Date: Fri 30-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

farm-stands-harvest

Full Text:

WITH PHOTOS: The Pick Of The Season

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

If you think a farmers' market is the only place to find fresh produce and

flowers, you are in for a real treat. Newtown has five farm stands and four

pick-your-own patches that include both the prosaic as well as the unexpected.

These farms have been operated by family members for generations and each

warrants a visit because they are as distinct as those who till the soil and

harvest the bounty.

Cherry Grove Farm Stand is at the intersection of Platt's Hill Road, Hundred

Acres, and Palestine. The Pick-Your-Own-Blueberry Patch is at the intersection

of Eden Hill and Hi Barlow roads (you pay for the blueberries at the Cherry

Grove Farm, however.) The Mayer family has been growing vegetables for more

than 100 years, and offers leeks, red onions, both white and yellow Spanish

onions, eggplant, pickling cukes, some corn, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, goldrush

zucchini, yellow summer squash, winter squash, both yellow and red tomatoes,

purple string beans (they turn bright green when you cook them), assorted hot

peppers including jalapeno, Hungarian, and cherry hot Italian peppers, and

some herbs. (Customers are invited to take a few sprigs of dill, parsley, and

sage at no cost.) Cut-your-own zinnias, gladiolus, and sunflowers await

harvest in small gardens near the farm stand.

"Our vegetables are pretty much organic. We don't use any sprays," said

Eleanor Mayer. "That's why you may see an occasional worm."

The 600 blueberry bushes have some netting over them but the birds manage to

get their fill anyway, which seems to be all right with the Mayers. They are

mid-season berries which continue until fall.

"Back in the old days [my family] used to take vegetables to the north end of

Bridgeport by horse and wagon. It would take a day to get ready, a day to go,

and a day to rest up," said Miss Mayer. "We always raised special vegetables

for the Danbury Fair. For 30 years my father and I constructed exhibits. A

week to ten days before the fair we worked around the clock to construct the

exhibit."

The centerpiece for the exhibit was always tied to the theme of the fair. One

year, when Jimmy Carter was in office, the Mayers had peanut plants growing in

soil that was sheared and glassed so the roots could be observed. Another year

they created a growing cranberry bog.

Cedar Hill Farm Stand and Pick-Your-Own Vegetables are found at 157 Brushy

Hill Road; open daily, 9 am to 6 pm. You can pick or purchase cucumbers, green

beans, eggplants, peppers, squash, plum tomatoes, and beets. The farm stand

also has hot frying and bell peppers, squash, red and white potatoes, summer

squash, zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, pikcling cucumbers, beans,

lettuce, basil, dill, parsely, arugula, cilantro, butter and sugar corn, mums,

and fresh cut flowers.

"We provide half bushel containers with a plastic liner, and customers can

pick one [kind of vegetable] per basket or do a `garden run' if they don't

really need half a bushel of tomatoes," said Linda Hufner. "We plant in

succession - stagger them, so it will go through a season."

Now is the prime time for picking things on the list at the farm stand. The

round and long plum tomatoes are especially popular for making sauce because

there are less seeds and more pulp, she said. "The larger-sized tomatoes are

slower to ripen - the crop is there but it's just going to be a matter of

time."

"To me, it's like therapy. Even if I don't want anything - I pick and give

things to my tenants," said Pasquale Muraca of Bethel, who usually appears at

Cedar Hill Farm with a picnic lunch which he eats before venturing out in the

field. "We discuss problems with our kids. And we're out here where it's nice

fresh air."

Ferris Acres Farm Stand , 144 Sugar Street (Route 302), Newtown, 270-1406,

opens on weekends beginning September 28. The stand has gourds, corn stalks,

seasonal wooden crafts, regular and miniature Indian corn, mums, winter squash

(butternut, acorn, and buttercup), bales of hay, and painted seasonal wooden

crafts. The straw and dried flowers are grown on the farm and dried by the

Ferris family. The farm also has a pumpkin patch near the stand.

Castle Hill Farm Pumpkin Patch and Hayrides , 40 Sugar Lane, Newtown,

426-5487, open every day beginning the first weekend in October. The pumpkin

patch has all sized pumpkins up to 150-pounders. The farm also sells corn

stalks. Hay rides are offered each day; moonlight hayrides are given by

reservation.

Castle Hill Farm and Ferris Acres Farm are primarily dairy farms. At both

locations, visitors will see cows grazing on nearby hills and fields.

Mitchell Farm Road Side Stand and Pick-Your-Own Pumpkins, through Halloween,

primary location is Route 25 at the Botsford Post Office, Tuesday through

Fridays 11 am to 6 pm, and Sundays 11 am to 6 pm; often also at Exit 11

commuter parking lot on weekends (only those trucks with Mitchell Farm logo

are connected with the farm). Pick-your-own pumpkins and 45-minute hay rides

for groups of ten or more (reservations required) at the farm which is located

just over the border in Southbury: Take Glen Road, go over bridge and turn

left on River Road, then follow signs for about two miles; 264-4799.

The farm stands offer pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, hay, sweet corn,

tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, hot peppers, apples,

cantaloupes, green beans, red and white potatoes, pickling and regular

cucumbers, onions, and, in the fall, pears, winter squash, and a wider variety

of apples. Group hay rides at the farm include miniature pumpkins for each

participant; cider and apples are available.

"It's a lot of fun for us. It's fun to watch families picking their pumpkins -

some people take an hour to find the `perfect' pumpkin," said Jodi Mitchell.

"It's been such a crazy season because things came so late. We usually have

corn by June 28 and didn't have till mid-July because the spring was too cold

and damp."