Buzzanco’s Greenhouses and Farm is bursting with beautiful, useful, and unusual growing things from late April through October.
Angie Buzzanco’s been working the family farm since she was seven years old. “I started with transplanting marigolds after school,” she says. “My grandfather came over from Italy and bought this place in 1900, and my dad took over when I was a little kid. My parents built this house with trees they cut on the property. I’m 72 now. I’ve been doing this all my life, and I’ll be doing it till I die. It’s hard work, but it brings me such enormous joy. I make a lot of people happy and put food on a lot of tables, and I love that.” She laughs. “You kinda have to love it to be willing to do it.”
The love and hard work are made exquisitely visible in the 14 greenhouses and adjoining fields on these 108 acres of Ulster County heartland on the north end of Kingston. Buzzanco’s Greenhouses and Farm is bursting with beautiful, useful, and unusual growing things from late April through October. Angie’s emerald thumb is evident in a cornucopia of specialties listed on the website: “annuals, perennials, hanging baskets, rare plants, geraniums, fig trees, ferns, jade and other houseplants, Proven Winner plants, 60 types of herbs, hardy mums and pumpkins, fresh tomatoes and vegetables, and much, much more!”
“I’ve been doing this all my life, and I’ll be doing it till I die. It’s hard work, but it brings me such enormous joy. I make a lot of people happy and put food on a lot of tables, and I love that.” – Angie Buzzanco
“I’m a jack of all trades,” says Angie. “I do everything the best I can. Farming is never going to go perfectly all the time—hopefully we get more sun this year than last and a better crop. Everything, us included, needs that good sunshine and vitamin D to thrive; it’s literally the sunshine that makes the vegetables taste sweet.” Locals flock here for the variety and creativity—Buzzanco has hanging baskets, cacti, and houseplants that big-box places can’t equal—and because they know they’ll be getting friendly service, plants bursting with vibrant health, and expert growing advice.
Locals flock here for the variety and creativity—hanging baskets, cacti, and houseplants that big-box places can’t equal.
In late spring and summer, the greenhouse is open seven days a week from 10am ‘til 5pm. In September and October, business hours are 1-5pm. “I spend the morning harvesting the fresh vegetables and sell them in the afternoon with the mums,” she says. “Oh, and I don’t ever spray. It’s not good for the earth or the people or anything else, that poison. So you’re never going to be eating pesticides.”
Oh, and I don’t ever spray. It’s not good for the earth or the people or anything else, that poison. So you’re never going to be eating pesticides.”
Angie credits her lifelong farm-to-table habit with her ability to get up long before dawn to get housework and paperwork handled before heading out at first light to do the farm chores. “I know people in their 20s and 30s that eat processed garbage and have all sorts of medical issues going on, and here I am at 72 with no prescriptions at all. And I’ve been eating good all my life—I can and freeze a lot of my own stuff—and I’m pretty sure that’s what gives me the energy to do what I do. “That, and being outdoors—like I said, sunshine sweetens everything.”
Buzzanco’s greenhouses & farm
2050 Sawkill-Ruby Road, Kingston
845-336-6528
buzzancogreenhouses.com
