Indian Ladder Farms, founded in 1915 by Peter G. Ten Eyck, began as a dairy farm with only a few acres of fruit trees. After the dairy barn was destroyed by fire in 1949, the Ten Eyck family continued farming with fruit growing and Hereford beef cattle. Apples were sold wholesale, with cider apples going to the Motts cider mill in Voorheesville and pears to Beechnut Baby Food. In 1963, when Peter G. Ten Eyck II took over management from his father, the farm sold the cattle and concentrated on establishing a fresh apple farm that marketed directly to the public. Named for the Indian Ladder Trail, a Mohawk trade route visible from the orchard in the escarpment, the farm’s location at the base of the mountains is ideal for growing apples because cooler spring air from the escarpment causes apple blossoms to bloom later and helps protect them from late frosts. Establishing a connection between food and the land became an important mission as fruit farms in Albany County declined from more than sixty a hundred years ago to only two. In May 2003, Indian Ladder Farms became the first farm in Albany County to receive a state farmland protection grant, permanently protecting the land for agricultural use and preventing its development through conservation efforts by the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, the Open Space Institute, and owner Peter G. Ten Eyck II.