From delicious maple syrup to the freshest produce around, you'll find it at Young Farms.
Late winter is prime time for sugaring season, when the days are warming up but the nights are still cold. That's when the sap runs, and when you'll find us tapping trees and gathering sap as conditions permit. Then, we boil it in our sugar house to create the sweet syrup you know as the perfect pancake topping.
If you see steam, that means we're boiling! That's the best time to stop by and get your syrup and see the action at 5 Barndoor Hills Road. If you miss us, give us call at 860-653-3167.
Spring is also time for planting, when we start flowers and vegetables in our greenhouses. These are sold at local farmers' markets in season. We've also got a small farm stand at 197 Hartford Avenue, where you can find all of our produce picked fresh from the field. In season, we've got sweet corn, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, radishes, melons, and more! Keep visiting to see the newest varieties - some of which are old-time varieties you can't find in many other places.
We're also known for our dry grains and beans. If you're looking for hard or soft winter wheat for baking (stop by the stand and Torrie will tell you what you use in which recipe), cornmeal for pancakes, grits, and more, you'll find it at Young Farms.
If you see steam, that means we're boiling! That's the best time to stop by and get your syrup and see the action at 5 Barndoor Hills Road. If you miss us, give us call at 860-653-3167.
Spring is also time for planting, when we start flowers and vegetables in our greenhouses. These are sold at local farmers' markets in season. We've also got a small farm stand at 197 Hartford Avenue, where you can find all of our produce picked fresh from the field. In season, we've got sweet corn, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, radishes, melons, and more! Keep visiting to see the newest varieties - some of which are old-time varieties you can't find in many other places.
We're also known for our dry grains and beans. If you're looking for hard or soft winter wheat for baking (stop by the stand and Torrie will tell you what you use in which recipe), cornmeal for pancakes, grits, and more, you'll find it at Young Farms.
11 Questions for a Granby Farmer
Each month, the Granby Drummer publishes an interview with a local farmer from our town. Read on to lean more!
1) How did you get started in farming? 4-H. Roger was the club leader and Dale was in the club. The kids started learning with chickens, and worked our way up from there. We showed livestock at the 4-H fair and had a good 25 animals exhibited – not bad for a Granby club back then! And we had to keep our own project record sheets. The agriculture wasn’t as diverse then – Dale was the only one with a maple project, and he even won an award for making up his own type of record sheet!
2) What’s your favorite product/service that you produce? Everything is great! But maple syrup is probably our favorite. In fact, it’s what the family’s been known for since 1925, when Grandma and Grandpa would load a wagon with maple syrup and potatoes and sell all the way to Hartford, where they’d shop for the supplies they couldn’t grow.
3) What will your farm look like in 10 years? Quite the same, we hope! We’re at a good size and have good help that can manage what we do right now.
4) What benefits does agriculture give the community? Locally grown food! When push comes to shove, that’s definitely something you want in your own neighborhood.
5) Who did you learn the most from when you were getting started? Our relatives – so many of them. Aunt Florence Porter, of Foster Porter Plumbing and Electrical, was the maple queen. She managed the family evaporator and bucket inventory. It used to be that we’d get together every few years and make plenty of syrup for the extended family. That fell apart as the years went on, so Dale asked if he could use the equipment. That first year, he was a junior in high school and there weren’t enough hours in the day. He’d start in early, and Shirley graciously agreed to mind the boiling when he went off to school. (What a good Mom!)
6) What do you wish more people knew about farming? So many things! The newer the generation, the farther they are removed from farming, so they don’t know what goes into a crop, or what it takes to get the job done. That was always a passion of Roger’s – his classroom was always filled with agricultural things he was showing his students.
7) What's on your farm's wish list? All we have to do is be blessed with a good crop.
8) What's the biggest issue facing agriculture today? Over-regulation.
9) What's next at your farm? Maple season! We spend January getting the lines ready to go, gathering the supplies we’ll need in the woods, collecting the jugs, and getting wood into the sap house. As the days warm up and the nights get cold, the sap will start running. Usually this starts in February around here, but this winter has been a little different, to say the least.
10) What's the most amazing thing you've seen on your farm? Not seen – smelled. Fresh air. Fresh-mowed hay. Corn right before it’s ripe. Tobacco curing in the shed. Pine smoke from the evaporator. There’s nothing like it.
11) What's the best thing about farming in Granby? The soils and the customers. That’s why we’re here.
1) How did you get started in farming? 4-H. Roger was the club leader and Dale was in the club. The kids started learning with chickens, and worked our way up from there. We showed livestock at the 4-H fair and had a good 25 animals exhibited – not bad for a Granby club back then! And we had to keep our own project record sheets. The agriculture wasn’t as diverse then – Dale was the only one with a maple project, and he even won an award for making up his own type of record sheet!
2) What’s your favorite product/service that you produce? Everything is great! But maple syrup is probably our favorite. In fact, it’s what the family’s been known for since 1925, when Grandma and Grandpa would load a wagon with maple syrup and potatoes and sell all the way to Hartford, where they’d shop for the supplies they couldn’t grow.
3) What will your farm look like in 10 years? Quite the same, we hope! We’re at a good size and have good help that can manage what we do right now.
4) What benefits does agriculture give the community? Locally grown food! When push comes to shove, that’s definitely something you want in your own neighborhood.
5) Who did you learn the most from when you were getting started? Our relatives – so many of them. Aunt Florence Porter, of Foster Porter Plumbing and Electrical, was the maple queen. She managed the family evaporator and bucket inventory. It used to be that we’d get together every few years and make plenty of syrup for the extended family. That fell apart as the years went on, so Dale asked if he could use the equipment. That first year, he was a junior in high school and there weren’t enough hours in the day. He’d start in early, and Shirley graciously agreed to mind the boiling when he went off to school. (What a good Mom!)
6) What do you wish more people knew about farming? So many things! The newer the generation, the farther they are removed from farming, so they don’t know what goes into a crop, or what it takes to get the job done. That was always a passion of Roger’s – his classroom was always filled with agricultural things he was showing his students.
7) What's on your farm's wish list? All we have to do is be blessed with a good crop.
8) What's the biggest issue facing agriculture today? Over-regulation.
9) What's next at your farm? Maple season! We spend January getting the lines ready to go, gathering the supplies we’ll need in the woods, collecting the jugs, and getting wood into the sap house. As the days warm up and the nights get cold, the sap will start running. Usually this starts in February around here, but this winter has been a little different, to say the least.
10) What's the most amazing thing you've seen on your farm? Not seen – smelled. Fresh air. Fresh-mowed hay. Corn right before it’s ripe. Tobacco curing in the shed. Pine smoke from the evaporator. There’s nothing like it.
11) What's the best thing about farming in Granby? The soils and the customers. That’s why we’re here.