Welcome to Treehorn Farm

We're an autistic/woman-owned, family-run flower farm and bookstore located 25-minutes from Hudson, New York at the foot of the Catskill Mountains.  We also tap the black walnuts on our land to make syrup and related products and grow willow to create woven crafts. 

Hi, we're Melissa Banigan and Mark degli Antoni — first-year farmers over at Treehorn Farm.

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Our farm uses all regenerative farming practices, including not using synthetic chemicals as pest or weed management and going completely "no-till" (which simply means not growing crops by disturbing the soil through tilling).

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Regenerative agriculture often requires a lot more work upfront, but within a few years it can pay off in spades. First, there are the financial implications — studies show that regenerative farmers can be up to 80% more profitable than conventional farmers! But more importantly, regenerative agriculture is completely rethinking the entire conventional (and extractive!) farm operation. Rather than destroy biodiversity, it supports maintaining and creating habitats for small mammals and songbirds, increases soil health, and mitigates the impacts of climate change. It also grows damn good flowers and incredibly delicious and nutritious berries!

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All of this started with a librarian and a book about a shrinking boy.

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Regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach to farming that can have a profound impact on humans, the environment, and various ecosystems. We call this "farming for the little people."​ The term has great meaning to us — and it all started with a librarian in Madison, Wisconsin. 

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The librarian read the book. She then placed a card to the inside of the back cover and set the book on a bookshelf so that other kids could check it out. Finally, she looked up at Melissa and said, "you're a great writer." 

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Those few words meant the world to Melissa. They gave her the encouragement she needed to become a professional writer, and she's thought about them countless times as she's launched into various endeavors or faced some of life's biggest challenges. They helped her feel seen and understood by an adult. 

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Sadly, the librarian died just months after telling Melissa those words. But the legacy of her words underpins every good thing Melissa has ever done. After first setting eyes on the farm property in Upstate New York, Melissa said to Mark, "we need to call it Treehorn Farm."

 

Naming our farm after Treehorn meant we would always be reminded of our mission: To grow flowers while listening to (and supporting) even the smallest living things. 
 

Coincidence or serendipity?

 

Soon after putting an offer on the farm, Melissa shared her story via email with the current principal and librarian at Lincoln Elementary. It felt important to her, she wrote, that she try to find any remaining family of the librarian so that she could tell them what their daughter/sister/cousin meant to her. She received an email in response from the principal that made her jaw drop. ​

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The principal, Abby Watson, told Melissa that her elementary school librarian encouraged her to write to an author. So, she wrote to none other than Florence Parry Heide, author of "The Incredible Shrinking of Treehorn!" The librarian then took her to an "author party" at Florence's house. This sparked a relationship that lasted until the author's death in 2011. The pair met in person many times and Abby still has every letter Florence wrote her.

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Abby shared Melissa's communication about the librarian and Treehorn with all of the teachers at Lincoln, and efforts are being made to find the family of the librarian. In the meantime, we can't help but feel that this story, which spans multiple lifetimes, is a sign that we were onto the right idea in the naming of our farm. After all, as of 2024, there are roughly 158,464,880 books in the world (give or take many millions). And who knows how many authors exist. It's either an incredible coincidence or a moment of sublime serendipity that Melissa and Abby share history around Treehorn (and the author who dreamed him up!) ​​​​

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We never imagined that we'd become farmers. 

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Before meeting, we had very little interest in farming. Sure, we each loved growing things. And we read everything we could get our hands on about regenerative agriculture. 

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But... farming?  

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​​Melissa is a journalist who has placed work about travel, food, wine, and French culture in many publications, including CNN, the BBC, The Washington Post. She founded a nonprofit that offered journalism training for youth and women around the world, with a focus on climate change and gender equality. And she has traveled around the world (primarily between France and the U.S.) as a storyteller for companies that focus on sustainable investing and curing cancer. She also had a history as an artist and art historian — and she's proudly autistic, a neurotype that informs her entire worldview. 

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Mark is a film composer who scored films for Werner Herzog, Maya Daisy Hawke, and Shiori Ito, among many others. He also co-founded the band, Soul Coughing, which recently toured for the first time in decades to sold out shows across the country. In addition to Soul Coughing, he's performed or recorded with a slew of other musicians, including David Byrne, Low, John Scofield, Laurie Anderson, Angelique Kidjo, and Redman. 

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One magical evening in NYC, we met. Overnight, everything changed. Deliriously happy, we decided that life is short — why not make a go of it? With lightning speed, we moved in together, traveled the world, and decided to try having a baby. The universe threw some magic our way (science and IVF also had a hand in things), and our gorgeous son, Emrys, joined our respective families in 2023 (Melissa also has a daughter in her twenties and Mark has two sons, also in their twenties). 

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Starting a regenerative flower farm.

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​​​So, in 2024, Melissa took the downpayment she had spent years saving and bought the farm. Within months, we found ourselves living in Climax, a lovely hamlet located just outside of Coxsackie at the foot of the Catskill Mountains. ​Then, we got to work. 

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​And the rest, as they say, is history... Or maybe it's just that history finally caught up with us. Treehorn Farm is the culmination of so many great things in our lives — a place to grow flowers and climate resilient berries (our berry bushes will take a few years before we can share fruit, so stay tuned!). It's also a place to bring our loved ones and members of our community together to share stories, books, music, and art. ​

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We're humbled and honored to be here — we can't wait to share our flowers and berries with you.