| April 9, 2017 -- The Bridgewater Grange held an open meeting on Wednesday March 8th. It was held at Saint Mark’s church in Bridgewater and started at 7 PM.
Dan Weed was the first speaker. He came from a long line of farmers and always wanted to be a farmer. He had a good dairy farm going until the barn holding all his milking equipment burned down in 2015. He tried to start again as a dairy farmer but he realized at the price he was getting for milk he would barely pay his costs. Looking around this area he found successful local farmers selling vegetables. He made a go of this and sold his produce at local markets and farm stands.
He found an even better model for a farmers business. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has people investing in your farm. For a yearly membership fee a person or family can get fresh local produce for 30 or so weeks every year. Anything grown that exceeds the need of the members will be profit. Every CSA that has opened in Connecticut has filled up its membership list and usually have people on a waiting list for a year or more.
Dan’s farm is located on Ridge Road in New Milford and is called Deerfield Farm. He will grow heritage breeds of vegetables (not hybrids or GMO’s ). He also will attempt to have the farm certified as an Organic farm.
Donna Katsuranis was the second speaker. Donna is a Master Gardener and a director of the Giving Garden in Danbury. Donna along with her brother John Tomascak and numerous volunteers grow lots of vegetables on a little plot of land 50 by 65 feet. They give the produce to local charities and food pantries such as Dorothy Day house in Danbury. She told an amusing story of how she grew up with a large garden in their yard and how much work it was. When she grew up she never wanted to do all that again. But gradually she get interested again and became a Master Gardener. A friend had an idea of starting a garden to give vegetables to local charities but needed advice from Donna. She went from a consultant to director. She loves the work but could always use volunteers.
The final speaker was Curtis Read, the first selectmen of Bridgewater. He told the story of how he came to Bridgewater to run a sheep farm. Agriculture was always important to this town and remains important today. He hopes the Grange will continue as part of Bridgewater’s future.
He gave a brief history of the Grange Hall. It was built around 1850 and had numerous uses as a school, club and meeting hall. The Bridgewater Grange took it over in 1901 but it still was used by other groups such as the Boy Scouts. The Grange sold the building to the town around the year 2000 but continued to use it until 2015. The building was structurally unsound and not fi t for public use.
Mister Read discussed the various plans for the building. The two main choices are 1) a new building resembling the old hall or 2) restoration of the old building. At first he favored a new building but Lisa Burns had pointed out this was a historic building in a historic district and looked into the second option. They passed around different plans. There is more work to be done in the building plans as well as how it will be paid for. There will be a town referendum in the future. Whatever the plan Curtis Read said the town needs a building there that will serve not only the Grange but the community.
The clean-up at Lovers Leap was postponed one week to April 1. The Bridgewater Grange and Roxbury Running Club will be involved along with other hikers, bikers and volunteers from the area.
We will meet at the Lovers Leap State Park parking lot and then walk over the road. Bring shovels, rakes and gloves. We will attempt to clean up the Bridgewater side of the road which has become a poorly maintained single tract path. Everybody is welcomed to volunteer. |
