THE FUTURE OF FARMS
‘Boutique farmers’ and consumer connections a larger trend
BETHEL — Visitors to Blue Jay Orchards and Holbrook Farm could see wine and beer tastings, farm dinners and yoga.
It’s part of a larger trend across the state of older farmers leaving the industry and newer ones establishing specialized farms that better connect the public to agriculture. This is happening on existing farms and in new spaces.
“We’re starting to see more boutique farmers and directto-consumer operations,” said Bonnie Burr, the assistant director of the University of Connecticut's agriculture extension program.
In both Bethel cases, the owner is older and retiring or is leasing to new individuals.
The owners of The Redding Roadhouse and Taproot have been leasing Holbrook Farm since March, following a few months of uncertainty when the previous leaser left in November. The future of the property had been up in the air, so John Holbrook, the farm owner, reached out to the restaurants.
“Between a love for the property, already wanting to preserve it and keep it going, we all jumped in,” said Stephanie Sweeney, one of the owners of Taproot, a restaurant in Bethel.
The restauranteurs hope to educate visitors on eating food grown locally and better connect the community to the farm.
There’s potential for something similar to happen at the 140-acre Blue Jay Orchards, which Paul Patterson has owned since 1985. In recent years, the orchard was only open in the fall and offered pumpkins, a small store and pick-your-own apples.
But at one time the farm also planted strawberries, blueberries and raspberries and new owners could return to that or expand the store, possibly offering ice cream, said C.J. Vlahos, the listing agent for the property.
“The people of Bethel would just love that,” Vlahos said. “There are so many ideas that people might be able to use there. It’s such an interesting property.”
Sellers have not set a price for the property because its value will depend on how buyers want to use it, Vlahos said. Under 1.4 acres of the property was assessed at $663,000, according to the town’s database. But Vlahos said this figure is not the full value of the land, equipment, barn, buildings, trees and more.
A 133.5-acre former dairy farm with an estate and two other buildings is on sale in Salisbury for $1.6 million, while a 165-acre property suitable for horse, general and dairy farming is on sale in North Stonington for $990,000, according to property listings. About 130 acres of undeveloped farmland is on sale in Sharon, property listings show.
Finding land
Finding land to start their practices is one of the biggest challenges new farmers face, especially in southwestern Connecticut where land is more expensive and has a higher density of development, Burr said.
An option is to lease land from an older farmer who is no longer using it, but this poses its own challenges because often the farmer still lives there and so the new tenants need to find their own housing nearby, adding another expense, Burr said.
She said the state’s new agriculture commissioner has put an emphasis on improving access to farmland, whether through leasing opportunities like this, or increasing urban options, such as adding greenhouses.
Some times the farmer is selling the entire property, such as Blue Jay Orchard — the first farm Vlahos has sold in his 30 years in the business.
“We don’t have too many farms in our neck of the woods,” he said. “This one has so many facets because it’s not only farming, but it’s also retail. The key to the thing is the potential in this place.”
Ashley Kenney, who works for Holbrook Farm and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut, said she knows of two to three older farmers who have passed away or sold their farms this year.
“You see this proliferation of young people who are interested in farming around the state and now these plots of land are becoming available,” Kenney said.
Many young people were sold the dream that if they went to college they would do well and make money, but learned that is not the case, she said.
“We realized that 's not necessarily true and this kind of lifestyle can be mentally and spiritually fulfilling as well,” Kenney said.
Agritourism and the local movement
Taproot and Redding Roadhouse already sourced food from the farm and hope to encourage other local businesses to do the same, said Jeff Taibe, another Taproot owner.
“We really want to get our product into the restaurant's hands at a reasonable affordable price,” he said. “Because that's what we believe people should be eating, not these bigger companies (with) maybe not the best quality product.”
The group envisions hosting farm dinners or barbecues featuring local chefs, as well as offering yoga, weddings, farming classes, and wine and beer tastings, Taibe said.
Farmers are working on developing better relationships with restaurants, especially as a growing number of restaurants, especially in Fairfield County, look to source food locally Kenney said.
“That’s what their customer base wants to see,” Kenney said.
Still, some restaurants advertise that they use food from a local farm but might have only bought a pound of lettuce from the place, Kenney said. Holbrook had this problem recently and plans to go to the restaurant with some food and ask the owners to source from the farm if they plan to advertise it.
Burr said people want to have that connection to where their food comes from.
Agritourism even has its own section on the state’s tourism website, promoting farm dinners, food trails or tours and encouraging visitors to check out the many wineries in the state where at least half of the fruit used has to be grown in Connecticut. Craft breweries are starting to use more local ingredients and cideries are also popping up, using Connecticut apples.
Connecticut’s agriculture used to have a wholesale focus and a lot of the newer local efforts are due to newer farmers coming in that don’t have that historic approach to the industry, Burr said.
Adapting to a changing industry isn’t new, though the ways to do it are.
Patterson made his own mark on Blue Jay Orchards when he purchased it nearly 35 years ago, taking down all the large apple trees and replacing them with dwarf apple trees, so people could pick their own fruit, Vlahos said.
“That was a big risk,” he said.
It paid off.
The orchard became a popular fall tradition for families in Connecticut and New York, making $930,000 a year, Vlahos said.
The plans for Blue Jay Orchards are still unknown but one thing is for certain: the property was preserved years ago, so it cannot be developed with apartments or other buildings, Vlahos said.
“It’s going to be a farm one way or another,” he said. “Either that or it's going to be wild.”