We first met Holly Stretch (Aka Stretch) in October of 2013 during a picnic lunch after the work party to build our first barn. Her partner Doug Kerr was the crane operator who helped us set the trusses, and they joined in the celebration after the job was done. We knew right away that Doug and Stretch would be fixtures of our farm for years to come.
A few years later, Stretch retired after 40 years of working as a registered respiratory therapist (29 years at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake, NY). Some folks take retirement as an opportunity to start something new, and Holly approached us about helping out on the farm. Her first solo job was washing the last batch of eggs we had from our laying flock that died when our barn burned down in February of 2016. We did not replace our layers and Holly has never washed eggs again!
Over the years since then Holly has accepted all of the jobs we’ve thrown at her, from childcare to chicken moving. When Racey took a consulting job in Nigeria for a few months in 2017, we asked Holly if she would be willing to watch our 2-year-old son Lewis (Chief). She admitted she had no experience with young children, but in what would become a familiar response from Holly, she said “I’ll give it a shot!” She, Chief, and later Ellie, have spent many happy hours playing, touring other farms on Holly’s delivery and pick up routes, and riding bikes and running around in Doug’s enormous crane shop.
Holly filled in at farmers markets in Willsboro, E’town and Keene Valley for a few years until she took over farmers markets completely. She stocked, cleaned and curated our farmstore for years (if you ever enjoyed the Christmas decor or fresh flowers, thank Holly) until we closed it at the end of 2019. She has been jarring all of that delish syrup you love so much for the last 5 years.
With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and our new online store, Holly transitioned from farmstore and markets to helping with chicken production and order fulfillment. She helps package chicken on processing days, learned to drive the ranger and has moved each and every broiler chick from the brooder out to the field for the last two years. We estimate that Holly has moved at least 8,000 chickens so far; a back of steel.
Holly also packs each order that leaves the farm. Since we started fulfilling online orders last April, she has packed more than 1000 orders with only ONE error. That is incredible! I have made mistakes in others parts of the system (receiving and inventory), but not Holly! Maybe it was 40 years of charting in the hospital that makes her that good!
She also does many of our deliveries to the North Country Coop, Camp Dudley, Hub on The Hill, Deers Head Inn. In the process of managing the farmstore and supporting shipping and delivery over the years, she’s gotten to know all the local farms we buy from and sell to. If you want to know who has what when, Holly is a good person to ask.
Thank you, Holly, for all your hard work: child and chick wrangling, syrup finishing, order packing, freezer endurance, box moving, and more box moving.
On another note, we’ve been calling my process of healing “The Interlude” and would like to start sharing poems, thoughts, snip-its from this process.
sometimes deeper mental clarity
is preceded by great internal storms
yung pueblo
Reber Rock Farm Blog 
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