Danbury News-Times, August 2000
Holbrooks' Hobby Now Livelihood
Chef duJour: Barbara ColesPhotography: Carol Kaliff
Wednesday August 9, 2000
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In this day and age when many farmers are selling their land to housing developers or relegating crop growing to a part-time activity, John and Lynn Holbrook have become full-time farmers.
Until last year the couple owned American Family Crafts Needlework in Danbury. Previously John worked in the marketing business and Lynn as a French teacher.
Now they make their living at the Holbrook Farm on Route 53 in Bethel, specializing in farm-fresh and pick-your-own products.
The Holbrook fields brim with 10-feet-tall sunflowers beckoning visitors with sunny faces. Their two weather-beaten barns and large farmhouse could be subjects for landscape paintings.
"It started off as a hobby," John Holbrook grins, his straw hat perched atop his head.
"I grew up on a farm. I should know better," Lynn chuckles about their venture in her Kentucky-bred accent.
But make no mistake about it; the Holbrooks are serious farmers.
"Wouldn't it be terrible if all the small farmers around here would say, 'Let's leave the vegetable-growing to the Midwest?'" John says. "No child here would be able to experience the taste of really, really fresh vegetables."
Ah, taste.
Now there's a subject that can get John going.
"I get so angry when people use only size or color as criteria for buying fruit or vegetables," John said as he picked up a small peach. "Taste is what matters most."
Mondays through Saturdays, the couple sells pick-your-own vegetables and cut-your-own flowers, along with eggs, jams, honey, syrup and other farm-fresh items.
Succulent blueberries... just-pulled-out-of-the-ground carrots... straight-from-the-stalk corn... free-range eggs... just-plucked-from-the-tree peaches - these are some of the things awaiting customers.
Pick-your-own produce and the farm market have worked well for the Holbrooks.
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Although they bought the farm 32 years ago - when John left Proctor & Gamble and joined Glendenning in Westport - they have sold to the public for only the last five years.
"We started out with open fields," John recalled on a recent Saturday afternoon, his blue eyes wistful.
"First we bought a few beef cows, some Shetland ponies and chickens. For the kids," John continued. (The three Holbrook children - Amy, Stephen and Andrew - are now grown.) "Later we started the gardens."
Over the years they purchased the two barns. The farm market is housed in the historic Rippe Onion Barn, a structure dating to the early 1800s that the Holbrooks moved from Westport to their property. The second barn, transposed from Cannondale, is home to the couple's family pets, which now include pigs, chickens, a rabbit and her baby bunny, and cats with two litters of 3-week-old kittens. The Holbrooks no longer keep cows or horses.
By 1975 the farm became fully operational. In 1995 the Holbrooks delved into the farm market business.
Farming, if you don't already know it, is a sun-up to sundown kind of job. For those crops he doesn't grow himself, John awakens at 5 a.m. six days a week and drives to other farms in the state to provide his customers with the freshest products.
"I guarantee that everything is freshly picked because I go to the orchards and pick them myself," John said.
Lynn, likewise, puts in long hours. After selling crops and arranging fresh flowers for customers all day, she prepares jams, jellies and relishes in her kitchen in the evenings.
The Holbrooks pride themselves on offering only products raised in the state.
"Connecticut Grown" signs appear everywhere in the Holbrook market. The peaches with the sugar still inside. The plums at their juiciest. The tomatoes that you can snack on, the way you would an apple.
As for their own crops, besides those already mentioned, the Holbrooks raise kale and collards, asparagus, lettuce, cabbage, peas, broccoli, Swiss chard, beets, fennel and other herbs.
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John's personal favorites are the unusual garlics they grow, like Cygnet softneck and Prussian porcelain. My favorites are the edible flowers, like the orange or yellow nasturtiums, that add zing, both in taste and in appearance as a garnish to any plate.
In addition, the Holbrooks offer, among other things, freshly baked Portuguese sweet bread and Lynn-made condiments like peach apple jam and Calico Chow Chow, a corn relish with red peppers.
Another source of pride for John and Lynn is that they use no chemicals on their crops, and they buy only from farmers who feel the same way.
The Holbrooks get a lot of satisfaction from their lifestyle.
"I like to tell about a little girl who pulled a carrot out of the ground for the first time and said, 'That's the biggest radish I've ever seen!'" said Lynn, a person of tiny stature with seemingly boundless energy.
Times have not always been easy for the Holbrooks. When their son Andrew was 14, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The way the town of Bethel rallied to raise funds for Andrew's care has made the couple eternally grateful.
Andrew, who just graduated from Davidson University in North Carolina, is fine now and toiling on his parents' farm this summer. He plans to become a minister.
Even though the Holbrooks are entering the age - 60ish - when some couples slow down, they also have big plans for the future.
Gazing over the acres of multi-colored flowers and the plants of many shades of green, Lynn said, "We'd like to stage some events here, all-day affairs for families."
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Holbrook Farm is located at 45 Turkey Plain Road (on Route 53 about 1 mile past the train trestle) in Bethel. Hours are Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Sundays. For availability of crops, call (203) 792-0561.