An Acre Plus

Introduction: So many mistakes ...

I made my share of mistakes that first season.  March is much too late to plant morning glory seed.  They need a January start in a greenhouse to flourish in Connecticut.  Sweet peas are one of those plants I now designate “heartbreakers” -- so easy to love, so useless to grow.  And those poor tomatoes!  Early April is much too early to plant them.  I should have waited until late May when “all danger of frost is past.”  But even with all the errors, I was doing what I loved -- growing and selling flowers.

The second focus of my story is other local farmers.  Our lives follow the beat of the same metronome.  The Saturday morning Farmers Market in Stonington is central in each of our lives.  We share a passion for food and flowers, a commitment to the land and to our work.  We love being outside, love to grow things and insist on shaping our own lives.  I that sense, we are a subset of the quintessential American entrepreneur.  Our major resources are our land, our ingenuity, and a spell of good weather. 

My final task is to tuck all our local stories into the larger picture of American agriculture.  Well-educated, creative and extremely energetic men and women, we artisan-farmers are part of a nationwide, agricultural movement: 21st century small scale-farmers who produce speciality products and sell them directly to our customers.  Luckily, the United States Department of Agriculture publishes a census every five years so we can watch this movement grow.