Before he became a farmer, Joshua Morgenthau planned to pursue a career in art.<\/p>\n
He graduated from Yale University with a degree in painting in 2006, but just two years later, he instead took on the task of reviving his family’s struggling Hudson Valley farm.<\/p>\n
Morgenthau, now 41, is the owner and operator of Fishkill Farms<\/a>, a 112-year-old apple farm in Hopewell Junction, New York.<\/p>\n Since he took charge of the farm 17 years ago, he’s transformed it into a popular fall destination for families across the Northeast.<\/p>\n Fishkill Farms was founded in 1913 by Joshua’s grandfather Henry Morgenthau, a lifelong agriculture enthusiast who served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945.<\/p>\n Since then, the farm has remained in the family, with ownership passing to Joshua’s father Robert Morgenthau<\/a> in the 1960s and then to Joshua after Robert’s death in 2019.<\/p>\n Morgenthau, who grew up in Manhattan, has fond memories of spending his childhood summers at Fishkill Farms. “I really fell in love with the place,” he recalls.<\/p>\n Fishkill Farms currently spans 270 acres of land.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Joshua Morgenthau<\/p>\n So when Fishkill’s longtime farm manager retired in 2008, Morgenthau stepped up to help his father decide the future of the farm.<\/p>\n It was a “make-or-break moment” for Fishkill, Morgenthau says: they could either try to save the farm, which was floundering financially, or they could sell the property, likely to developers.<\/p>\n With his father’s support, Morgenthau decided to take charge of the farm.<\/p>\n “I didn’t have any agricultural training, or think that this was what I necessarily was going to do,” he says, “but it was very important for me to see it continue as a farm.”<\/p>\n ‘Part-biologist, part-CEO’<\/p>\n When Morgenthau took over running the farm in 2008, he saw a statistic<\/a> that “really lit a fire under my behind,” he says: every three days, one farm in New York state was sold to developers.<\/p>\n “That tide is not one that reverses,” he says. “At the end of the day, I feel a sort of duty to preserve the land and keep going here.”<\/p>\n The learning curve for farming is “extremely steep,” Morgenthau says, and the margin of error is “very, very slim.”<\/p>\n With little practical experience in agriculture, Morgenthau threw himself into researching horticulture and eco-friendly farming practices. He’s passionate about sustainable farming<\/a>, he says, and under his leadership, Fishkill Farms hasn’t used synthetic fertilizers or herbicides since 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fishkill Farms has been in Joshua Morgenthau’s family since 1913.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Joshua Morgenthau<\/p>\n Apples are still Fishkill Farms’ primary crop, and they currently cultivate over 80 different varieties. The farm also grows peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, pumpkins, flowers and a variety of seasonal vegetables.<\/p>\n Morgenthau relies on a staff of around 20 full-time, year-round employees and over 100 seasonal workers to operate the farm.<\/p>\n “People have a sort of idyllic idea of farming as this romantic, simple pastime,” he says, but to succeed as a modern farmer, “you have to be part-biologist, part-CEO.”<\/p>\n Cutting out the middleman<\/p>\n Today, picking your own produce is a trendy fall pastime, but Fishkill Farms has offered the activity for decades.<\/p>\n As Morgenthau tells it, Fishkill Farms began allowing customers to pick their own fruit after a major hailstorm damaged their crop in the 1980s.<\/p>\n The farm couldn’t sell the blemished apples to supermarkets or wholesale chains, Morgenthau says, so in “an act of desperation,” his father and the farm manager invited neighbors to pick apples for a fee.<\/p>\n They ended up making more money than they did selling the produce wholesale, Morgenthau says, and “there was no going back after that.”<\/p>\n “This was an outlet that allowed us to cut out the middleman and to get customers and the local community coming to the farm,” he says.<\/p>\n Fishkill Farms cultivates over 80 varieties of apples.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Josh Morgenthau<\/p>\n According to Morgenthau, pick-your-own fruit is still Fishkill Farms’ primary attraction, with “peak season” occurring in September and October.<\/p>\n Of the farm’s approximately 100,000 yearly visitors, about 65% visit during those two months, Morgenthau says, and the farm brings in about 50% of its yearly revenue in that period.<\/p>\n “At least half of our traffic for the year is probably occurring on maybe 12 or 15 days of the year,” he says.<\/p>\n Visitors hail from all five boroughs of New York City, as well as New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.<\/p>\n A classic pick-your-own apple package<\/a>, available by reservation only, costs $48 for a weekday visit and $58 for weekends. Each classic package includes admission for up to 5 people and a half-bushel bag to fill with fruit.<\/p>\n During peak season, the farm provides a “full-day experience” for visitors, including live music, hayrides, a pumpkin patch, food trucks and a corn maze.<\/p>\n “We sort of switch what we’re doing from being farmers to running a bit of a carnival, or a festival,” Morgenthau says.<\/p>\n Visitors can also purchase fresh produce, baked goods and local cheeses from the farm store, or taste hard cider made from Fishkill’s own apples at the farm’s Treasury Cider<\/a> bar.<\/p>\n ‘You have to do it for the love, not the money’<\/p>\n Since taking over the farm, Morgenthau’s primary goal has been to diversify Fishkill’s revenue streams.<\/p>\n “Our gross revenue has grown to over $4 million in 2024, from only about $350,000 in 2008,” he says, “but expenses commonly run just as high.”<\/p>\n Relying on pick-your-own fruit for most of the farm’s income is “untenable,” as Morgenthau found out during a disastrous fall season in 2023.<\/p>\n That year, the farm’s pick-your-own fruit activities were “rained out” almost every weekend in September and October. Financially, “it was the worst season we’ve ever had,” Morgenthau says.<\/p>\n “I was very concerned that we weren’t going to be able to weather another season like that and stay in business,” he recalls.<\/p>\n The farm experienced better weather in 2024, but the experience underscored for Morgenthau the importance of exploring other sources of income.<\/p>\n “The goal has been how to shift our business away from one season to an all-season business. We’re moving in that direction, but it takes time,” he says.<\/p>\n The farm store at Fishkill Farms.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Joshua Morgenthau<\/p>\n The farm now offers strawberry and cherry picking in the summer, Morgenthau says, and he recently planted a grove of fir trees in hopes of expanding into cut-your-own Christmas trees in the next few years.<\/p>\n Even today, farming is a “hand to mouth” endeavor, Morgenthau says: it’s a “really tough business with razor-thin profits and tremendous risk.”<\/p>\n “You have to do it for the love, not the money,” he continues.<\/p>\n That love for the land is what Morgenthau hopes to share with visitors.<\/p>\n “Especially as our lives are moving more and more out of the physical world into the digital world, coming to a farm and picking produce is a really, really meaningful experience,” he says.<\/p>\n Want to be your own boss?<\/strong>\u00a0Sign up for CNBC’s new online course,\u00a0How To Start A Business: For First-Time Founders<\/a>. Find step-by-step guidance for launching your first business, from testing your idea to growing your revenue.<\/p>\n Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter<\/a> to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn<\/a> to connect with experts and peers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he became a farmer, Joshua Morgenthau planned to pursue a career in art. 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