Community Corner

Organic Farmer Helps Local Farm Plow Ahead

Annie Farrell Greeted by Large Turnout in Pequot Library's Auditorium

Annie Farrell, an expert in organic farming who manages the 75-acre Millstone Farm in Wilton, came to Fairfield Wednesday night to aid residents' effort in creating an organic teaching farm in Fairfield.

The local farm planned by Pamela Jones and about a dozen other residents isn't nearly as big as Farrell's (it's only an acre), but Farrell and Jones share the same goal - growing food locally, which Jones said is fresher, healthier and provides more security than relying on food in supermarkets. Connecticut, if it were cut off from receiving food, would have only about a two-day supply, Jones said.

"I think what you're doing is right on. It's the perfect time; so many people want to do this," Farrell said to about 75 people in Pequot Library's auditorium. "People all over the planet are looking to grow foods locally. What was the lunatic fringe has become cutting edge and mainstream."

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Jones said Farrell would help to design the organic farm in Fairfield and that organic farming could be profitable. "She makes more money per acre than any other farmer. That's why we want her to design our farm, because we're going to make money to finance everything and prove we can do this," Jones said.

Farrell said the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm wouldn't need machinery beyond a walk-behind roto-tiller for an acre and Jones said the organic farm in Fairfield could have crops in August if they planted in "hoop houses," which are above ground and similar to greenhouses. Farrell advised those interested in creating the organic farm in Fairfield to "start slow, do what you can this year and plan ahead."

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"We had to build everything from scratch at Millstone...and that was only in 2006, so I'm giving you a lot of hope," Farrell said.

Finding labor for a farm can be difficult, and Farrell said people who work at Millstone Farm live either nearby or on the farm. She said one of the reasons farmers have so many children is the children are a source of labor for the farm when they get older.

Farrell said she buys organic seeds from Fedco and Johnny's Selected Seeds and that salad greens are her most profitable crop. She said Millstone uses a solar-powered, portable electric fence to keep deer away from the crops, though she used dogs for that purpose in the past.

Beth Bradley, who's helping Jones get the organic farm off, or actually in, the ground said they haven't done a "tillage test" yet to determine how rocky the soil is at 520 Hoyden's Lane, though they have tested the soil to determine nutrients that would have to be added to it.

Jones, though, said she still hopes the organic farm can start on town-owned land on Congress Street that longtime farmer Robert Haydu leases from the town for $1 a year. She said First Selectman Ken Flatto is trying to work with Haydu to see if the organic farm can occupy an acre of the overall 10 acres that Haydu leases.

Haydu said on Sunday that soil has to lay fallow for three years for an organic farm, but Jones said the soil could lay fallow if the organic farm started off with hoop houses above ground, and, later on, if they put in their own soil and compost over existing soil and had raised beds. She said the organic farm would be fenced off to prevent deer from eating plants, which Haydu said is a continual problem on the farm he leases from the town. "I know Annie Farrell has plenty of experience in fencing," Jones said.

Jones said the organic farm could grow salad greens year-round in hoop houses. "Wherever we are, we'd like to do that," she said.

Jones contends that Haydu isn't in compliance with his lease because he's not farming on the property. Haydu said on Sunday that he plants a five-acre corn maze and also plants sweet corn on the property, as well as a variety of herbs on a small section of the land. He said deer eat everything else and the town won't let him put up an electric fence to keep the deer out. He said putting up an eight- to nine-foot-high fence would be too expensive.

"Our desire is to put him in compliance by growing on one acre, and, when his lease expires, we hope to take it over," Jones said.

Haydu's lease with the town expires Dec. 31, 2011. Haydu said Flatto told him that he can't give Haydu longer than a three-year lease because the lease would then require approval from the Representative Town Meeting.

But the lease between the town and Haydu includes two one-year extensions, solely at Haydu's option, so the lease actually may not be up until Dec. 31, 2013. It wasn't clear if the lease, with those two one-year extensions, should have gone to the RTM since it would then run from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2013, which would be four years - longer than the three-year limit permitted under the Town Charter without RTM approval.

Jones figures the organic farm, which would have to have non-profit status before the town leases land for the effort, would need about $60,000 cash and $60,000 in in-kind contributions to start, some of which would be raised through fundraising events. She said the organic farm would need help from carpenters, plumbers, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and others "to make this what it is meant to be."

"The farm is about connecting with each other and our past generations. Farming is in all of our genetic memories," Jones said.

Daniel Snydacker, Pequot Library's executive director, said the library had its own organic farm against the side of the library that faces Westway Road. That farm, which is about four feet wide and 20 feet long, is so Belle, the library's pet rabbit, can have fresh herbs.

Asked if organic farming was harder than regular farming, Farrell said, "I wouldn't know how to do regular farming. To me, organic farming is regular farming."


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