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Even in the middle of winter when snow is thick on the ground, if you shop at the Village Market in Wilton Center youll find carefully packaged fresh salad mix grown right up the road at Millstone Farm. Not to mention eggs from the 15 varieties of free range chickens that spend their days happily pecking away at grubs and worms, and their nights tucked into their little circus wagons.
Keeping salad greens growing through a New England winter is no mean feat, especially when you dont have a heated greenhouse! The person who makes this all happen is Annie Farrell, the farm consultant who designed and oversees the garden at Millstone Farm.
Annie is something of a latter-day pioneer and describes herself as The Queen of the Homesteaders." Raised in Manhattan, she lived for her summers at the family's country house in North Salem in Westchester, which in those days was mostly a farming community. She decided that she wanted to be a farmer when she grew up! As soon as she could, she left the city and moved to Putnam County, but, as she says, The frontier kept catching up with me, so I moved to Bovina, New York."
She built a house of stone with no electricity or plumbing, gave birth to her children at home, and lived totally off the grid, way before it became the fashionable thing to do. She built a beautiful, symmetrical organic garden (I love symmetry, a mix of colors and shapes, in my gardens), kept chickens, made cheese and preserves, learning everything from the old-timers who still worked their land.
As the 1980s rolled around, Annie saw that many farms in the community were unable to compete with the mega-farms from California, so the farmers were turning to dairy farming. It wasnt long before it was found that the run-off from the dairy farms was causing major pollution to the New York City water supplies. Since Annie had made a name for herself in the community as an organic, sustainable farmer, she was asked to consult for the Watershed Agricultural Council and help the dairy farmers diversify and learn sustainable farming techniques. She built demo organic gardens to show the farmers how it was done, and suddenly she had a new business growing produce on a large scale with two trucks taking produce down to New York Citys new Green Markets.
Today, New York State is peppered with small and large scale organic farmers whose produce can be found in the Farmers Markets that have sprung up in all our towns over the last few years. Many of them have Annie to thank!
Back at Millstone Farm, the gardens have just been planted with all the crops that were raised from seed in the upper greenhouse. The lower greenhouse, technically known as a high tunnel greenhouse, has arrays of raised beds planted with endless varieties of lettuces. The tunnels are covered in heavy plastic throughout the winter, which traps heat and condensation, allowing the lettuce to grow throughout the year.
By March, Millstone Farm is able to supply not just the Village Market but a long list of area restaurants with fresh salad greens and, as the season continues, with a wide selection of other vegetables. Last year, Annie started a small CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) at the farm. Seven families currently belong to Millstone CSA and there is a waitlist. CSA members pre-purchase a share of the crops of a farm and collect their produce on a weekly basis. The Millstone CSA members also work four hours a week, weeding, watering, harvesting, and watching their food grow.
If you like the idea of eating food grown locally, and you live in Wilton, you cant get more local than Millstone Farms fresh salad mix and their colorful eggs. Check them out at the Village Market!
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