Meet the Knapp Family

by Carrie Branovan

The secret ingredients in Maureen and Paul Knapp's special family farm recipe are a generous cup of gratitude and a hearty handful of positive thinking. All they have done to create this haven, abundant with delicious organic food, beautiful flowers, thriving plant life, contented animals, and happy people, they have come to instinctively, trusting the progress to unfold naturally. "When you are open to learning new things, and ask for what you need to know, it appears. Usually for me, it's by the next day," Maureen says.

Spending a day with the Knapps on their organic family farm near Syracuse New York reminded me of the recent film "What the Bleep Do We Know.?" The film's message is that that our thoughts influence reality…that the choices we make collapse the wave of infinite possibilities into particles of experience.

Arriving on a glorious summer day, I am invited into the farmhouse and ushered through a large airy kitchen, filled with goodness from the Knapp's fields and animals: eggs in baskets, strawberries in ceramic bowls, dried herbs, fresh flowers, veggies, cheese, and the sweet aroma of home baked cookies. This house was built by Paul's great grandfather in 1896, and while we tour the ground floor, Paul reminds me that the house didn't have electric or running water in those days. What a transformation! While they have preserved the charming character of their Victorian house, they certainly enjoy modern conveniences, including wireless for their laptops. We settle in a large comfortable dining room adjacent to the kitchen and arrange ourselves around a seemingly ancient oak table, which I imagine has been the center of over a century of family stories.

Lunch is served, delicious egg salad sandwiches, cheese, cookies, iced tea, but it was the STRAWBERRIES that caught my attention. Wow. They were the most extraordinary berries I've ever tasted. My interest is piqued; the conversation begins. The Knapp's history unfolds.