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 […]

Great Outdoors

Locally Grown Column

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Maple View Horse Farm, Salmon Brook Street February was tough with all the snow and cold (check out the picture) even though things are less spread out here in the winter than in the summer, that’s still a lot of snow to trudge through and move. Animals and farmers are always happy to see the calendar turn to March with its promise of longer days, warmer temperatures and seeds sprouting. Even if you still get blasted with some cold, the end is in sight. We’ll start teaching beginner horseback r […]

Great Outdoors

Holcomb Farm Updates

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East Side Fields Before snowfall, volunteers made their final assault for 2014, pushing back the overgrowth at the edges of the east side fields and battling invasive growth, such as the dreaded Oriental bittersweet, autumn olive and multi-flora rose. On your next trip by the Farm, check out the progress in the field diagonally across from the farmhouse. Much of the brush along the decrepit fencing paralleling Simsbury Road has been removed, swaths of brush at the field edges has been cut out, […]

Great Outdoors

Holcomb Farm Prospered in 2014

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Fresh Access Accomplishments and Plans Holcomb Farm’s Fresh Access program prospered in 2014, supplying over 10,000 pounds of fresh, chemical-free vegetables to those who cannot access them readily. Fresh Access provided substantial pounds of produce to the Granby Senior Center and the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford. These vegetables included lettuce, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, chard, hot peppers and much more. But that’s not all. The program made ma […]