Printer Friendly Version - Finding Family In Farming

Recently on our little farm, as I was driven rather mindlessly to complete the task before me with great vigor, my gratitude for the miracle of the soil momentarily waned. And so, as I crouched down near the ground to clear the tines of dirt on our small tiller used to prepare the beds for a set of early spring seedlings, I paused in awe while listening to the gentle rumbling of the sponge-like soil expanding beneath the sun’s warm rays. This humble sound, resonating deeply into my bones, reminded me of why I love farming and farmers in the first place. No matter how many days and years I spend outside, the Earth always finds a way to surprise me with its clever instruction on how much this forever pupil still has to learn.

I’m grateful for this work because it allows me the time to be in close proximity to the dirt, to plants, the weather, and the wild animals. I value the wisdom gleaned by farmers because of their extended connection to the soil locked in between their fingers and beneath their feet. After all, the Latin word “humus,” meaning earth or ground, is the root of our English word “human.” In essence, we humans are of the Earth or Earthlings, designed over many millions upon millions of years to be close and connected to the whole Earth family. Sometimes, we all need these reminders of where we come from and how we just might repair the breach between the human world and all other things. We are all from this great, beautiful blue planet that yearns for us to remember how to be in the right relationship with each other, and so it’s due time for us all to reconnect with this one Earth family. As poet and prophet Mary Oliver once wrote, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Let’s love the soil that loves us each day.

Many of the people, places, and farmers previously featured in this column have some direct connection to the great work unfolding each passing season at Four Root Farm in East Haddam, which participates in several farmers markets, including East Haddam, Madison, and Cityseed’s Wooster Square market. The farm itself and names of the farmers who call it home consistently have been presented to me over the past year or two as a place and people I should know. I had the great pleasure of meeting two of them, Rachel Berg and Elise Cusano, and getting a tour of the farm on a cloudy, wet day filled with the good nature of joyful conversation.

Started in 2015, but with roots running several years beforehand, Four Root Farm stands atop a hill as a beacon for what's possible when family and friends join together in a common purpose to cultivate good food, health, flowers, and community in our region.

SGM: I love this column because it gives me an opportunity to connect with seasoned elder farmers, sometimes with gruff exteriors and warm hearts, as well as the enthusiastic younger farmers doing and trying new things in the area.

SGM: I first heard about Four Root Farm a few years ago from some other younger farmer friends who did some training here. Since then, many other folks seem to either know you or have worked with you before starting their own farms. All roads seem to go through Four Root! Can you tell me a little about how the farm started and your experience getting to this place?

EC: Yeah, sure. So, Rachel and I met through CitySeed New Haven Farmers Market. We were both interning for the markets so we could be closer to good food producers, and we met so many cool farmers. After a few years, we wanted to start experiencing the markets “on the other side of the tables.”

RB: Towards the end of my time at CitySeed, I moved to Washington State and WOOFed (work program on organic farms) at a farm on Orcas Island to begin learning the trade. By the time I returned, Elise was working as the farm manager at North 40 Farms in Massachusetts, and I began working at Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge. One of our other founders, Aaron Taylor, was working there as well at the time. At some point, Elise came back and worked for a while at Massaro as well. So the three of us connected and took a sort of “how do you start a farm class” together. Aaron and Caitlin (Taylor), who are married, became caretakers for the Thomas Darling House in Woodbridge around that time, and I went onto Vermont to take the Farmer Training Program at UVM. I know it’s such a long and twisted tale!

SGM: It’s wonderful! I love the web and networking that went on to get here.

EC: When Rachel returned, the four of us put our heads together and shared our dreams of starting our own farm. We were limited in how much we could do and invest in the places we worked at but didn’t own ourselves. We also all shared the common notion that none of us wanted to try starting our own farm entirely on our own. That just seemed like an enormous undertaking.

RB: I can’t even remember much of those early conversations. (chuckles) All I remember is there was a time when we were four people and then a time when we became four people who wanted to start a farm together! With all of us, it seemed more possible. For financial reasons, Connecticut is a challenging place to start a farm. Elise and I had talked about going up to Vermont instead, but while looking for about a year, we finally came across this old house with land here in East Haddam.

SGM: That’s amazing. So, when did this actually happen? Help me put together the timeline.

EC: There was a time when we almost gave up! One day in 2015, Caitlin, Aaron, and Rachel had tickets to see a show at the Goodspeed Theater and this listing on Zillow came up while they were driving. So, they decided to stop by before the show and absolutely loved it.

SGM: What an incredible origin story. Thank you for sharing. What can you tell me about some of your early season practices here?

RB: As far as infrastructure, during the winter months, we utilize the walk-in coolers as our seed starting rooms for the insulated heat effect they provide when not being used for vegetable storage.

EC: The lights are really enough to heat the space and help us grow our early season flowers and vegetables. Then during the height of the growing season we are able to keep the multiple coolers at various temperatures to store the different vegetables.

RB: Throughout the years, we have dug a few wells for irrigation, built the wash stations, and have added multiple greenhouses for season extension and protection from the elements. We have been fortunate enough to get some grant funding for the projects from the Department of Agriculture as well.

SGM: It’s all quite an operation. How much land do you grow on, and how do you manage the labor?

EC: Well, Rachel and I work full-time on the farm. Aaron works part-time here while he is getting CT Greenhouse Company up and running with his business partner. Caitlin manages all of our communications, graphics, and website while she continues to work as an architect. The last few years, we have been hiring about three to six additional crew to help us make it all work. As far as acreage, we always find the question funny because if you asked any of us individually, we would each give you a different answer. Sometimes it is hard to count!

RB: It’s true. I think between our two fields, we probably grow on about 4 acres.

EC: We have a small orchard and berry picking field. There are hardy kiwis, pawpaw fruit, blackberries, hawthorn berries, and a few others. We all get excited about trying new things and adding to the natural diversity of the place.

SGM: The four of you are such accomplished and deeply educated folks from a variety of professional backgrounds. With the ways in which privilege and access work in our society, it seems you all could be doing so many other things than subjecting yourselves to the mud! Is it something you always dreamed about or your families participated in? Why are you here farming?

RB: I think we all would have different answers. For Caitlin and Aaron, they might say something about how important it is to share healthy food and cooking with their family and others. A turning point for me was interning with CitySeed and realizing how much I liked being outside for the majority of the day. I also enjoy manual labor and like to say I enjoy numbers. This is one of a handful of jobs where I can make spreadsheets and work outside in one day! I get to nourish so many parts of myself through this work. I also love the local accountability of small community farms like this one. And, I enjoy the seasonality of it when I get to do different things throughout the rhythm of the year.

EC: We are all first-generation farmers, but my dad was born in Italy. Everyone from that tiny town grew on subsistence farms, so when they immigrated here, my grandfather had this really incredible garden that I grew up in. That culture was based around gathering together for sharing food and meals with one another. And similarly to Rachel, I love the ways I get to encounter the ways the farm changes through the seasons. I worked a desk job for a little while before this, but being a farmer allows me to use my brain and hands. For me, having the farm also supports the lifestyle of community that I want for myself. We share meals and tools and lots of moments with each other by working on and operating this farm together.

SGM: Farming seems to have allowed you to deepen your proximity to the natural world and your ancestry while helping to live out your values connected to local economies and good stewardship of the land. Can you tell me a few things about the growing practices you use to promote your relationship to the land?

EC: We grow many of the flowers for farmers markets in the greenhouses. We also wholesale with the Connecticut Flower Collective. We bring our product, with about 20 other farmers, to Meriden where florists and wedding designers can come and pick up products from us instead of relying on flowers grown thousands of miles away, out of the country.

RB: One nice thing about the flowers is they always follow tomatoes in our crop rotation, and we use black sheet mulch when planting our tomatoes. So, this creates a nice, clean bed for the flowers to grow in. We grow all of our seedlings in the starter mix from Vermont Compost and then place an order once a year with them to spread nutrients back into places where the soil appears a little undernourished. One of our next projects is actually to start creating our own composting systems on-site.

EC: We are a certified organic flower and vegetable-producing farm. We practice other good soil habits like minimal tillage with a BCS walk-behind tractor. We spray when we need to for pests with organic products, but we primarily try to use exclusion practices by adding row covers and planting deterring species. We also stopped growing certain things, like potatoes because they just brought in too many damaging insects.

SGM: Thank you for taking so much time with me today! It’s been inspiring and educational. For folks who want to support their local farms, what else do you think is essential for them to know?

RB: There is such joy in eating seasonally. Nothing can beat the feeling of gorging yourself on squash for a month before thinking you never want to eat it again, only to be so excited to see it the following year! (laughs) Each season brings new things. In a culture where we can get any kind of food at any point during the year, try picking a couple things you are going to commit to only eating when they are in season. It’ll bring you a deeper joy and appreciation.

EC: Local, organic flowers are really important to our ecosystem. This area used to be a big part of the floral industry, and I think we are getting back to that place. People might ask, why does it matter if my flowers are organic when I am not going to eat them?! But, it does matter to the areas otherwise getting sprayed with harmful chemicals, and it matters to the workers exposed to them. There are exciting things happening with flowers in Connecticut, and people should check out how they can do more to support this enormously diverse system of local flowers, which can’t be found anywhere else.

Sean Gargamelli-McCreight is co-founder of the Benincasa Community farm in North Guilford. His column, “Homegrown,” is about his work on the farm and about other farms in the area. Benincasa partners with local organizations, churches, and school groups to share about sustainable community-based food production as well as grow and deliver free, healthy organic produce to those in need. You can find out more about Benincasa Community and reach Sean by visiting www.benincasacommunity.org

The team at Four Root Farm in East Haddam inncludes, left to right, Rachel Berg, Kiersten Kan, Aaron Taylor, Caitlin Taylor, Elise Cusano, Caley Brooks, and Brittany Hall. Photo courtesy of Four Root Farm

Four Root Farm participates in several farmers markets, including East Haddam, Madison, and Cityseed’s Wooster Square Market in New Haven. Photo courtesy of Four Root Farm

Four Root Farm includes about four acres of fields, including a small orchard and berry picking field. There are also hardy kiwis, pawpaw fruit, blackberries, hawthorn berries, and a few others. Photo courtesy of Four Root Farm

Elise Cusano of Four Root Farm says “local, organic flowers are really important to our ecosystem. This area used to be a big part of the floral industry, and I think we are getting back to that place. Photo courtesy of Four Root Farm

Rachel Berg tending to the seedlings on Four Root Farm in East Haddam. Photo courtesy of Four Root Farm