Station to Station with Joe Pavia

Paul Arnold’s interest in farming started in his 20s as an experiment in his father’s backyard.

“In 1986 when I decided to farm, I farmed in [my dad’s] backyard to see if I really liked it,” said Paul in a 2013 farm tour.

“I worked for another farmer for one summer. And then started looking for land and found the land that we’re going to walk to. And that was in 1988. We bought it. It was just a cornfield and some hayland.”

Paul and his wife Sandy have been running Pleasant Valley Farm since the early 1990s. It is located near the village of Argyle, New York, about a one-hour drive north of the state capital, Albany.

Since then, the Arnolds have mentored a number of others interested in farming and continue to farm themselves growing “a range of over 40 types of vegetables and fruits year-round,” according to their website.

In Episode 29 of the podcast Station to Station with Joe Pavia, Exploring Pleasant Valley Farm & Echo Creek Farm in New York State, the Arnolds and one of the people they mentored, Michael Palulis will share their agricultural journey.

Echo Creek Farm

Michael Palulis’s decision to pursue farming was spontaneous. He informed his wife, Jennifer, of what he wanted to do, and she supported him.

In the early 2010s he was working at a restaurant he owned that was located at a ski lodge. But he discovered his passion during the off-season while working on the Arnold’s farm.

“I planned on working for three weeks,” Palulis explained in 2013.

“I enjoyed it the first day. I rearranged my schedule and was here for around three or four months. About 50 to 60-70 hours a week or so, trying to get as much as I could in that short of time.”

Michael Palulis has been running Echo Creek Farm since 2012.

Farm Aid

In 2013, I met Paul, Sandy and Michael during a tour of Pleasant Valley Farm. The tour was part of the Farm Aid Organization’s agricultural programming. It took place ahead of that year’s fundraising concert in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The Farm Aid Organization in the United States works to “promote fair farm policies” and “bolster family-centered agriculture.”

The first Farm Aid concert held in 1985 was organized by country singer Willie Nelson. This was after a conversation he had with the Governor of Illinois at the time, Jim Thompson. Nelson told the story at the Farm Aid news conference I attended in 2013.

“He was telling me about how bad things were about the small family farmers and I wasn’t aware of it,” said Nelson.

“My friends back in Texas were telling me ‘yeah it’s bad, it’s really bad for a lot of people in the mid-west’. So we decided we would try a Farm Aid.”

The concert has been held yearly at different locations across the United States. It has grown to include agricultural discussions and workshops around local farms near the host city.

That’s how Paul and Sandy Arnold became involved. Their farm is about a 40-minute drive from Saratoga Springs, New York, where the concert took place that year.

The Arnolds were not part of the 2024 Farm Aid agriculture tour, but say a photographer with the organization took pictures of them that appeared on the big screen during the concert performances.

How to listen:

Listen to the feature story of Pleasant Valley Farm and Echo Creek Farm here:

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