Lots of things! Here’s what some of the participants have to say.
Andrew Hurczyn of Addison Farm: OFD is a great way to share agriculture with the local community. Often we go through our daily routine and overlook the fact that many of the products that we eat or use daily are grown or made on local farms by real people, your neighbors, working long hours. While we grow vegetables and have a flock of chickens to provide eggs to offer to the community, our main crop and business is our hemp. Crude oil is extracted from the hand-picked hemp flowers and formulated into our very own Addison Farm Full Spectrum CBD products. We can’t wait to share our passion and knowledge about these products with our visitors.
Pam and Steve Traun of Angel Horses: All of us at Angel Horses are looking forward to participating in OFD this year. This event provides an opportunity for those who don’t know who we are to visit and find out about our special animals. It also provides an opportunity for some students and parents who have participated or may participate in our Middle School after school club to be with the horses. We are grateful for the opportunity to have some interesting demonstrations: Rachel Fleury will do a therapy session with a horse, a veterinarian from Salmon Brook will show some exam techniques, and there will be some adorable mini horses.
Becky Clark of Clark Farms Bushy Hill: The part I like best about OFD is getting to have good conversations with the visitors. Our days are normally so hectic that we hardly have time to get to know our customers. I’m sure we will have a lot of questions about the making of the hard cider, and it will be nice to be able to explain the process. I also love that families can have a nice day here, walking through the orchard and visiting the animals. Everyone loves the goats!
Teresa Coward of Coward Farms: For us, being a new and different kind of farm in town, OFD presents the opportunity to meet local people and explain what tobacco farming entails. We look forward to showing people around and answering questions.
Jenny Emery for Holcomb Farm: Engaging the community in this town treasure and supporting the broader agricultural community are key priorities of the Friends of Holcomb Farm, and OFD allows us to do both, and also to emphasize our model of sustainability. We farm without chemicals, organically enriching the soil as needed; we seek grants and donations to support providing a portion of the food we grow to people who otherwise would not have access; we build and maintain hiking trails and the new Tree Trail so people can experience the historic landscape—all with an eye toward permanent preservation. If OFD allows one more family to discover this community resource for its next hike, entices one more Granby student to pursue a career in agriculture or other environmental endeavor, or encourages one more donor to support our efforts to make our food available to people in need, then it is all worth it.
Susan Accetura of Lost Acres Orchard: We love OFD! It’s always great to see new faces. I think the best part is that it opens up farms that many people would not normally see. We always encourage our visitors to check out the other places participating.
Nancy Butler of Lyric Hill Farm: My favorite part of OFD is being able to give visitors a glimpse of daily life on a small farm and offer information on raising animals and plant growing methods. It is my hope that people will be inspired by visiting our wonderful local farms to try to raise their own animals or grow plants for beauty or food. I love to see little kids get excited about interacting with the animals or getting to sit on a tractor. You never know who might decide to become a vet or farmer because their parents took them to a farm!
Kate Bogli of Maple View Farm: We love participating in OFD! I think it’s really important for visitors to get to talk to farmers and be able to walk around the farm to see how everything works. OFD is a great opportunity for farmers to show off their hard work, to talk to customers for an extended time, answering questions you might not have time or opportunity to do on a regular business day. Farms are unique, as they are not just working to create food and fiber on the land, but also, they often have so much history tied up in the land they farm. Getting kids involved and speaking to them frankly about where their food comes from is one of my favorite parts of OFD.
John O’Brien of O’Brien Nursery: We here at the nursery enjoy OFD because it’s fun to open visitors’ eyes to what is going on here. It’s amazing how often we hear, “I drive by all the time and never realized all this is back here!” It’s great that Granby has so many unique farms to showcase on this day.
-—Compiled by Shirley Murtha