{"id":5455,"date":"2020-11-30T13:56:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T18:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/?p=5455"},"modified":"2021-09-20T12:27:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T16:27:07","slug":"castlehillfarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/castlehillfarm\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Valued by Newtown Community Protected Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Protected by: U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), <\/strong>Town of Newtown, and Connecticut Farmland Trust
Year Protected: 2020<\/strong>
Acres: <\/b>31<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-one acres of Castle Hill Farm, including its well-known corn maze field, were protected in November of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Paproski family, which has owned the farm since 1927, has created a popular destination throughout the year for area families who enjoy shopping at the farm stand, visiting its pumpkin patch, and picking out a Christmas tree. The Paproskis\u2019 farm, considered to be part of the fabric of the Newtown community, recently expanded its business to provide special events and corporate gatherings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When I look back to 1981, when my husband Steve\u2019s dad died, he was the only family member who was truly in this to preserve the farm. I really have to give Steve credit for that. The land was in Steve\u2019s family since 1927. Steve is named after the grandfather who immigrated here from Ukraine. The grandfather was a groundskeeper and the grandmother was a housekeeper. (Together) they bought two farms and decided whichever one sold first, they would keep the other one. They ended up keeping this one.<\/em>” -Diana Paproski<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agritourism, which includes pumpkin picking, cut-your-own Christmas trees, and special events, is becoming more common in New England. It\u2019s a way for farms to generate extra income by welcoming visitors to the farm for family-fun activities. Since agritourism makes preserving farmland more complicated, CFT provided a dynamic conservation strategy to accommodate the agritourism on Castle Hill Farm. Such allotments set CFT apart as an organization that works every angle to help farmers protect their land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Paproski family also grows hay and corn. They work diligently to maintain a total of over one hundred acres of farmland. The thirty-one acres that are now protected are the most valuable and the most beautiful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019m so happy that the people in Newtown can drive down 302 and look at that beautiful field. And to be able to say that it\u2019ll be like that forever, that\u2019s wonderful. That\u2019s really nice.”<\/em> – Diana Paproski<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castle Hill Farm was protected in a joint effort by partners USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Services (USDA-NRCS), the Town of Newtown, and CFT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posted November 30, 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protected by: U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), Town of Newtown, and Connecticut Farmland TrustYear Protected: 2020Acres: 31 Thirty-one acres of Castle Hill Farm, including its well-known corn maze field, were protected in November of 2020. The Paproski family, which has owned the farm since 1927, has created a popular destination throughout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5588,"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5455\/revisions\/5588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}