BALLSTON LAKE – The smell of flowers from hanging baskets meet customers as they walk inside the Lakeside Farm store, where they’re greeted by an abundance of in-season produce, various grocery items, the savory scent of food cooking in the kitchen and copious kinds of sweet treats.
The store and the Pearce family that have run it are celebrating 75 years in business.
“I started when I was 8 years old,” owner Jeff Pearce said about working in the family business. “By 12, I was waiting at the counter.”
Next year, Jeff will have worked at the family business for 60 years.
“How many people can say that?” he said.
The business, which is currently run by Jeff Pearce and his wife Denise, with Jeff’s brother Richard and sister Lisa still involved in the business that started when their grandfather Robert Pearce bought the 150-acre property at 336 Schauber Road in 1948 for $14,900 and started making and selling apple cider with his wife Agnes. Since then, the business has cut back on cider making but expanded in other ways as it’s been handed down generation by generation.
Now, what began as an apple cider business has turned into a multi-building business that is a staple spot in Ballston Lake to shop or stop in for breakfast or lunch.
The family opened their store in 1958 and then moved it to its current location in a renovated carriage barn three years later to meet demand.
Since then, the business has only grown.
The family added an apple barn in the early 1970s and started growing vegetables in the 1980s. The family eventually added a breakfast and lunch menu.
For anyone looking to try something off the menu, Jeff Pearce recommends the Reuben, which is corned beef, homemade sauerkraut, swiss cheese, mustard and Russian dressing on light rye bread that’s finished under the broiler. Denise Pearce said people should try the Lakesider, which is roast beef, a slab of bacon, coleslaw and muenster cheese on toasted dark rye bread with Russian dressing, finished under the broiler.
If those don’t interest you the business also offers items like apple fritter French toast, eggs with various sides or a make-your-own sandwich.
And when really in doubt of what to get, there’s always the family’s staple. The apple cider donuts which have been popular since Dick Pearce came up with the recipe in 1963.
Jeff Pearce recalled how when he was a kid his dad would take him to a restaurant called The Treasure House in Ballston Spa, and his dad would have coffee and he would have hot chocolate. One day his dad got to talking to the owner about the idea of an apple cider donut being made in the area. So on Saturday mornings, Jeff and his dad would get to the restaurant early and begin perfecting the recipe that would become the family’s signature.
The donuts are now a staple in the store, with 300 to 400 dozen being sold a day, he said.
As Jeff Pearce walked around the farm Wednesday pointing out all the changes, memory after memory came back to life, from the poker games his dad used to hold in one of the rooms of their family house where knick-knacks are now sold, to to seeing generations of families come back year after year to buy items like Christmas trees.
“You have to change, add a little bit here and there,” he said.
Jeff Pearce said he’s happy the way the family business has grown and changed over the years.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said.
He said his dad knew they’d make it to 75 years, and said he’d be proud if he was alive today.
For more information on the business including hours check out their website at https://www.lakesidefarmscidermill.com/.
Know of a business The Daily Gazette should feature? Email ‘Biz Beat’ reporter Shenandoah Briere at sbriere@dailygazette.net. Follow Shenandoah on Twitter @ByBriere.