Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/author/shirley-murtha/)
Having driven by the empty town-owned field across the street from Maple View Farm for 24 years, Susan Ranstead often thought how beautiful it would be if this field were filled with flowers. This year, she decided to take action to see if it would be possible.
Farmington native Brittany Gauthier wanted to experience what it would be like to work on a farm, to be directly involved with the food she ate. A history of farming on her mother’s side of the family and her early career as an educator for Whole Foods Market had given rise to this curiosity, although it took her a few years to actually get her hands in the soil.
Thanks to the success of the COVID vaccination program, things are beginning to return to normal, and one of those normal things is having Granby’s Open Farm Day!
Being the partner of farmer Joe O’Grady, Emma Hoyt is well aware of the goings on around Holcomb Farm. Last year, in fact, the Drummer published a story about her mobile chicken coop and its productive occupants who are now laying lots of eggs and eating lots of insect pests in the growing fields.
In the fall of 2006, Donna Snyder arrived in Granby with her young family, returning to the New England area where she had been born and raised. The next spring, she discovered Holcomb Farm when she was looking for a place to purchase pick-your-own vegetables.
The Granby Land Trust has long understood the consequences that mowing inflicts on the organisms that inhabit the fields on its properties, and has taken action to ensure the least detrimental effects possible. For example, around eight years ago, mowing was banned on the agricultural field at the Nuckols Preserve to protect the turtles and snakes.
Twelve years ago, Sue Canavan moved back to Connecticut where she had grown up in Woodstock. Her husband’s new job at the Travelers brought them both back to the kind of country town they both found so pleasing after stints in New York City and San Francisco.
Born and raised in Granby, Rocky Piccirillo has had a lifelong connection to Holcomb Farm. Hiking with family up to the ridge and attending nature programs in the education center when he was a young lad instilled an affection for the place that remains to this day.
Having been born in Farmersville, Ohio near Dayton, and having two sets of grandparents who were farmers, Eric Lukingbeal is no stranger to agriculture. Although his first job was not what you’d call romantic (picking big green cutworms off of tobacco leaves), he developed what would become a life-long appreciation for farming.
Jack Lareau first encountered Holcomb Farm in the 1970s when he cross-country skied from Case Street through Enders and McLean’s to the Farm. That was back in the days before he knew much about the Farm and its educational programs and farming operation.