BETTER THAN HEARSAY - Restful and Rambling

Still stately and sturdy, the hand hewn infrastructure dates back to the 18th Century, now serving as the perfect centerpiece for the antique shop.

WINDHAM (ALMOST) - There are multiple human reasons to mosey over to Elsie’s Farm & Garden, including an antique shop, adult garden and children’s playground, all courtesy of Eva Matischak.

Animals have cause to be there too, out at the intersection of County Route 10 and Cunningham Road, just beyond the border between the towns of Windham and Durham.

Matischak is transforming the former Overton farm into a refuge for horses, ducks, chickens pigs and goats, sharing the space with two-legged types.

Elsie’s is named in honor of a contented cow who spent her final days here, easily locatable by the painted smile on the homestead barn.

“We want to give people a nice place to go,” says Matischak, who, for many years, was doing that exact same thing at the Heidelberg, her family’s Old World cuisine, German restaurant in New York City.

The famous eatery is still going strong, now headed by Eva’s son, Andreas, between 85th and 86th streets along 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.

That is pleasantly far, far away for Mike, an Amish horse who has given new meaning to the time-honored Amish tradition of Rumspringa.

Rumspringa is a rite-of-passage period in the life of Amish teenagers who are given the blessing of their parents, and the tight-knit Amish community, to experience the Outside World.

Known colloquially as “running around,” Mike took it literally, not being able to stay put in Amishland, currently luxuriating at Elsie’s Farm & Garden.

Mike is joined by Raja, a Mustang rescue, working as a therapy horse in a Nevada penitentiary prior to peacefully resettling in the mountains.

“They all deserve good care. Some of them have been terribly mistreated,” says Eva, a compassionate approach that extends to the rest of the four-leggers (and the two-footed chickens and ducks, of course).

Eva is teaching farming to her grandson, Axel, an education that has much less to do with the Three R’s and more to do with nuzzling up to Nature.

“It helps kids and anyone feel grounded,” says Eva, encouraging local folks to bring their products to the barn for marketing, such as maple syrup, honey, quiltings, etc.

If the wide smile that easily hits the broad side of the barn doesn’t make it simple enough for you to find Elsie’s Farm and Garden, look for the beautifully cleared mountainside beyond the back fields.