The Clothesline

Food, Fiber, Air, & Soil

An installation from artist Brenda Baker

The Clothesline: Food, Fiber, Air, and Soil, an installation by artist Brenda Baker, highlights the hard work done in our community by people who work in agriculture. The installation is made up of hundreds of pieces of used work attire donated by agricultural workers, which act as stand-ins for the unseen people whose labor produces the food we eat. Be immersed in the farmer's lives as you walk through and read their authentic stories.

The Clothesline: Food, Fiber, Art, & Soil

Hover over the tags below to explore the exhibit.
Green tags denote accompanying video
Tyler Eaton
Blue Pepper Farm, Jay, NY

Chicken harvest uniform

Shannon Eaton
Blue Pepper Farm, Jay, NY

This shirt was a gift. The perfect layer, worn with reckless abandon, without fear of dirt or sweat or wear and tear. It is missed but replaced.

David Brunner
Asgaard Farm & Dairy, AuSable Forks, NY

Winter work shirt

 
Margot Brooks
Sugar House Creamery, Jay, NY

This jumpsuit was my first piece of women's workwear, gifted to me by my mom when we first started Sugar House Creamery. It has been worn for many a milking & has been patched & mended over the years.

Derrick Wrisley
ADK Hay & Grain, Essex, NY

This hoodie was worn for a year in rotation on the farm. It's dirty with corn dust and hay dust. We wear it during the cold weather while we clean corn and move hay!

Daniel Whitten
Whitten Family Farm, Winthrop, NY
Addison Bickford
Tim McGarry
Boquet Valley Farm & Apiary, Essex, NY

Second-hand t-shirt used to work in the Apiary on a hot day.

Adam Reed
Tangleroot Farm, Essex, NY

This t-shirt is one of the original shirts made in the first year of Tangleroot Farm (2013). It has the original logo and shows the work that's been put in over the years. It sat on my shelf long after its usefulness as clothing & I'm glad to see it serve a final purpose in representing the farm again.

Adam Hainer
Juniper Hill Farms, Westport, NY

My daily work pants.

Gail Brill
Saranac Lake

I started the Farm 2 Fork Fest to connect consumers to the food that local farms were growing.

 
Nathan Henderson
Reber Rock Farm, Essex, NY

Worn for 10 winters throwing hay, fixing things. Lots of kneeling, lots of wiping; grease, oil, blood, viscera.

 
Harriet Brooks
Sugar House Creamery
Upper Jay, NY
 
Cherie Whitten
Whitten Family Farm
Stockholm, NY

Durable denim skirt worn maybe 10 years picking veggies, cultivating, planting, transporting in greenhouses, washing and packing veggies, and on my knees praying for wisdom, strength & truth.

Nancy Battaglia
Lake Placid, NY

Well used garden gloves with holes in some fingers and local dirt! used to plant & harvest a variety of different things including hops for local breweries.

Brenda Baker
Pikes Peak Farm
Ridgeway, WI

My family is a Carhartt family through & through. I bought 3 pairs of these exact pants on sale - and rotate them when I'm cleaning the goat barn, tending to the orchard, or pulling weeds in the garden.

Paul Versnic
Grandview Grass-Fed, Inc., Essex, NY

I got this shirt at a thrift store many years ago and I wore it while moving the cattle, building fence and working with this amazing land.

Lisa Colby
Colby Farm
Newbury, MA

This shirt was worn on the farm to move hay, straw and tend to the pigs and cows.

Amish Dress
Miller Farm, Winthrop, NY

Used for domestic work and gardening, milking the cow, collecting eggs, weeding the garden, making supper.

Nathan Henderson
Reber Rock
Essex, NY

Original purpose: increase sales thru advertising. Better at sun protection, sweat absorption, rain shield, newly-visible scalp protector.

Nathan Henderson
Reber Rock Farm, Essex, NY

Farm in shorts felt like a revalation. It's hard to find shorts that can stand up to the job, though. Worn 3 weeks as is. Mostly in the field moving chickens and in the shop!

 
Michelle Asselin
Harmony Hills Farmstead, Duane, NY

I have experienced too many memories to record; however, I have encountered some amazing things in my lifetime. One of my highlights would be walking fence in the woods to make sure all animals were safe from predators. Doing my job in protecting against the barbs of raspberry & blackberry bushes that grow prolific in the Adirondacks.

Michelle Asselin
Harmony Hill Farmstead, Duane, NY

I have had the luxury in keeping my farmer warm as i would be a double layer in protecting against the temps. One of the many times I would get wet as the feet I was keeping dry would plunge into the frozen waters for livestock - brrr!

Michelle Asselin
Harmony Hills Farmstead, Duane, NY

I have endured too many cold nights to count. Protecting the hands from the extreme temps & snow. One of many jobs would be giving hay to the cows & bedding down all the pigs & chickens to make sure they all got a good nights rest while the snow & wind would blow sideways.

John & Mary Anne Smith
Maple Grove Farm, Putnam Station, NY

This handwoven rag rug began life as John's carpenter jeans. When they were too worn to wear, the denim was cut into strips and woven into a small rug.

 
Lissa
Wild Work Farm, Keene, NY

Pants from years 3-5? maybe 3-4? I don't know if they'd fit me after having a baby and are pretty holey.

Jackie Beattie
Tupper Lake, NY

I wore these clothes gardening—making a pollinator garden

Chris & Meegan Veeder-Shave
Patchwork Pastures, Hyde Park, NY

This jacket was worn by various members of the Veeder-Shave family during lambing season. It kept us warn since lambs are usually delivered at night when it's cold. Also it was worn during many hours of bottle feeding and health checks.

Mark Berninghausen
Squeak Creek Apiaries, Brasher Falls, NY

Squeak Creek ball cap worn in between apiaries.

Mark Berninghausen
Squeak Creek Apiaries, Brasher Falls, NY

Beekeepers half suit. Used while working around my beehive to protect me from their stings.

Mark Berninghausen
Squeak Creek Apiaries, Brasher Falls, NY

Squeak Creek T-shirt

Marisa Leretsley
North Point Community Farm, Plattsburgh, NY

The perfect extra morning layer in the summer. This also means it inevitably got lost/wandered around the farm. Frequently left behind the tractor seat, on harvest vehicles, in a corner of the barn. Not sure where all the holes came from.

Hannah Goodwin-Pierce
Sugar House Creamery, Jay, NY

Thrifted tee with Medusa print. Spent many hours wearing this under coveralls & cleaning the creamery/milking & making cheese. Can't get stained if it's black!

Marisa Leretsley
North Point Community Farm, Plattsburgh, NY

I started farming at the student farm at McGill University. Even though we were separate from the campus farm, the farm manager gave us all sweatshirts. he was always there to encourage us, and ten years later, I've worn it on seven different farms. The zipper finally broke.

Marisa Leretsley
North Point Community Farm, Plattsburgh, NY

My everyday boots for three years. Including the first two of North Point! They're my favorite, but the cracks are big enough that morning dew would soak a good portion of my right sock.

Marisa Leretsley
North Point Community Farm, Plattsburgh, NY

Many hours spent standing on concrete washing vegetables or digging around for root vegetables on a cold day in the late fall. I think all the hours have compressed the insulation, so now they're just heavy, clunky rain boots.

Kia-Beth
Bittersweet-Milkweed Collaborative, Heuvelton, NY

It's important to me that folx recognize that food growers are also food advocates, social justice workers and community leaders. I made this shirt during the 2016 election cycle. The message still holds.

Ann M Bennett
Bittersweet Farm, Heuvelton, NY

Ann wore many different vests year-round. This one was worn while butchering Henri - Angus Devon cross beef.

Ann M Bennett
Bittersweet Farm, Heuvelton, NY

Ann was the greenhouse guru here. As the growing season went on, the heat in the greenhouse made work tough. This was a classic outfit for her—I think these pants saw the greenhouses almost everyday for years.

Brian Bennett
Bittersweet Farm, Heuvelton, NY

These spring overalls used to fit perfectly. but at over 65, they shrunk around the middle and stretched at least 4 inches in length. Don't know how that happened.

Brian Bennett
Bittersweet Farm, Heuvelton, NY

We are very much into regenerative ag. Bittersweet was certified organic for over 20 years with NOFA NY. In 2014, I received this hat and always wore it with pride.

Brian Bennett
Bittersweet Farm, Heuvelton, NY

I have a lot of worn left-hand mittens/gloves but never any right ones to match! Being right-handed, I lose many outdoors when I remove them to work.

Kia-Beth
Bittersweet-Milkweed Collaboartive, DePeyster, NY

It's become a joke that everyone - my aunts, girlfriends, parents - get me socks as gifts. I blow through them in a month and constantly need more, as sensory issues make mending difficult.

Kia-Beth
Bittersweet-Milkweed Collaborative, DePeyster, NY

The lights from this hat shown on many newborn piglets, lambs, calves.

Kia-Beth
Bittersweet-Milkweed Collaborative, DePeyster, NY

Small sample of over 54 years of trying to earn money farming to be able to buy new

Kia-Beth
Bittersweet-Milkweed Collaborative, DePeyster, NY

Small sample of over 54 years of trying to earn money farming to be able to buy new

Kia-Beth
Bittersweet-Milkweed Collaborative, DePeyster, NY

Small sample of over 54 years of trying to earn money farming to be able to buy new

Shannon Surdyk
The Wild Center, Tupper Lake, NY

I run a community maple sugaring project at TWC. About 40 families contribute sap & I boil it down into maple syrup. A lot of sap syrup has splashed onto this jacket!

John Dewar
Village Veggies, Potsdam, NY

I bought to work on my first high tunnel the winter of 2009-10 the warmest garment I had ever worn, allowed me to work in single digit weather. Over the next 14 winters they were shredded from clambering up and down hills and through brambly underbrush during maple sapping seasons

Asa Thomas-Train
Mace Chasm Farm, Keeseville, NY

T-shirt from the best farm in the USA, Sugar House Creamery. Farmed in it till it was hardly there & probably would've gotten a few more weeks out of her, but art is worth the sacrifice

Courtney Grimes-Sutton
Mace Chasm Farm, Keeseville, NY

Bought these coveralls at age 20. Farmed hard in them for 10 or so years, maybe more. Wore them to many a protest, from pro-small ag farm bill demo, to 2016 womens march, to Black Lives Matter demo more recently.

Ashlee
North Country Creamery, Keeseville, NY

This is a special shirt my mom gave me probably 15 years ago. Mostly worn in the creamery. Got so many comments from people who remember the 90s

Ashlee
North Country Creamery, Keeseville, NY

This is a special shirt my mom gave me probably 15 years ago. I wore this mostly moving fence on pasture.

Mike Kuba
Crown Point Farm & Dairy, Crown Point, NY

Warm weather jacket used for milking cows, cutting wood and any and all other farm chores. It's relatively clean but has a pretty good tear in it.

Christian Fisher
Mad River Maple, Camden, NY

Used to build my sugar shack, collect sap and boil it into syrup when I was in high school. It has seen a lot of late nights and long days.

Dan Rivera
Triple Green Jade Farm, Willsboro, NY

Hoodie that my mom bought me when we first bought our farm in 2014

Liz Resnick
Essex Farm, Essex, NY

I wore each of those items for field work and harvesting on veg team, making 55-gallon barrels of kimchi and sauerkraut, rendering fats, slaughter and butchering, and processing raw dairy products for our CSA members.

Liz Resnic
Essex Farm, Essex, NY

I wore each of those items for field work and harvesting on veg team, making 55-gallon barrels of kimchi and sauerkraut, rendering fats, slaughter and butchering, and processing raw dairy products for our CSA members.

Dulli Tengeler
Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, NY

Gloves used to dig and find Jerusalem artichokes which grew 18' down as tubers

Dulli Tengeler
Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, NY

Shirt used in vegetable farming to keep the sun off.

Mark Kimball
Essex Farm, Essex, NY

Just my standard wear for the last 5 years. now I am not purchasing any new overalls & using up pants I have so I am stuck with suspenders & belt. Probably should buy some overalls soon!

Mark Kimball
Essex Farm, Essex, NY
Mark Kimball
Essex Farm, Essex, NY
William Beyer
Glory Days Farm, Lowville, NY

These worn jeans belong to Will Beyer, a fourth generation dairy farmer from Lowville NY, and were skillfully patched and repaired by his late grandmother, Nancy Beyer. These pants quite literally walked in Will’s shoes as he cared for the 260 head the farm has. He milked 130 cows twice daily and delivered newborn calves in the dead of night in them. He planted crops and harvested them wearing these pants.

William Beyer
Glory Days Farm, Lowville, NY

These pants quite literally walked in Will’s shoes as he cared for the 260 head the farm has. He milked 130 cows twice daily and delivered newborn calves in the dead of night in them. He planted crops and harvested them wearing these pants.

"The health of the soil is central to the health of the plants, which is essential to our health" - David Brunner
Addison Bickford
Thunderchief Maple Works, Rainbow Lake, NY

The pants were used to cut logs and firewood as well as for working in my sugaring operation. The cotton denim fabric is useful for working in and around a roaring hot wood buring arch. The arch is a sort of wood-burning stove under the boiling sap and the main goal during sugaring is to get it as hot as possible. Any synthetic material will start to melt or develop burn holes

Jamie-Lynn Helm
JJZ Ranch, Chateaugay, NY

These pants have been on a local beef and dairy farm for milking and feeding calfs morning and night at our farm.

Diane Ashline
Wheeler Beef Farm, Chateaugay, NY

These pants have a history of working on a beef farm in Northern New York. They were used many hours feeding cows, harvesting crops and fixing fences

Amelia Davis
David Family Farm/ Uncle Jack Sugar Shack, Beekmantown, NY

This shirt keeps the bugs off me while tending my garden, warming baby goats when they are chilly, and protecting my skin from the sun while doing hay.

Chad Davis
Davis Sawmill & Custom Crates, Beekmantown, NY

Sawing, building pallets and custom pieces for local farms; sawdust for cattle and to show animals at the fair. Also, cutting firewood to boil sap for maple syrup at Uncle Jack's Sugar Shack

Josh Pierce
J&R Pierce Family Farm, West Chazy, NY

Small farm that originated in 2016. It's owned by Rebekah and Josh Pierce and specializes in lamb, beef, pork, and poultry, along with custom solar grazing (agrivoltaic) solutions

Kode and Anika Sewell
Popper's Pines, Morrisonville, NY

We are a small hobby farm in Morrisonville. our animals are used mostly for educational purposes and our school's FFA chapter. We breed Nigerian dwarf goats too! We have a mixture of animals, and love using them to teach the future of agriculture!

Anika Sewell
CV-Tech Animal Science Program, Plattsburgh, NY

This logo was made by a student in the large ASP. our local farms allow us to have animals on campus so that students can receive hands on experience. they learn about animals husbandry, behavior, and production.

Melissa Monty-Provost
Country Dreams Farm, Plattsburgh, NY

Agritourism, horse breeding; This shirt has been used for planting the fields, driving horses, feeding animals, helping birth, fixing gences, catching runaway animals, bailing hay and more

Natally Batiston
Country Dreams Farm, Plattsburgh, NY

Agritourism, feeding animlas, planting fields, corn maze, birthing goats and horses, building fences and green houses. NYFB - educating people via events in local farms about our agriculture

Tonya Beshon
Greenhouse 168, Plattsburgh, NY

Planting flowers, veggies and taking care of animals

Justin Tucker
Tucker Black Angus Ranch, North Lawrence, NY

This shirt has been used for welding, fence fixing, cutting wood, cutting hay, working the fields and cattle, and taking care of all our other animals as well. (goats, sheep, horses, emus, ducks and more).

Laura Cook
The Cook Farm, Owls Head, NY

I've worn these bibs for almost a decade; first while working on a dairy farm in Vermont and then on my own farm

Brandon Cook
The Cook Farm, Owls Head, NY

I have worn this shirt on the farm for several years. You can see how sun bleached the shirt is compared to the inside of the shirt. It has been ripped and sewn back together a couple of times.

Diane Harrigan
Harrigan Brothers Dairy, Chateaugay, NY

My son wore this shirt daily when caring for our livestock, planting and harvesting crops, and maintaining equipment and buildings.

Jesse Coleman
Stauffer Farm, North Lawrence, NY

Fiance took them away from him because he thougth they were still usable! Dairy farming is tough work on the farmer and the clothes!

April Gokey
Stargo Dairy Farm, Malone, NY

These coveralls have milked a lot of cows and always kept me cleaner when working in the barn. My brother used to pick on me about how ugly they are but they were free (not exactly sure how I acquired them) and they kept me clean so I didn't complain. He used to call these my "prison suit" because at one point there was writing on the back of them. It's faded now but a funny memory of a little brother picking on his older sister. One summer I wore these and they were so hot to milk in that I cut the sleeves off and wore a tank top with them and when my best friend used to visit she would wear them and joke that she was Joe Dirt. I don't wear these anymore but they sure have a lot of memories.

Marsha Gokey
Marsha's Maple House, Malone, NY

I have wore this sweater many times to boil sap into maple syrup with my husband, Steve. We started this business in 2015 and there have been a lot of cold winter days and long nights that this hoodie has been worn for. Its almost sad to retire it but its in pretty rough shape now.

Student
North Country School, Lake Placid, NY 

I wore this glove in the winter to keep my hand warm when helping in the barnyard. I gave the sheep, rams and goats hay and fresh water as they greeted me in the morning. Eggs of different in the morning. Eggs of different colors and sizes were collected using this glove.

Student
North Country School, Lake Placid, NY 

I wore these boots to much the horse stalls during barn chores. they kept my feet dry and warm during the cold winter as I fed my favorite horses, Wasabi and File, hay and water.

Student
North Country School, Lake Placid, NY

I wore these ripped jeans to start a variety of flower and vegetable seeds in the greenhouse. I also wore them to the fields and gardens during potato planting and carrot harvest. They were comfortable and well worn so I didnt mind wearing them on the farm.

Student
North Country School, Lake Placid, NY

This sweater kept me warm throughout the maple sugaring season as I tapped trees and collected sap buckets in the deep snow. Helping make maple syrup with my 8th grade class made it taste sweeter knowing it was a community effort

Emma Ainsworth
Craigardan, Elizabethtown, NY

This shirt has been with me through 4-H as a kid all the way through four different farms in the Northeast.

Erika Guay
Harvest Maple, Mooers, NY 

Retired tapping vest used in maple sugar operation. This vest has seen several years in the sugar bush carrying tools & spouts and has seen several years of repair. This vest has seen its last year of hard work

The Wild Center's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.