Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/grow/page/63/)
This spring, take a drive down Simsbury Road in West Granby, enjoy the beautiful barns and farm fields and meadows of Holcomb Farm as they come to life, and give thanks to the Granby volunteers who have helped make it so. Among the many volunteers, there is one, lovingly known as the Posse, worth considering.
Pigs are incredibly prolific. Mamma Pigs come into heat at all times of the year (unlike goat or sheep that are bred seasonally) and, since she gives birth in under four months (three months, three weeks and three days), she can be bred twice a year.
Planting has begun, and sales of CSA summer shares are well underway. Thanks to careful nurturing of the soil (as well as new equipment), Farmer Joe reports increasing productivity is making even more CSA shares available, so it’s not too late to sign up.
Holcomb Farm’s trails are always open and welcoming, and spring is a special time. You can visit on your own, any time; the eastern fields are easily accessible from the junction of Simsbury Road and Day Street South, and the views are spectacular.
The Friends of Holcomb Farm’s Fresh Access program joined with one of its institutional partners, Healing Meals, to apply for a “donor-advised fund” grant through the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. We received a $4,000 grant from an anonymous donor fund that will help provide produce and equipment to the Healing Meals Community Project.
The fences for the riding rings at Holcomb Farm and Salmon Brook Park were replaced this winter, funded by a grant and accomplished through the efforts of many in the community. In the spring of 2017, the Granby Horse Council was notified by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving that it was eligible to apply for funding from the Pomeroy-Brace Fund for a community project in Granby.
Saturday, May 5 is the Annual Progressive Dinner. If you are interested and still without a ticket, contact Cathy at cathy@holcombfarm.org.
The community garden plot gardens are located just north of Ahrens Park on Hungary Road and are divided into an organic section and a conventional one. A pump well provides a water supply.
About 25 people turned out at the Emery Farm Sugar House on March 18 for a hands-on demonstration of how maple syrup is made. Granby Land Trust Board Member Dave Emery taught his visitors, many of whom were fewer than three feet tall, about the process of sugaring, from sap collection, to boiling, to the filtering and bottling of the finished product. Everyone was invited to taste some Emery Farm maple syrup—served, deliciously, over snow!
