Great Outdoors

Friends of Holcomb Farm Progressive Dinner

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Please join us on Saturday, June 20, for an evening of good food and friendship as the Friends of Holcomb Farm host its annual Progressive Dinner. See the inside of the newly renovated and constructed Three Season Pavilion as the evening begins with beverages and appetizers in the North Barn. Guests will then proceed to an assigned host’s home for small group dinners that include fresh Holcomb Farm produce. The event culminates with dessert for all, hosted by Jenny and Dave Emery at Emery Farm […]

Great Outdoors

Granby’s Four Season Farm

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CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it is the best way to support your local farm and improve your own health. CSA members pay wholesale prices before the season begins, giving the farm much-needed income to purchase seeds, supplies and hire staff, and guaranteeing members a weekly supply of fresh vegetables from June to October. Beyond Organic …. Our growing methods are best described as holistic. We are not “certified” organic because our standards far exce […]

Great Outdoors

Land Trust acquisition paved the way for beneficial relationship with Hartford Foundation

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By Shirley MurthaIn addition to providing Granby with 225.59 acres of preserved open space, the 1975 and 1982 donations of the Stanley K. Dimock properties introduced the Granby Land Trust to the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and set the stage for a long term beneficial relationship between the two organizations. Donated by Dimock’s wife Bertha as a living memorial to her husband’s love of nature, the property is located on Legeyt Road at the Granby/Barkhamsted town line. It is compris […]

Great Outdoors

Benchmark of spring—the peepers are back!

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Benchmark of spring—the peepers are back! By Shirley Murtha For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been hearing that iconic audible performance that means spring has finally arrived: the mating call of the tiny amphibian known as the spring peeper, or Hyla crucifer. For such a small creature (an inch or just a bit over), the little frog has really got a set of pipes! Actually, the “pipes” is a thin membranous vocal sac, an out-pocketing from the floor of the mouth. When the frog wants to […]

Great Outdoors

Locally Grown Column

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O’Brien Nurserymen, Wells Road We like to say the month of May doesn’t exist, because all we do is work, sleep, and enjoy the beauty! As a gardener it is the best month of the year. Early in the month the subtle epimediums flower their heads off. We love these tough, dependable, long-lived plants that feature special foliage, delicate bishop cap flowers and even fall color. When we hear Japanese maple, we think fall color. Yet many varieties of Acer palmatum and Acer japonicum featu […]

Great Outdoors

Local eating tips from your family farmer

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Local eating tips from your family farmer By Kate Bogli The growing season is coming up and it sounds fun to join the club of Local Foodies, but there’s work, kids activities, let’s face it, Life. Who has time to spend all day going around to local farms to gather up food you don’t think your kids or your husband are going to eat anyway? Here are my top five ways to make the transition from a big-box processed food diet to local veggie-based whole foods diet (really, it&rsquo […]

Great Outdoors

Three Votes A Day

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Three Votes a Day Holcomb Farm—One of Many Local Polling Locations By Joe O’Grady I once heard the owner of Bobolink Dairy in New Jersey say that, “you have three votes a day to decide what kind of world you want to live in…breakfast, lunch and dinner.” I studied politics at college and it remains an obsessive addiction that I wish I could quit. So when I heard this, a stadium full of light bulbs went off and I realized the truth and profundity of the statement. Roughly 40 […]

Great Outdoors

Locally Grown

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Old Beech Farm – Case StreetWe just got back from the National Western Stock Show where we go to select the bulls that we will use for artificial insemination this year. The fall calves are growing out nicely; we have some outstanding heifers. Spring calving is almost here so time to get the birthing pens ready and prepare to take those 2 a.m. walks to the barn to check on expectant mothers. Cold weather always makes for extra chores. Maple View Farm – Salmon Brook Street We want YOU to come […]

Great Outdoors

GLT and Holcomb Farm Host Bear Talk

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Granby Land Trust and Holcomb Farm host bear talk By Trish Percival*UPDATE*  Due to the overwhelming response, the location has been changed – it will now be held in the Granby Senior Center.  Thanks, Jill Ford (Administrator at Holcomb Farm.) As the black bear population continues to rebound in Connecticut, it is important that people better understand these magnificent creatures. To help Granby residents of all ages learn more about bears, the Granby Land Trust and Holcomb Farm w […]

Great Outdoors

Taking Care of a Tree for 54 years!

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Granby resident takes care of a tree for 54 years By John R. Neib For 54 years, Granby resident Dale Usko has nurtured a grapefruit tree, and that’s longer than she’s known her husband, James. “I’ve known my husband for 44 years,” she said, “the tree’s part of the package that came with me that he had to accept.” When Usko was 12 years old, she planted a seed from the grapefruit she had for breakfast one morning, because she and fellow student […]