{"id":6365,"date":"2024-03-04T12:24:12","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T17:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/?p=6365"},"modified":"2024-03-04T12:24:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T17:24:13","slug":"preserving-the-past-cultivating-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/preserving-the-past-cultivating-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving the Past, Cultivating the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Layla Ennis and Kimball Cartwright<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We believe agriculture is a way of life; it is not easy, but three of our children have chosen that life,” <\/p>– John Horan<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
John and Damaris in their Washington kitchen.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

John and Damaris Horan are the parents of Patrick and Quincy Horan, owners and operators of Waldingfield Farm in Washington, Connecticut. As the property owners, the couple recently decided to preserve 78 acres of their land as farmland forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were\ncurious to learn more about what motivated the couple to take the significant\nstep to preserve their land in perpetuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we drove\nup the long gravel driveway, remnants of the recent winter storm still lingered\nin scattered puddles. To the right of the driveway, the old white farmhouse\nwith its sprawling covered porch came into view. Stepping out of the car, we\ncould not help but feel like we were looking at the quintessential image of an\nold New England farm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Waldingfield Farm barn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Damaris\ngreeted us on the porch and welcomed us into the farmhouse\u2019s kitchen. We\nsettled in with a cup of tea, and our conversation swiftly turned to the rich\nfamilial history of the property. The family’s connection to this land began in\n1918 when Damaris’ grandfather, Clarence B. Smith, a New York City lawyer, with\na love of dairy farming, bought the vacant farm. While the property served as a\nsummer home for his family, he also bought a herd of registered Holsteins and\noperated the farm, with a local manager, as a working dairy farm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nClarence died unexpectedly in 1932, his widow, Catherine C. Smith, closed the\ndairy farm and leased the land to local farmers for hay and cattle corn\nproduction. While some of the pastureland has overgrown into woods over the\nyears, this leasing arrangement meant that actively farmed areas remained\npasture. The Horans’ records show that their land has been continually worked\nfor at least the past 150 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waldingfield Farm\u2019s transition into organic vegetables began in 1990, when the Horans’ eldest son, Daniel, expressed an interest in growing certified organic vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He came to us and said, ‘We could use this land to grow food for the community.’ He envisioned it as a community-supported agriculture (CSA) organic farm, focusing on growing food that people would eat.” <\/p>– John Horan<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To achieve\ncertification as an organic farm, the soil health had to meet specific\nstandards. Non-organic pesticides and fertilizers had been used by farmers who\nhad leased the land for decades of hay and corn production. It took Daniel over\nfive years to rejuvenate the soil\u2019s health with organic alternatives, to obtain\norganic farming certification. Regarding Dan\u2019s focus and singularity of\npurpose, Damaris emphasized, “His grandfather, C. B. Smith, would have\nbeen delighted to turn the care of the land over to him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although\nDamaris and John are not farmers themselves, their youngest children, twins\nPatrick and Quincy, found the same passion as their older brother. In thirty\nyears, the three sons have turned Waldingfield Farm into a successful organic\nvegetable farm. The farm business is now owned and run by Patrick and Quincy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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High tunnels at Waldingfield Farm<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, the\nHorans decided to begin the preservation process for their land. \u201cWe see it as\na family investment and a good thing,\u201d John said. They were driven both by a\ndesire to invest in their children\u2019s passions and to conserve the natural\nbeauty in Washington. \u201cThe farms, they are vanishing. Actually digging and\nworking the land is rare,\u201d John added, emphasizing the importance of their\ndecision. “We don’t want to see houses back there where the vegetables\nare,” Damaris concurred, gesturing out the window toward the fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land\npreservation is a complex and often lengthy process. \u201cConnecticut Farmland\nTrust\u2019s role was to help John and Damaris navigate two complex government\nprocesses,\u201d explained Kathleen Doherty, Connecticut Farmland Trust\u2019s (CFT)\nSenior Conservation Manager. John admitted that at times the progress of the\npreservation project was unclear. However, he expressed gratitude for\nKathleen\u2019s assistance, “Kathleen was the only person who could hold my\nhand with some authority and give me confidence it would happen.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After four years, 78 acres of Waldingfield Farm were finally preserved in October of 2023. Damaris and John Horan have four children and six grandchildren. They have arranged their estate to pass the easement on to the next generations, ensuring that the land\u2019s long legacy of farming remains. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Layla Ennis and Kimball Cartwright “We believe agriculture is a way of life; it is not easy, but three of our children have chosen that life,” – John Horan John and Damaris Horan are the parents of Patrick and Quincy Horan, owners and operators of Waldingfield Farm in Washington, Connecticut. As the property owners, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6370,"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-6365","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\/6365","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=6365"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6395,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6365\/revisions\/6395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}