The Long Road Home ...

Hello from Colgan Farms,


My name is Dale Colgan Mangan; Dale for short! I am the owner of Colgan Farms, but I am not the Garlic Goddess. My friends gave me that title when I started my garlic farm but it really belongs to my constant companion, Ms. Gypsy, the keeper of the Garlic Gates.


As time goes on, Gypsy will no doubt become the face of Colgan Farms. Everyone loves Gypsy, she's quite the character. She has a lot to say and her wit and wisdom will likely become a regular feature here at The Garlic Goddess blog.



So while I have my chance to talk about myself let me give you a little background:


I graduated from college in 1974 and set off to find fame and fortune far from the farm I grew up on in the "don't blink or you'll miss it," town of King Ferry, New York. Twenty years later I was back home on the farm I had left with glee and forty years later what I found was that I was facing retirement with limited resources.


Considering my options was depressing: work the rest of my life or sell everything I own and move into senior subsidized housing. My retirement years weren't looking so great.


I had not seen my college roommate, Linda, and her husband, Gary, for 25 years when they came for a visit in the winter of '14. We were sharing stories of our retirement options and when I laid out my dismal choices, Gary asked me how many acres I owned. When I told him he said, "You are sitting on your greatest asset and doing nothing with it," to which I indignantly replied, "REALLY, Gary!" He corrected my thoughts and said, "No, Dale, your land."


And so it is, forty years after venturing off the family farm, I opened my back door and there it was, in all its magnificent glory, Colgan Farms, the best soil in Cayuga County. I always loved the farm and rural living, but I had never fully appreciated its magic until that moment when it became a lifeboat. By the time Linda and Gary left, the idea, was in motion; I would use my greatest asset and start an organic garlic farm!! And I did ... my first harvest is in July!!


And I am looking forward to retirement with the same giddy excitement I felt when I left home in 1974!! I have found my fortune; it's been right here the whole time.

Only after the last tree has been cut down,

Only after the last river has been poisoned,

Only after the last fish gas been caught,

Only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten.

                                                                                               Cree Indian Prophecy