September News

When people I meet find out that I am a farmer, they often tell me a story about one of their grandparents.  I hear about how granddad’s tomato gravy would cook for days, or how their ancestral family barn used to smell during hay time, or how grandma’s hands were calloused like mine.  It is a great way to get to know people.  Everyone has a good farm story from ‘back in the day.’ Many of our grandparents, great-uncles and aunts, relatives back in the old country - they were connected to the earth, lived in seasons and led lives that were filled with elemental smells and sounds and flavors.

When people I meet find out that I am a farmer, they often tell me a story about one of their grandparents.  I hear about how granddad’s tomato gravy would cook for days, or how their ancestral family barn used to smell during hay time, or how grandma’s hands were calloused like mine.  It is a great way to get to know people.  Everyone has a good farm story from ‘back in the day.’ Many of our grandparents, great-uncles and aunts, relatives back in the old country - they were connected to the earth, lived in seasons and led lives that were filled with elemental smells and sounds and flavors. They had wisdom.  Inevitably the conversation will turn from grandparents to children: how nowadays kids think carrots are made in the back of the supermarket, how a virtual world has stolen this generation from its parents. I too, frankly, have found myself caught up in brief spells of despair.  It is too easy to cluck at the next generation than to face the universal truth: apples do not fall far from the tree.  But disappointment is just a matter of perspective.  If only the ‘”doomers” could sit where I sit and hear what I hear. 

When people I meet find out that I am a farmer, they often tell me a story about one of their grandparents.  I hear about how granddad’s tomato gravy would cook for days, or how their ancestral family barn used to smell during hay time, or how grandma’s hands were calloused like mine.  It is a great way to get to know people.  Everyone has a good farm story from ‘back in the day.’ Many of our grandparents, great-uncles and aunts, relatives back in the old country - they were connected to the earth, lived in seasons and led lives that were filled with elemental smells and sounds and flavors. They had wisdom.  Inevitably the conversation will turn from grandparents to children: how nowadays kids think carrots are made in the back of the supermarket, how a virtual world has stolen this generation from its parents. I too, frankly, have found myself caught up in brief spells of despair.  It is too easy to cluck at the next generation than to face the universal truth: apples do not fall far from the tree.  But disappointment is just a matter of perspective.  If only the ‘”doomers” could sit where I sit and hear what I hear. 

It feels like everyone who visits me these days comes with a wheelbarrow full of inspiration.  More and more young farmers pass through and teach me about their work and we talk about overcoming obstacles.  A group of devoted visionaries in Westport has revitalized The Wakeman Farm and turned it, overnight, into a thriving homestead.  Plucky Ridgefielders are plowing up schoolyards to create educational gardens. Folks stop in to ask me about composting and companion planting.

From where I sit - looking out of my barn doors onto fields that are starting to tinge yellow and orange with the first signs of autumn – I know my grandmother is up there looking down on us – and after this summer, I bet she is up on her feet, cheering and whooping it up.  It’s been a good season.

And she is not alone. Mrs. Wakeman, whose farm is now up and running again in Westport, Mr. McKeon whose farm is being revitalized in Ridgefield (see below) and many other grandmothers and grandfathers cheer as their grandchildren are planting and herding and pickling and sewing again.  It’s been a darn good season.

October Hayrides and Pumpkin Picking begin next weekend!: We will start our annual fall farm festival October 2nd.  Each year the hayride has new sites to see; we hope you come visit our mischievous little goats and see some of our new greenhouse projects.  The pumpkin patch is brimming. We will be open every Saturday and Sunday (and open Columbus Day) in October from 10am – 6pm.  

Grass Fed Beef: Apple Ridge farm is accepting shares for its fall steers going to market. (http://apple-ridge.org/ ) Hans and Steve are new young farmers who represent one of the most inspiring trends in agriculture right now.  Apple Ridge is a municipal farm, leased to these brave new farmers by the town of Ridgefield through the forward thinking vision of the town’s Conservation Commission.  Apple Ridge is run on the old McKeon farm in town, and I bet Mr. McKeon is celebrating with my grandmother, to see the steer running on his pastures again.  If you are interested in buying into a share of the grass fed beef they will harvest this fall, please visit our online store where you can read more and purchase. (http://www.thehickories.org/catalog)  I think Apple Ridge grass-fed beef is nutritionally, ecologically, and ethically a better choice than any we have in town when it comes to eating beef.

Our CSA program here at the Hickories is wrapping up its fourth season.  While acknowledging that I am still a novice at this myself, I am taking a great deal of strength from all the enthusiasm our shareholders bring to each week’s pick up.  CSA kids are growing up with me as I grow up as a farmer: we are digging potatoes and picking cherry tomatoes together.  This year our first ever “Rock the Farm” Saturday work day saw CSA moms and dads clearing actual rocks from a field we were preparing to plant with new strawberries.  CSAers have treated our farm crew with inspiring stories and delicious dishes: many of which are pulled from the tattered pages of an old family cookbook left unopened until “turnips” turned up in the share box and forced the archival search for a recipe.  Our share offerings will continue to expand so if you are interested in signing up please visit our website and look under CSA for details.  (http://www.thehickories.org/our_csa )

Ben McArdle, a high school intern working here this summer, stuck a magnet on our cooler that reads, “Eat organic food, or, as our grandparents called it, food.”  It is a funny reminder.  All of us should endeavor to live in ways that make those grandparents slap their knees and smile.

All the best,

Dina Brewster