THE HARVEST FARMS
Chubby Bunny
Tracy and Dan Hayhurst
Falls Village, Connecticut
Chubby Bunny Farm, situated at the base of Canaan Mountain in Falls Village, is a small family farm in Northwestern Connecticut. The farm is 50 acres of tillable land, pasture, and hay land. About 10 acres is dedicated to organic vegetable production, and the remaining land is used for permanent pasture, hay fields, greenhouses and barns. Tracy and Dan also raise laying hens, a few pigs and a small flock of sheep. Last year, they planted an apple orchard. Chubby Bunny Farm is protected by a Nature Conservancy conservation easement, ensuring that the land will remain farmland and protected from development in perpetuity.
On its 10 acres of vegetable production land, Chubby Bunny Farm utilizes a unique growing system, blending biointensive gardening methods with more traditional row cropping. Tractors are used for tillage, bed shaping, mowing, and composting, but the farm is not heavily tractor-oriented; most planting, cultivation and harvesting is done by hand. Chubby Bunny runs an apprenticeship program covering all aspects of vegetable cultivation and marketing.
Chubby Bunny Farm is supported by a 140-member CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. CSA members join the farm for the season by paying in advance for their share of the harvest. For six months starting in June, members pick up their harvest share at the farm or at a distribution site in the Upper West Side in Manhattan (New York City). The farm also sells goods at two farmers markets, one in Sheffield, MA, and another in Norfolk, CT.
Fort Hill Farm
Paul Bucciaglia
New Milford, Connecticut
Fort Hill Farm is a 20-acre, certified organic vegetable farm in New Milford, supported almost entirely by a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
The Hickories
Dina Brewster
Ridgefield, Connecticut
The Hickories in Ridgefield Connecticut has been raising food for over two hundred years. The Hickories is a family farm, growing fruits and vegetables through a CSA program and farm stand. They grow and sell four seasons a year, in greenhouses and cold frames in the winter and in fields and pastures in the summer. Pigs and chickens are part of the soil cycle on the farm, too. The Hickories used to carry federal organic certification on a portion of the crops, and the farm is now in transition to organic management on all crops. In the past, Harvesters have helped with raspberry, strawberry, peach and apple cultivation.
www.thehickories.org
High Hill Orchard
Wayne Young
Meriden, Connecticut
Wayne is a third generation apple grower who practices Integrated Pest Management (IPM). High Hill Orchard supplies apples to Yale’s dining halls all year long.
www.yale.edu/sustainablefood/apple.pdf
Local Farm
Debra Tyler
Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut
Local Farm is a small raw milk dairy with jersey cows in the northwest corner of Connecticut, dedicated to providing fresh, wholesome milk to its neighbors. The inhabitants of Local Farm are Old World Jersey cows, fed entirely off of pasture and hay. Old World Jerseys are 5-10 inches shorter than most jersey cows you find today, and because of their smaller size, make ideal family cows. Local Farm offers these cows for sale as family cows, and also offers workshop on the care and keeping of a family cow, with topics such as milking, feeding, housing, and making ice cream and cheese.
Local Farm produces around 50 gallons of milk per week and sells it all from the farm, supported by a deeply loyal customer base. Debra feels strongly about the bond of trust between her and her customers, and having on-farm pickup allows consumers a connection to the farm and its practices that obviates the need for certification. (Although Debra was certified through NOFA for a number of years, with the advent of the National Organic Program, Local Farm dropped certification in favor of signing the Farmer’s Pledge.)
Northfordy Farm
Peter and Judith Rothenberg
Northford, Connecticut
Northfordy is a small farm in Northford that produces vegetables, maple syrup, free-range eggs, flowers, herbs, transplants, and wool. Livestock include goats, sheep, llamas, cows, horses, donkeys, turkeys, ducks, geese, and chickens. Northfordy used to be certified organic by the Northeast Organic Farming Association until organic certification became federal; now Northfordy is Certified Naturally Grown.
Old Maids Farm
George and Sharon Purtill
South Glastonbury, Connecticut
Old Maids Farm is a family-owned, certified organic farm located on the banks of the Connecticut River. George raises a variety of organic vegetables, organic herbs and organic berries—including tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic for salsa served in Yale’s dining halls.
Riverbank Farm
David Blyn and Laura McKinney
Roxbury, Connecticut
Riverbank Farm grows a diversity of certified organic vegetables, cut flowers, fruit, and hay. The 45-acre farm is nourished by the fertile bottomland soil of the Shepaug River, along whose banks it sits. Over the past three centuries, the farm has passed through the hands of four different families who raised crops and milked cows on the land. David and Laura have been farming at Riverbank since the early 1990s.
Riverbank produce is sold at Connecticut farmers’ markets in Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, New Milford, Westport, and New Haven. It is also sold in natural food stores and to local restaurants. David and Laura also run an apprenticeship program, giving apprentices every year the opportunity learn about all aspects of managing a successful market farm. Riverbank has a commercial kitchen where they make value-added food products like soups, salads, and spreads for the farmers’ markets. They also have solar panels and just built a clay oven outside.
www.riverbankfarm.com
Warrup’s Farm
Bill Hill
West Redding, Connecticut
Warrup’s Farm is one of the last working farms in Fairfield County. Warrup’s Farm has been owned and operated by the Hill family since the 1840s. In the mid 1970s, Bill Hill began raising vegetables, flowers, and maple syrup, which he continues to grow today, in addition to hay and Christmas trees. The farm is certified organic, and is transitioning to Biodynamic. In the early 1990s, Bill’s parents, Sam and Betty Hill, bequeathed the land’s development rights to the Redding Land Trust, protecting the land from development in perpetuity and setting a model for other landowners to follow. Warrup’s Farm is approximately 300 acres, which includes land dedicated to agricultural production, in addition to fields, forests, wetlands, and transitional land.
Bill operates a seasonal farm stand, and sells at farmers’ market in Weston. Warrup’s Farm also offers pick-your-own vegetables in the summer, and programs for school-age children during pumpkin season and maple syrup season.