Homestead Dinners at Bovina Farm and Fermentory

The idea of buying acres of land upstate to build a home with a farm and its own brewery sounds like a pastoral daydream. But for Elizabeth Starks and her partner Jacob Stackett, owning a homestead where they could share farm-fresh meals with the public felt more like a calling than an agrarian fantasy. And they made it happen; since 2021 they’ve run Bovina Farm and Fermentory: part farm, part brewery, part gathering space, and full-time home.

“We met in college and studied abroad together—during that time, we saw rural France and the Czech Republic, where there are these bucolic areas with rolling hills and lots of homesteads,” Starks explains. “It inspired us.”

During senior year they began browsing real estate options in Bovina, where Stackett grew up, with the intention of buying property down the line. In the ensuing years, Stackett started law school in Boston and Starks took up management consulting. “We let the idea simmer for about three years until we couldn’t take it anymore; I couldn’t do management consulting another day,” she says.

They moved to Bovina from Boston in 2018 and bought 20 acres of woods the following year. They spent 2019 through 2021 clearing parts of the land; building the house and the barn; planting an orchard; raising a small flock of dairy sheep, chickens, ducks, and two donkeys; and even building most of the furniture themselves, thanks to design books and YouTube.

In fact, most of what the couple worked on was self-taught, though they had some guidance from Starks’s father, a software engineer who built his own home a few years back. “We drew the blueprint together, referencing a lot of architecture books and New York State coding,” she says. “Then the framing was done by a local builder who built our barn; he specializes in off-grid timber-frame cabins and offered to help get the structure up. Then, we did the insulation, flooring, shiplap, and more. The decor is simple, inspired by old taverns, so we used antique doors and light fixtures to give it that feel. Even though it was just built, people tend to think it’s an old house.” And it truly is hard to tell when seated beside their wooden bar with its lodge-worthy timeworn aesthetic, or at hand-hewn tables and chairs that look as though they’ve been through generations of feasts.

Whether the farmhouse’s rustic appeal is due to self-taught building savvy or intentional design, its interior exudes cozy simplicity with white walls and shiplap ceilings, wainscotting details, Shaker peg rails, and blonde raw wood flooring, offering a bright airiness by day that’s warmed by low lighting in the evening.

The pair, who just got married in September after 11 years together, live upstairs in the two-story, Dutch Gambrel-style home. Downstairs, they host four-course farm dinner parties for up to 38 guests, by reservation, once a week on most Saturdays. In summer, the dinner tables are set outside among the trees, while fall through winter the dining room comes abuzz with the cozy chatter of dozens of candelit voices.

“When we opened, we wanted to only use food that we’ve grown here, but then we realized that within one dinner we’ll use 100 carrots—and there goes all of our carrots,” she explains. “So, we source from local farm markets and farms. A lot of what we serve are family recipes—Jake is a sixth-generation Catskills resident, so we’ll have wild game recipes from his grandfather, who hunted in this area, and many of those ingredients are available at nearby farms.

Menus are not announced in advance, but options might include a beef broth to start, followed by autumn squash over local ricotta, a cabbage-potato-bacon soup, and meat dishes that complement the main course. “We try to use as much of the animal as possible, so if the main course is braised beef short rib, we might make a tongue salad,” she explains.

Each course is paired with a beer brewed on-site. “We started home brewing in college with one of those silly kits, but the results were delicious, so our hobby grew,” Starks says. “Later, while Jake was in law school, I worked at Lamplighter Brewing in Boston for two years, managing the tap room, kegging, and canning. Eventually he started working there part-time, too, and we learned together.” They’re considered a New York State farm brewery, with grains usually from nearby farms, and they offer a handful of traditional farmhouse brews only available on-site.

“During peak-summer it’s more casual; sometimes we’ll open on weekends for the afternoon, so people can come have a beer and some small plates and walk around the farm,” she says. But this time of year they typically brew enough for the dinners—four styles; one for each course—with a few bottled options that people can take home after the event. They don’t currently have intentions of growing to distribute, and produce a capacity of three and a half barrels.

Self-taught builders and brewers, this same moxie goes for the farm. “Both of our parents had gardens when we were growing up, so we had a little experience there,” Starks says. “As a kid, my dad would call me over because he’d be so excited for the first snap pea of the season and I didn’t see the big deal about it. But now I find myself more like him: ‘The peas are here! Come see! Taste this!’”

On Saturdays, Starks says they cook from day to night, with Stackett taking on the main courses and meats, while she tackles desserts and pastries. “We cook until people show up, and suddenly it’s an entirely different energy,” she says. “Most of the week it’s just the two of us, so it gives us so much excitement that lasts through the end of the night. As soon as the door closes we can exhale. But then—there’s the dishes to do.”