Adele Evelyn Hayes

Ask any farmer who has loved their life how they’d like to go, and they’re going to tell you one thing.
On the farm.
On the morning of September 26, one of Schoharie County’s agricultural leaders got her wish. After a year of battling various health complications, Adele Hayes of Sap Bush Hollow Farm in West Fulton passed at her home with her loving husband, James, at her side.
Adele was a blunt force in Schoharie County. She never hesitated to speak her mind. She and James founded Sap Bush Hollow in West Fulton, where they were pioneers in the grass-fed farming movement, gaining national recognition as one of the most innovative farms in the United States. Adele grew their business one phone call at a time, reaching out to her friends and neighbors around the county and asking them if they’d like to buy meat from animals that were raised naturally, outdoors, on pasture, in fresh air. It was the start of a food revolution.
When farming was a dying vocation, Adele and Jim breathed life into it. While he cared for the animals and pastures, she would greet customers on their back porch to sell them nourishing food. Forty-six years later, Sap Bush Hollow continues to thrive as a three-generation family farm, and Adele took great joy in attending the Sap Bush Hollow Saturday morning cafe, where she continued to greet customers and visit with her beloved friends and neighbors.
In addition to operating Sap Bush, Adele served Schoharie County for over two decades as the Director of Planning and Development, and as Director of the Schoharie County IDA. A Times Journal STAR award recipient, she was passionate about the land, rural community, and the vitality of Schoharie County. She was forever working to strike a balance between preserving a way of life and selecting economic development projects that would empower residents’ financial survival. Adele played a major role helping to bring Interknitting LTD to the community, as well as the Wal Mart distribution center. She was born in Franklin New Jersey, attended the two-room Rudeville School in Rudeville, New Jersey, and was one of the first women to attend Rutgers University. Her four-year degree was in physical geography.
Adele didn’t join clubs or organizations. To the outside world, she didn’t “volunteer” in the conventional sense. Instead, she and Jim worked quietly to help heal the world one person at a time. Over the course of their marriage, they made a home and gave work to dozens of young people when they faced times of crisis in their lives, offering daily sustenance and love to help them on their path. Many of them still regard Jim and Adele as parental figures.
Adele leaves behind her husband of 54 years, James W. Hayes; three children - Sean Hayes (wife Lyndsey Lefevre), Shannon Hayes (husband Bob Hooper), and Dawn Reis (partner Bill Harder); four grandchildren - Saoirse Hayes Hooper, Ula Hayes Hooper, Mila Larkin Hayes, Riley Adele Hayes; three brothers, countless informally adopted children and grandchildren, a number of nieces and nephews, along with 200 sheep, 70 turkeys, 70 laying hens, 70 chicks, 3 sows, 6 geese, 12 pigs, 2 donkeys, 2 border collies, and one very resentful cat.
In lieu of conventional contributions, please just look around you and see who in your sphere needs help. Please continue Adele and James’ legacy of making Schoharie County and the world a better place, neighbor-to-neighbor, one person at a time.
A celebration of Adele’s life is planned for Monday, October 7th at 11 am at the Iroquois Museum, 324 Caverns Rd, Howes Cave.