Issue link: http://hvparent.uberflip.com/i/589389
12 Hudson Valley Parent ■ November 2015 By KATHLEEN WILLCOX A lmost all families struggle to fi nd the right balance between work, school, and home life. For those who grew up on family farms however, that balance was never considered. "We didn't think about work-life balance grow- ing up," laughed Gail Hepworth of Hepworth Farms in Milton. "It was just what we did. We would come home from school and we would work. Farm life and work life were the same thing, 24 hours a day." Hepworth Farms, established in 1818, is a seventh-generation farm run by Gail and her twin sister Amy. Two of fi ve siblings who grew up on the farm, Amy and Gail remember their childhood as being happy, free – and busy. Gail said she wouldn't trade that childhood for all the high school football games she missed because she was doing chores – Even though her chores were more grueling than those of her classmates'. The families in family farms We're all raising the next generation of eaters. But what about the next generation of farmers? Our cover kid Lauren with Dr. Sam Simon at Plankenhorn Farm in Pleasant Valley. Simon grew up on a cattle farm in Middletown. After retiring from his career as an orthopedic surgeon in 1995, he got back into the family business by purchasing Plankenhorn Farm, as the Plankenhorn family had no heirs of their own to pass it on to.