WEST FULTON — Most times we can feel when something is right for us and that we are where we belong. Shannon Hayes, who came to Schoharie County by way of Cobleskill as an infant and has lived in West Fulton on her family farm—Sap Bush Hollow Farm—since early childhood, landed just where she belonged—but it was weaving her way through life that allowed her to recognize that. As an author, blogger, and podcaster who has worked on the farm, in kitchens and beyond, Hayes developed a philosophy based on being in tune with how she wants to live life on a daily basis. Her moniker for that guide is a “QOLS”—Quality of Life Statement.
Before that, Hayes lived in two worlds, carrying a contradiction, she said. “I felt strong encouragement to pursue higher education, but in the hills, I learned that there was a life to be had that was really worth pursuing,” she explained. That life was slower, it “tasted good,” and was centered around relationships. After receiving a degree in creative writing from Binghamton University and a Ph.D. from Cornell in sustainable agriculture and community development, Hayes and her husband Bob, as two professionals with graduate degrees, applied for professional jobs far away from the farm.
“I didn’t want to leave,” Hayes said. “And I wondered if there was a way I could make the numbers work.” After looking at what those professional jobs would cost them in the way of taxes, two cars, professional wardrobes, and buying (not growing) their own food, not to mention daycare they would need if they started a family, she told her father she couldn’t afford to get a job.
“He was gobsmacked!” she said. But her parents told them they could stay at the farm, adding, “but you can’t take a dime out of our pockets.”
The couple began playing with ideas about out what could be done with anything the farm was throwing away. They used beef fat to make candles and pork fat to make soaps and skin care products. They made jams and jellies from fruit and took cooking jobs on the side.
“I observed that people were totally disconnected from their food,” Hayes noted, and she wanted to help people put meats and other foods to the best use. So, she embarked on extensive research, travel, and work with the Cornell labs to do that, which brought her creative writing skills in line with her farm work, leading to a book contract for her first book, Grass Fed Gourmet.
While it was a labor of love, it was also one of passion and curiosity, which spurred her on to write another book--Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture—which became a cult best seller around the world, and led to her notoriety on television and in major publications. She stressed it’s not based on the tradwife movement (see Google for what that is), rather her book encourages a focus on what the choice to stay home can look like today. Her message aims to empower people to transform and find happiness through relationships, independent thought, and creativity rather than through a focus on consumerism, spending money, and accumulating debt. In consuming less, she explained, her readers could become more self-reliant, focus on local sources for their needs, and learn to rebuild their communities.
Hayes and her family were already making that lifestyle their own, and, with the help of the book’s popularity, they could continue to build their business with its central focus of spending more time on the farm, surrounded and helped by family and friends. Her love of cooking as a creative expression of her philosophy was part of her QOLS. So, she and Bob purchased the former firehouse and post office building in their town in 2016 and converted it into Sap Bush Café as a community farm-to-table gathering place with Hayes doing the cooking. In spite of her lack of restaurant experience, she forged ahead optimistically.
“I did not know what could NOT be done,” Hayes laughingly pointed out.
The restaurant is only open on Saturdays for part of the year, which fits her personal needs and schedule, but also means that by being open only one day a week in a rural area, as a place where the community can gather, the odds of patrons running into friends are higher—a win/win for all.
The café opens on Saturday, May 23rd this year. The menu is on the website (www.sapbushfarmstore.com).
As a way to align her own family's development with the growing movement among farmers to improve collaboration and resource management, she looked closely at systems of interaction to understand the science and simplify those possibilities. What she learned from that process became the premise of her newest book, Redefining Rich, Achieving True Wealth with Small Business, Side Hustles & Smart Living. The book breaks down her assessment into four types of income—Employment, Non-Monetary, Business, and Passive.
Income makes up three of the four streams, and Employment is the most expensive, she says, based primarily on the tax system differences of working for oneself versus working for someone else.
Non-Monetary income involves personal contributions toward cooking, sewing, fixing things that are broken, making your own music, or potluck meals with friends, rather than paying for those things.
A Business has tax advantages and is something you can own and ultimately pass down or sell.
Hayes defines Passive income more broadly than simply in relation to financial investments. She explains it as doing something that does not rely on physical labor and could mean renting out space to others, book or music royalties, sponsor-supported blogs or podcasts, selling digital courses, or selling products made by others in a store you run.
While you won’t find Hayes on typical social media, learn more about her ideas, books, and lifestyle via her website (www.sapbushfarmstore.com) and her weekly podcast, The Hearth of Sap Bush Hollow, where she talks about that week’s happenings.
Yes, Hayes has always lived where she feels most at home, but she has learned to shape it to fit her and her family’s needs and desires, and her mission is to spread that formula to others.
