Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/grow/friends-of-holcomb-farm/page/8/)
Six years ago, the Friends of Holcomb Farm (FOHF) Fresh Access program that provides produce grown at the farm to people in need, set a goal to increase its impact. We focused on serving Granby, first—through the Senior Center, Social Services, and the Waste Not Want Not Community Kitchen.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for so many, and the Friends of Holcomb Farm sends its heartfelt hope for comfort for all with loss. We also know from the snowshoe and ski trails throughout Holcomb Farm that many have found some consolation in their (re)discovery of all that Granby has to offer in open spaces, woodland trails and scenic views.
Welcome to 2021. Things may seem very quiet at Holcomb Farm this time of year, but in fact the Friends of Holcomb Farm are busy welcoming almost 100 new members through our year-end fundraising appeals and building an army of Tree Trail Stewards to assure that the investments we are making in the fields and forests are accessible to the whole community.
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.
Friends of Holcomb Farm volunteers have been busy all year expanding the Holcomb Tree Trail and enhancing the miles of trails throughout our woodlands; and the community has noticed.
When Mark Fiorentino heard about the Fresh Access program at Holcomb Farm, he knew that he wanted to get involved. In fact, the Farm was one of the selling points offered by their realtor when he and his wife were looking to move here in 2009 from Las Vegas.
Last month we profiled Jenny Emery, the new executive director of Holcomb Farm. In this issue, and each upcoming one, we will feature other members of the Friends of Holcomb Farm and the staff.
If you Google “farming in November,” you will find lots of interesting descriptors: a time of transitions, a time for gleaning, a time to take stock. At Holcomb Farm, our strategic focus on “growing the growing season” means that while the last CSA summer share has been distributed, and the retail farm store has closed for the year, the farming continues.
November is typically when we hold our annual Harvest Dinner and Silent Auction, our single largest fundraiser in support of Fresh Access, through which Holcomb Farm grows and distributes produce to people in need in Granby and the greater Hartford Region. But, of course, there is nothing typical about 2020: so, no Harvest Dinner fundraiser this year.
In the absence of a true executive director, the Friends of Holcomb Farm board president Bob Bystrowski saw the need for a person to bridge the goals of the board with community and financial resources.