{"id":6104,"date":"2023-01-10T11:22:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T16:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/?p=6104"},"modified":"2023-01-13T11:00:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T16:00:46","slug":"st-john-farm-permanently-protected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/st-john-farm-permanently-protected\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John Farm permanently protected!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Kimball Cartwright, Development Director<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Squeaking in before the 2023 New Year, 86 acres of St. John farm in Jewett City were preserved forever. As human beings, our busy lives put pressure on us to make short-term decisions that save us time. But some things simply cannot be rushed – like developing relationships and trust. Fortunately for farmland in CT, CFT’s donor community shares that value, and allows us to show up with patience and persistence in our partnerships. I visited the Farm to get more of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking down the road on a crisp December day along the wooden fence between Larry and Laurel St. John\u2019s house and the St. John Farm barn, the first thing I heard from Larry was a deep breath, followed by: \u201cThere\u2019s a peace to this open space.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Fence
St. John Farm in December<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, December 20th<\/sup>, Larry and Laurel worked with Kathleen Doherty, CFT\u2019s Conservation Manager, to finalize the process of preserving the Jewett City farm that had been in the family since 1941. Larry St. John’s grandparents operated a dairy farm, as did Larry’s father, before converting the farm to beef. More than three generations have grown up on the 86 acres of pasture and woods. Larry and Laurel now have young great grandchildren who will come to know the farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Back
St. John Farm barn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That Tuesday, I took a walking tour of the farm with Larry and Kathleen. Reflecting on his childhood at the farm, Larry mentioned how the land and caring for it became deeply part of himself: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a kid I was picking up rocks to clear the field, and I thought to myself even at the time \u2018I\u2019ll be damned if I put buildings where I\u2019ve cleaned up all these rocks.\u2019\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Larry wasn\u2019t alone in his love for the soil. In the last six months of his life, Larry\u2019s father repeatedly urged him, \u201cLarry, take care of the farm.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry promised he would. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI\u2019ve kept that promise,\u201d Larry reflected, as he walked with Kathleen and me up to his barn. \u201cThe fields, woods, and animals, it all is more peaceful now knowing the land can only be used for farmland.\u201d He added, \u201cOur ashes will be laid to rest here.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pasture
St. John Farm pasture looking to barn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Preparation for farmland preservation takes time. One important step that Larry and Laurel took prior to CFT\u2019s involvement was ensuring all the property lines and buildings matched with the legal documents. Another important consideration was the agricultural easement, the legal arrangement ensuring the property can only be used as farmland. The St. Johns were fortunate and generous enough to donate the easement to CFT. They also made a cash donation towards the long-term stewardship of the land at the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathleen remarked that Larry and Laurel had\nalready vetted us with friends and fellow farmers out in eastern CT, before\nmaking the decision to get in touch in 2022. CFT Board member Tim Slate played\na key connecting role between Larry and CFT\u2019s Executive Director Elisabeth Moore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked Larry and Laurel what motivated them to involve CFT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurel offered, of meeting Kathleen: \u201cKathleen\u2019s words were \u2018You love this land and we\u2019ll make sure your wishes for it come true.\u2019\u201d Larry added \u201cThere was a calmness about Kathleen and I was very impressed with Elisabeth\u2019s personal story for caring about farmland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stormwater
Retention pond to manage flooding and stormwater on the pasture<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My tour finished up with a walk by two large ponds Larry had constructed to mitigate seasonal flooding in the pasture that was surrounded by old stone walls. I remarked to him that I hadn\u2019t seen such nicely kept stone walls on an active farm in a long time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve kept my promise\u201d Larry repeated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Larry
Larry and Laurel St. John (in warmer weather)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kimball Cartwright, Development Director Squeaking in before the 2023 New Year, 86 acres of St. John farm in Jewett City were preserved forever. As human beings, our busy lives put pressure on us to make short-term decisions that save us time. But some things simply cannot be rushed – like developing relationships and trust. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6108,"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-6104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6104"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6147,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions\/6147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}