Geneseo’s weekly Farmer’s Market on Center Street draws in throngs of students every Thursday. Out of all the stands, however, one in particular draws a notably large crowd. Watt Farm’s Country Market’s delicious donuts are the top-selling product at the Market, selling about 1,200 donuts each Thursday. Baker Kirsten Newbould makes all of the donuts, frying almost 2,000 each week for all of the towns she visits. According to Newbould, Geneseo is where most of her donuts are bought. At 50 cents each, the donuts usually sell out within the first hour or two of the three-hour slot that the Market is open for.
Newbould said she has had a passion for baking ever since she was a little girl growing up in Albion, New York. She learned how to bake from lessons with her grandmother and father. She particularly enjoys working in the fall season, when she can enjoy the atmosphere and do what she loves.
“Whenever I make the donuts, it reminds me of how much I like fall,” she said.
According to student workers juniors Grant Horner and Brittney Richardson, donuts are by far their top-selling product.
“Our first week of school, we sold out of the donuts in the first two hours,” Richardson said.
Newbould started making donuts in 2009 after she left culinary school in Orlando, Florida to work for Albion Farm. Newbould began making these donuts in a unique twist of fate––Watt Farm won “Donut Robot,” a donut-making machine valued at $1,000 for the price of $100 at a 2009 auction. According to Newbould, it was “a killer deal.” The machine has been a blessing for the farm as the donuts’ popularity only continues to increase.
This fall is Newbould’s seventh season working for the Watt Farm’s Country Market and has been selling donuts in Geneseo since 2010. Watt Farm’s Country Market offers Geneseo three donut flavors: the original apple cider, pumpkin spice and this year’s newest addition, raspberry vanilla.
Newbould said that the donuts all are made from the same mix, but the farm adds special ingredients grown right on the farm to make the special flavors. For instance, the apple cider donuts are made with special Watt Farm cider, the pumpkin spice donuts are given a special touch of pumpkin and the raspberry vanilla donuts are given a slightly purple tint that comes from the farm’s fresh raspberry juice.
In addition to its popular donuts, the farm offers a wide variety of food such as pears, donut peaches, nectarines, apples, cheese, plums, pluots, raspberries, flavored syrups and many delicious baked goods.
Newbould aspires to open a bakery of her own one day, and hopes that she can share her recipes with other baking enthusiasts.
“I would like to expand my baking abilities to other people,” she said.