After 105 years farming and doing business in Lyndonville and Medina, the owners of LynOaken Farms and Leonard Oakes Estate Winery have announced they are disbanding the operations.
When Leonard Oakes bought land in Lyndonville in 1919, he did everything right. He planted orchards and vegetables, raised chickens, worked hard and raised a family, in whom he instilled a love of agriculture and a strong work ethic.
When Leonard died in 1951, the farm was passed on to his four children. As the family grew, so did their interests. In 2004 the farm purchased property on Ridge Road in Medina, turned a controlled atmosphere cold storage facility into a wine tasting room, and planted a U-pick apple orchard with more than 350 varieties, according to Darrel Oakes. In 2018, the family added a packing room and apple packing line onto their cold storage facility that would allow them to expand their brands throughout western and central New York, general manager Wendy Oakes Wilson, Darrel’s sister, said.
The family also planted six acres and 14 varieties of grapes at their farm in Lyndonville, an expansion that led to the 2008 opening of Leonard Oakes Estate Winery. Another expansion in 2011 brought the birth of SteamPunk Cider.
Through the years, not all members of the extended Oakes family were interested in farming, however. The original four family members left their stock to their spouses and children, many of whom did not live or work in the area, Darrel’s wife Linda Oakes noted. “They are far removed from the farm operation,” she said.
Despite making what seemed like all the right business decisions over the years, there are two things the Oakes could not control: the weather and the national apple market.
“During the last two years, we have had frost and hail, which devastated our crop,” Darrel said. “In order to keep going, we borrowed money. That is added to the money we borrowed to buy … property and expand.”
Then, in 2023, the state of Washington flooded New York state’s market with their biggest crop of apples ever. This caused a 50% drop in prices for certain varieties, which meant LynOaken Farms didn’t earn enough revenue to cover its costs.
“With the two years of bad weather, that created the third year of losses, while our expenses increased 25 to 30 percent,” Wendy said. “At the same time, third-party packing companies were taking much longer to pay for packed apples. In fact, we are still owed for four different varieties from the 2023 crop.”
“In this business you have to be a climate expert, market expert, legal expert, finance expert and accounting expert.”
Just this year, three spouses of the original four owners died and left their shares to their children. At a family shareholders’ meeting in August the decision was made to shut down LynOaken’s wholesale production.
New shareholders believed the time was right to sell assets to pay off loans and have funds available to pay dividends, according to Wendy.
“The non-working shareholders have been very supportive of us, but also understood the market and how difficult it would be to carry on,” she said.
Darrel said all of LynOaken’s productive land has been sold to a buyer that he is not yet ready to disclose. Now, two of his sons and Wendy are out of work.
“I never thought at the age of 58 I would be looking for a job,” Wendy said. “I thought I’d retire from the farm in due time.”
“We are exiting the production of apples for the wholesale market, and it’s hard to give that up,” Darrel said. “But we are doing it with honesty and respect. We will not owe anybody.”
The Oakes don’t know yet what will happen to the wine and cider operation. The tasting room is set to close after this weekend.
Darrel and Linda’s daughter-in-law Katie Oakes, who has been running the U-pick operation in Medina, will continue to manage that.
“We have a very loyal customer base who have been very supportive of us. We hope that will continue,” Katie said. “This is one chapter ending. It is not the end of the book.”