How a Couple Turned a Family Farm into an Agritourism Mecca

Run by Class of ’79 alums, Western New York’s Becker Farms draws thousands of visitors for produce, festivals, weddings, and more

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By Melissa Newcomb

Standing beside rows of grapevines, Mindy Perry Vizcarra ’79 looks out at vibrant flower beds, stone walkways connecting several buildings, and a wedding venue set up with white flowers and rows of chairs for a ceremony later that afternoon.

“This was all field,” she says, gesturing across the property that today bears little resemblance to the fruit farm on which she grew up.

Mindy and her husband, Oscar Vizcarra ’79, have transformed her family’s fifth-generation property into Becker Farms, a 340-acre Western New York agritourism destination that draws tens of thousands of guests each year for you-pick fruit, weddings, festivals, estate-made wine and beer, children’s activities, and more.

Visitors can browse a market stocked with homemade pies, fudge, and apple butter; enjoy a meal at the brewpub; pet friendly goats and donkeys; or watch their kids climb tire swings and dig in a giant sand mound.

Nearby, cabins tucked among the orchards host overnight guests. During its high season in September and October, when it hosts a fall festival, the farm welcomes thousands of visitors each weekend.

But little of this existed four and a half decades ago, when the Vizcarras returned to Mindy’s hometown after graduation.

Visitors can browse a market stocked with homemade pies, fudge, and apple butter; enjoy a meal at the brewpub; pet friendly goats and donkeys; or watch their kids climb tire swings and dig in a giant sand mound.

Founded by her great-grandparents in 1894, the farm in Gasport—about 45 minutes northeast of Buffalo—primarily grew tart cherries and other fruit for the wholesale market. Like many growers, the family relied on prices that the wholesalers set, leaving them little control over the business’s profitability.

Over the decades following the Vizcarras’ move to Gasport, the couple reimagined the farm by implementing one idea after another—each inspired by an opportunity they recognized or a problem they sought to solve.

In 1980, for example, the couple launched the you-pick apple operation; they’d take visitors via wagon to the orchards, where large straw bales served as decoration. But before long, they realized that many kids were spending more time climbing on the hay than picking apples.

Brides, Berries, Brews & Beyond

“We thought if people want entertainment, we’ll do entertainment,” Mindy recalls. She credits her husband with leading many of the projects: “Oscar has no fear. He never lets an opportunity go by, and he loves to build things.”

After emigrating from Peru as a teenager, Oscar lived in NYC before enrolling at SUNY Delhi to study landscaping. There he met Mindy, and the pair later transferred to Cornell to study pomology in CALS.

Over the decades following the Vizcarras’ move to Gasport, the couple reimagined the farm by implementing one idea after another—each inspired by an opportunity they recognized or a problem they sought to solve.

“I lived in the South Bronx, and I’d talk with people about what farms with cows and barns are like, because most of us had never seen one,” Oscar says. “When Mindy would ask, ‘Who’s going to want to come all the way out here?’, I was confident they’d come.”

That ability to see Becker Farms through visitors’ eyes has shaped nearly every major decision, the couple says.

The original farmhouse that Mindy’s parents grew up in became a market selling food and gifts; surplus berries inspired a winery. Hosting their daughter’s wedding led to requests from other couples, while visitors asking for beer rather than wine prompted them to open the brewery.

And while the couple’s three adult children are involved in the business, the Vizcarras—who, in addition to their agritourism offerings, grow apples, grapes, berries, pumpkins, sunflowers, and vegetables, and run a CSA—aren’t quite ready to hand the operation off to the next generation.

“This is my passion; I’m always looking for the next improvement,” Oscar says, adding with a laugh: “And I’m not settling down—which makes Mindy uncomfortable, but the results are fun.”

(All photos by Melissa Newcomb / Cornell University, unless otherwise indicated.)

Published July 31, 2026

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