Stepping foot onto 8 Hands Farm in Cutchogue in late April is like walking onto a movie set, provided the plot centers on regenerative agriculture. The sun shines bright on a warm, crisp spring day. Owner Tom Geppel leads the way past the picnic area, where, precisely on cue, a pair of chickens greets us on the gravel walkway. A soundtrack of bleating days-old lambs and their mothers echoes from the sheep barn, just down the hill from the 1940s potato barn that houses the farm’s cafe and butcher shop.
Taking in the thriving 28-acre ecosystem he has cultivated over the past 16 years, it becomes abundantly clear why Geppel traded his life as a Manhattan accountant for the dirt and daily grind of the farm.
“The feeling of working with your hands and your heart and your head … and feeling like you’re part of the community, is much more powerful than just working in the city somewhere,” Geppel says.
Over the past decade and a half, 8 Hands Farm has cultivated a dedicated community of like-minded people who truly care about the origins of their food. That connection is poised to grow even stronger as the farm expands its partnership with the culinary team at Fyr & Salt, introducing a wood-fired dinner series that will soon transform summer Friday nights on the North Fork.
Building a foundation
Like any good movie script, 8 Hands has endured its fair share of plot twists and setbacks. Geppel and his wife, Carol Festa, famously purchased the property in 2010 after watching the documentary “Food, Inc.“
The name “8 Hands” is a nod to their family of four, who literally built the operation from the ground up. It took eight long years to turn a profit. In retrospect, their naivety may have been a saving grace.
“Ignorance was our friend,” Festa notes with a laugh. “Once you’re in it, you’re in it.”
That steadfast commitment to doing things the hard way is grounded in a profound respect for animal welfare. To ensure their pasture-raised chickens have ample access to forage while staying protected from hawks and foxes, Geppel designed large, mobile huts out of greenhouse hoops and shade plastic. The team moves the enclosures 28 feet onto fresh grass every single day. As a bonus, the flock naturally fertilizes the ground, providing nutrient-dense feed for the sheep once the grass grows back.
While the industrial standard brings an indoor-raised chicken to market in just 35 days, 8 Hands’ pasture-raised birds take 11 weeks. The prices naturally reflect that extra time and care.
“That’s the real cost of food,” Geppel says. “Everybody else, if they’re subsidized or they’re cutting corners … We’re feeding organic feed. We’re doing everything right.”
“If you ever catch us doing something for the money,” he adds firmly, “then you call us out, because it’s quality first.”
As we wander into the sheep barn, the symphony of bleats grows louder. Geppel eagerly scoops up a young lamb while its siblings investigate my shoelaces. It is easy to see why the couple’s 21-year-old son, Max Geppel, who handles the farm’s heavy maintenance, claims them as his personal favorite.
“I love the lambs,” Max says. “I mean, how couldn’t you?”
He’s not wrong. In every direction, there’s cuteness overload, and it’s easy to see why people line up on spring weekends for lamb tours.
Farm to Table
Building a fully vertically integrated operation was always the dream, but an arduous 18-month battle with the county health department got things off to a slow start. Eventually, the on-site butcher shop and commercial kitchen opened, allowing the family to create a truly zero-waste culinary hub.
Excess egg yolks are churned into 8 Hands’ famous rich custard, blemished tomatoes are transformed into sauce, bones simmer into stock, and leftover animal fat is rendered into tallow for cooking and skincare products. The cafe cooks exclusively with their own animal fats and olive oil; any leftover food scraps go straight to the compost pile.
“To me, that was so important to kind of utilize everything so that it’s minimal waste,” Geppel explains.
However, as the farm flourished, the family’s capacity to manage the bustling cafe shrank. In 2024, they handed the culinary reins over to Max Mohrmann and Jonathan Shearman, the wood-fired chefs behind Fyr & Salt catering.
The partnership thrives on hyper-local, seasonal collaboration. The cafe menu changes weekly, exclusively utilizing 8 Hands meat and local organic produce, all served on fresh sourdough baked on-site with New York State flour. If Geppel has a surplus of duck eggs or spare ribs, Fyr & Salt instantly pivots the menu to feature them.
“The cool thing about the farming is you have to utilize what’s now,” says Max of Fyr & Salt. “Tom [is] just like, ‘I got all this stuff. What can we do with it?’ … You have to learn to preserve. We do not throw anything out.”
Late last year, they introduced a monthly, ticketed dinner series called “Supper on the Farm” to highlight the property beyond daytime cafe hours. After one final May event, it will shift to a casual, weekly model for the summer. Starting in June, “Wood FYRed Fridays” will feature wood-fired red and white pizzas alongside seasonal small plates. Guests can bask in the golden hour at picnic tables strung with bistro lights through late September.
“The whole patio, the whole field, they’ll have a fire going as long as the weather’s nice,” the Fyr & Salt chef adds. “Come and go as you please. No reservations. Don’t even have to order anything. Just come and hang out.”
Community and the true cost of food
Making our way toward the piglet and chick enclosures, Festa meets us on a gently overgrown dirt path. Geppel quickly notes that lawnmowers are obsolete when you have a flock of sheep; they are scheduled to “mow” this very area later in the afternoon.
As her husband jogs around the fence to show off the newest litter of piglets, Festa echoes his sentiments on the importance of community connection.
“Knowing really where my food comes from is super important to me,” Festa says. “Knowing how the animals are raised, how they’re treated, how we grow our crops. I mean, all that stuff to me is very valuable.”
While 8 Hands Farm might not offer a traditional, wrapped-in-a-bow Hollywood ending, what they have built is far more authentic. It is a continuing story of hard work, adaptation and an unwavering commitment to doing things right.
“We’re not going to change the world,” Geppel says, as we say our goodbyes. “But to me, being a part of the community, and having our customers that are committed to what we’re doing and believe in what we’re doing … that’s the reward ultimately, and that’s what keeps us going.”