nippy or nice breezes even while the neatly-arranged shelves and in-house refrigerators are amply wholesome in winter or summer.
The real barn, tucked in the trees at End of the Lane Farm, is much larger than the mailbox version, along Sutton Road in the town of Durham, at what was formerly the Sutton Farm with its genealogical roots reaching up to the Sutton family in the mountaintop town of Ashland.
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