Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/grow/page/47/)
At Holcomb Farm, the gravel path leading up to the East Fields from Day Street South is bordered by brilliant blue cornflowers (above) attracting all sorts of bees, and by Joe-Pye weed (below).
This has been a most disconcerting year, but one thing here in Granby has remained constant: the power of agriculture.
Fine artist Kate Emery auctioned an original oil painting to benefit the Friends of Holcomb Farm, a Granby-based organization devoted to preserving historic farmland and utilizing sustainable farming methods to feed local families and help neighbors in need.
How did two young people with no history of farming come to set up a pretty mind-boggling farm on Wells Road? Well, it wasn’t a direct path.
Emma Hoyt, the partner of Holcomb Farm’s Farmer Joe O’Grady, has always had a fondness for chickens. She brought two of her own to Granby when the couple moved into the farmhouse on Simsbury Road.
September is the perfect time to take action on mugwort, an aggressive perennial that rapidly takes over uncultivated and disturbed areas such as streambanks and waysides.
When the pandemic hit, Michelle Niedermeyer knew she couldn’t host the annual seasonal farmers’ markets at Lost Acres Vineyard, so she and the Granby Agricultural Commission came up with a plan that makes it possible for residents of Granby, East Granby, East Hartland and Simsbury to obtain vegetables, cheese, wine and specialty meats without leaving their homes: the Virtual Farmers’ Market.
Long idle since Dr. Forrest Davis’s death, the large farm on the corner of Rte. 189 and Wells Road is now in capable hands that will keep the farming tradition going, although not with cattle.
Clark Farms on Bushy Hill Road is expanding its apple U-pick to Thursday and Friday, as well as the usual Saturday and Sunday in an effort to spread out the traffic and allow for social distancing.
When the coronavirus hit, Holcomb Farm Summer CSA shares sold out in record time and a lengthy waitlist developed.