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Photo Connecticut Food and Farm with Cheesemonger Box and Box 8 Creative.
CAPTURE CREATIVE CONNECTICUT FOOD AND FARM PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRIES.
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in this issue
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SWEET PEA CHEESE
PAULA DEUTZ
HARTFORD DENIM COMPANY
GENA GOLAS
FALLING INTO APPLE SEASON
AMY HOLOMAKOFF
FOLIAGE FOLK FESTIVAL
THERESA GOVERT
BEER-WINE HYBRIDS
JENNIFER LAVOIE
SUBSCRIPTION FOOD BUSINESSES
WINTER CAPLANSON
DOUGHING IT WELL
HILARY ADORNO
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FALL 2018 | VOLUME 14
90 118 130 148 158 174 182
THE HOME POTTERY STUDIO
EINA RIEGER
HOW TO ROAST A LOCAL TURKEY
WINTER CAPLANSON
TURKEY BUYER’S GUIDE
WINTER CAPLANSON
RAISE YOUR OWN THANKSGIVING TURKEY
WINTER CAPLANSON
WHITE FLOWER FARM
HILARY ADORNO
GIFT OF THE HARVEST: FALL FRUIT LIQUEURS
JENNIFER LAVOIE
FARMSTEAD CHEESE TRAIL
AMELIA LORD
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Doughing it Well Subscription-Based Bread by the Flourishing Artisan By Hilary Adorno
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Winter Caplanson photos
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In 1878, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: “He who loves much does much and is capable of much, and that which is done with love is well done.” No sentence could more accurately describe Kathleen Cirillo. Her authentic joy and love of her craft are palpable, and have resulted in a fortuitous, but wildly successful subscription-based bread business called Flour.ish.ing. CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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“ ...people need bread with honest ingredients.” Kathleen opted to bypass conventional education when she realized she wanted to work with food. She enrolled at Vinal Technical High School’s Culinary Arts program, where she learned about the science of food and the body, nutrition and healthy eating. She loved the experience and naturally gravitated toward baking. Upon graduation she went to work for a large grocery store bakery, decorating cakes. This was a great introduction to the professional food industry, but she quickly realized there was little room for growth. After realizing the need to evolve professionally, Kathleen took a position at The Popover Bistro & Bakery in Simsbury. This is where she truly began to “flourish” as a baker. She was given the flexibility to expand their product line by writing recipes to include gluten-free, vegan and other special diet options for their patrons. In her spare time, Kathleen cultivated her other passion – yoga. While training at West Hartford Yoga, she began testing bread recipes at home. Bread 10
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s
sou “ are rd m o
s ’ n e e htl reads a hb a K ug o n
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our, w ore th a ate r, sa he l
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simple p l a tfo noth ing m r t&
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� ...
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“Her authentic joy and love of her c
and have resulted in a fortuitous, but w subscription-based bread business called
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F
craft are palpable,
wildly successful
Flour.ish.ing.”
had always fascinated her, but is widely considered a high-carbohydrate, lownutrition food, so Kathleen endeavored to purify bread by developing a wholesome macrobiotic option for all to enjoy. Her first attempts fell flat, but soon she was making bread she felt was worthy of sharing, and conducting initial taste-tests at the yoga studio. One of the first to try Kathleen’s bread was instructor Nykki Poole, whose immediate response was “I’d buy that.” One by one, yoga students sampled the bread and quickly signed up to buy it. As word began to spread, Flour.ish.ing began to thrive. Kathleen, who is admittedly not tech-savvy, eschews a website and traditional marketing methods in favor of an email sign-up sheet for bread orders, and social media to create brand awareness. You can see she has an eye for design; her breads are beautifully displayed and interspersed with unique images of bread art. This has earned her several hundred followers on Facebook and Instagram (and led us straight to her kitchen). Kathleen’s sourdough breads are made on a simple platform: nothing more than flour, water, salt and herbs, all of which she sources locally. She did a stint in Alaska, shadowing a bread maker she admires. He makes his own flour, and this inspired Kathleen to do the same, giving her complete control over every ingredient she uses. Kathleen bakes in cast iron, which is a great conductor of heat and holds consistent temperatures. This give her crust a special something that sets this bread
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apart from its brethren. Kathleen offers four varieties: Country Sourdough, Whole Wheat Sourdough, Spelt Sourdough and Rye Sourdough. Kathleen bakes twice each week, and her loyal customers drive to her home in Windsor to pick up their weekly bread stock on baking days. She is accepting additional subscribers but notes that she will soon be at capacity. Her goal is to own her own professional kitchen because “people need bread with honest ingredients.” Who doesn’t want extraordinary, healthful bread? If you do, contact Kathleen via email at flourishingartisan@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram or Facebook at @flourishingartisan to see what yogis and foodies alike have come to love about these delicious loaves of goodness.
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see what “ yogis & foodies alike have come to love about these
delicious loaves of
goodness.” CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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Subscription
Fo od
Businesses:
Local, Fresh,
& Healthy BY WINTER CAPLANSON PHOTOS BY WINTER CAPLANSON, RANDO MARTINS & JOHN J. MURPHY III Subscription Food Businesses sell prepared foods direct to consumer, by pre-order only, with ordering opportunities weekly or monthly. Connecticut has a growing number of subscription-based meal services, with local chefs preparing fresh, delicious meals for pickup or delivery. Tailored to their customers’ preferences, there is more of a focus on delicious but healthy dishes, accommodating dietary preferences, than there would be for average restaurant take-out. Here are wonderful subscription food businesses, statewide, to have on your radar:
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LET’S START FROM SCRATCH BY WINTER CAPLANSON.
(TOP) STRONG KITCHEN BY WINTER CAPLANSON. (BOTTOM R) OCTOBER KITCHEN BY RANDO MARTINS. (BOTTOM L) LET’S START FROM SCRATCH BY WINTER CAPLANSON.
“The focus is delicious and healthy dishes...”
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“Connecticut has a growing number of subscription-based meal services...” The Strong Kitchen offers delicious, chefcooked, Paleo-friendly meals, snacks, and sides made with whole, unprocessed foods like lean protein and vegetables. With athlete-friendly additions like rice, oats, and quinoa, most of their meals are dairy and wheat-free, and portion sized to match dietary goals. Prepared in Hamden, weekly orders are delivered to homes and offices and can be picked up at about a dozen participating gyms, or in-store. Click here for 15% off your first order. Simsbury-based Let’s Start from Scratch brings healthy delicious meals right to your door in the Farmington Valley - Greater Hartford area. Meal options are full of local, seasonal ingredients, and accommodate all dietary needs. Custom family meal plans are available. Weekly delivery menus offer a fresh take on a wide variety of fare in addition to sauces, kids’ meals, and snacks to make healthy eating convenient. Meal prep is the secret, essential trick to staying healthy, saving money, and optimizing time. The Ethnic Vegan provides all of this while using organic, soy-free ingredients! Flavor-packed meals are prepped with love in Bridgeport with the ingredients your body deserves. Orders are taken both weekly and monthly and free delivery is available within a 50-mile radius.
October Kitchen, in Manchester, specializes in serving Boomers and seniors, delivering fresh, healthy, chef-curated meals to your Greater Central Connecticut door. Nutritious meals, from comfort to gourmet, accommodate health needs and food restrictions. Specializing in heart healthy, sodium sensitive, diabetes CTFOODANDFARM.COM
friendly, renal friendly, dairy free, vegetarian and weight management options.
Becker’s Catering, cooking in and delivering free to Tolland, utilizes locally sourced foods to make home-style meals in an effort to bring family and friends back together around the table. Orders are placed weekly via email. Upcoming weekly menus are also emailed allow customers to plan ahead and anticipate the return of favorite dishes!
Roberto’s Fresh is Connecticut’s only doctor-formulated line of organic, gluten-free and allergy-friendly prepared foods. Using locally grown produce, grass-fed beef, freerange chicken and wild-caught seafood, Roberto’s Fresh Prepared Meals contain no dairy, nuts, eggs, corn, soy, preservatives, GMOs, trans fats or artificial anything. They are also low sugar/low glycemic load, and come in nontoxic/BPA-free packaging—with vegan options available. Prepped in Lebanon, but with a very wide delivery area, meals may be picked up there or delivered your home, workplace or to selected health practices. Sarah Cowles-Gentile, owner and chef at The Whisk, in Granby, grew up on a farm. She includes locally-grown ingredients in the fully prepared meals she creates with the busy parent in mind. Customers order online from a creative, seasonal menu, changing weekly and with a Paleo customization option, but always offering fish, chicken, beef, pork, and soup. Pickup is available and delivery is available for free in the Granby area. (CENTER) ROBERTO’S FRESH BY JOHN J. MURPHY, III.
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hybr
BEER &
Tempting Oenoph and Everyone in by Jennifer LaVoie
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Jak
rids
& WINE
hiles, Zythophiles n Between
ke Snyder, Red Skies Photography images
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Grapes and grains may seem an unlikely combination at first, but visionary brewers and vintners know that beer and wine may just be the new peas and carrots. Now that I’ve had a chance to taste Annata, a beer-wine hybrid crafted by Fox Farm Brewery in Salem, CT, I feel like I’ve been invited to sit at the cool kids’ table.
experience the delicious harmony that is a beer-wine hybrid It turns out that crafters of these perennially
popular beverages have been breaking down those barriers for some time now. Zack Adams, brewer and owner of Fox Farm Brewery explains that they are not the first to create the delicious marriage of wine and beer, but for Adams, this pursuit is personal. He owns Fox Farm Brewery with his wife Laura, and together they incorporate grapes grown on her family’s farm, Salem Valley Vineyard, which is just down the road.
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A delicious marriage
wine and beer of
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In 2017, the Adamses used nearly 800 pounds of St.Croix grapes harvested from the family farm to produce the Annata Grape Harvest Farmhouse Ale. Annata means “vintage” in Italian, and it quickly becomes evident to the taster that the family’s grape-harvest had a particularly good year. The brew has a vibrant red hue that nicely mimics the tartness and sour highlights of the ale, while bringing happiness to the wine-lover’s heart. The pale, tart, somewhat funky farmhouse beer and sour beers that are brewed at the farm bring forth a presentation of fruit that is well-suited for a beer-wine hybrid. He adds that it’s exciting to hit on some of those flavors that we like in wine that you might not find in beer. Fox Farm has brewed a Double IPA called Near and Far that uses the grapes from the family vineyard, and hops (Nelson Sauvin) from New Zealand that are aromatic and heavy with white grape flavor. They recently brewed some beers with plums, blackberries and black currants, with Maple Lane Farm in Preston supplying the black currant juice for this brew. The Adams’ style of farmhouse brewing carries on a strong tradition that integrates ingredients in the beer that are specific to the farmer’s specific region, and uses locally-occurring yeast and variations of bacteria for robust culture fermentation. Fox Farm Brewery’s beer character can be credited to their unique culture, as is true with all traditional farmhouse breweries. This approach embraces the inherent variabilities of these beers, which is a boon and a benefit to those of us who enjoy the character and creativity of their craft.
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The brew has a that nicely mimics the of the ale, while bringing
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vibrant red hue tartness and sour highlights happiness to the wine-lover’s
heart.
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Fox Farm Brewery’s beer character can be credited to their unique culture
Fox Farm uses local grains in its farmhouse brew. “What we love about a small, local maltster is the one-on-one connection. We work closely with them to understand how the grain was grown and malted,” Adams said. They source from Thrall Family Malt, who has been farming since the 1600’s in Windsor, growing broad leaf tobacco for many decades, but is now growing and malting their own barley, called “Yankee Gold.” The 18 vintage Annata will debut in 2019. To experience the delicious harmony that is a beer-wine hybrid, pack some light snacks, point your map to Salem and check out Fox Farm Brewery. 32
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Stone Kim photo
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.”
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d a l r so g o w s I a live in r wh e b ere o there are ct O “ I’m
L.M. MONTGOMERY,
Anne of Green Gables
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E Foliage
Folk
Festival By Theresa Govert
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Winter Caplanson photos
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The sunset
over Whalebone C
foliage of the tree
historic Hadlyme Public Hall, and for an instant it looks like fi windows, small lights twinkle and fade as silhouetted bodies
you meander up the wide, white steps lined with mums and p
deep red curtains break slightly to reveal the magic at work in
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Cove hits the
es framing the
fire. Through the move within. As
pumpkins, the
nside.
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It’s a Brooklyn-New York-meets-BurlingtonVermont-movie-perfect setting where millennials, gen-Xers and boomers gather on antique wooden chairs and children play amongst the hay bales covered in burlap and blankets. Indian corn and leaves the colors of fall decorate the tables in the back where people convene over spiced apple cider and whispered conversation. Folk musicians strum on banjos, and the high notes of a fiddle add emotion to songs about love and loss and healing.
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The smells of home cooking drift up from the lower level of the building. Sweet notes of maple pulled pork and the warmth of cornbread entice you down the wooden stairs where you find the bustling of a marketplace. Artisan vendors line the room, their faces filled with light and excitement as they share their passion for crafting delicate silver rings or sturdy wheel-thrown pottery mugs. You watch a young man as he picks up a hand-carved wooden soup spoon, plying the soft finish. The smooth
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texture contrasts with his hands, speckled with scars, a reminder of a disease that once ravished his life. Much has been written about the ways we heal. But when an epidemic - deadly and stigmatized - sweeps through our communities, we’re often left wondering at the ashes and grasping for meaning. As the wise Wendell Berry once mused, “Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing.”
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“Through the windows, s lights twinkle and fade silhouetted bodies mov
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small e as ve within.”
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The Foliage Folk Festival, happening this Columbus Day weekend, is complex in its character. Born in 2017, from a fiery group of human beings fed up with the opioid epidemic, the festival combats tragedy with community, crafts and music. The proceeds benefit addiction recovery services and youth programs. It embodies the very essence of conviviality, an all-encompassing warmth that is only felt when a community realizes that it has always known that this is how we heal. That bringing together farmers, musicians, parents, handcraft businesses and people in recovery is how we support ourselves and our communities. The Foliage Folk Festival is magical because it highlights the most charming parts of our New England communities in the fall, gathers the best and brightest rising folk musicians, and because it accentuates the best parts of ourselves and who we can be.
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“Be moved. Not by the rhyth 46
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hms, but something bigger.” CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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You’
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’re invited. The Foliage Folk Festival runs October 5-6 at the Hadlyme Public Hall. We firmly believe the best way into our hearts is through our stomachs -- so we’ll have plenty of food available for purchase at the festival. Friday night, we’re making it like mom used to with home-cooked options fresh from the kitchen. On Saturday, we’ll take it to the street with a food truck. Both nights offer vegetarian/ vegan options. BYOB.
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This festival takes place in a small town within a beautiful riverside community. If you’re coming from afar, consider spending some time Saturday morning enjoying a swim in the Connecticut River or a hike at Devil’s Hopyard State Park during the day. Both are within just a few minutes’ drive from festival grounds. For more about the musical lineup, to purchase tickets, and for more information - visit foliagefolkfestival.org.
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“It’s a Brooklyn-New Yor Burlington-Vermont-mo perfect setting...”
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rk-meetsovie-
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i n l l a F i nto
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on
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Written by AMY HOLOMAKOFF JOHN SHYLOSKI photos 53
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"...little pillows of apple-scented heaven..." it for the holidays; pair with a sharp cheddar cheese plate, or give jars as gifts.
Connecticut
is known for having its fair share of apple orchards. In fact, we have over 80! When fall comes, these orchards become a mecca for multiple varieties of apples and all the goodness they bring: fresh apple cider, apple pies, apple cider donuts and more. Apple-picking is a favorite fall activity. But what do you do with your accidental abundance of apples when you’re done?
Contrary to the name, apple butter does not contain any actual dairy, although it is as soft and spreadable as fresh butter. (Think “peanut butter” or “almond butter”.) The trick to the simplicity of this spread, other than its minimal ingredients, is that apples naturally contain a starch called pectin that acts as a thickening agent when heated and combined with sugar. Add a few ingredients like cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, lemon juice and salt to the mix - and you’ve got yourself some apple butter! If you can make applesauce, you’re already most of the way there. You’ll want to cook down and caramelize the sugars in the apples, so once you’ve hit “applesauce,” just keep going until the remaining water has cooked out and you’ve achieved a
Instead of making pies, why not try making a batch of apple butter? This spiced, caramelized apple spread can be used like a traditional jam or jelly. You can spread it on toasted sourdough, mix it into your pancake batter, or spoon it directly into your mouth. It is easy to make and you can even freeze
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beautiful dark brown color. Like peanut butter, there are two styles of apple butter: smooth or chunky; during the cooking process, you can choose to either mash or pureé your apples. When choosing apples for your recipe, try to pick softer varieties. They will break down and cook quicker - saving you some time over the stove. To spare yourself from adding extra sugar, try selecting a naturally sweet apple such as a Fuji, Gala, McIntosh, Cortland, Golden Delicious or a Crispin. The best apple butter recipes are made with a blend of different apples - so toss in any extras you have lying around that need to be used up! Apple butter makes a wonderful addition to your favorite batter-based recipes like pancakes, muffins, and (of course) donuts. If you’re looking for simplicity, try this recipe for apple “drop” donuts. You avoid the hassle of shaping and cutting out the donuts by dropping spoonfuls directly into the hot oil. These are soft and fluffy on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside. Like little pillows of apple-scented heaven, they’re best when tossed with sugar and spices and eaten fresh. The batter lasts a day or two when covered in the fridge, so feel free to make this recipe a day ahead and refrigerate until it’s time to cook and serve. Ignore any guilt you feel - it’s totally normal to eat a few of these in one sitting!
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Spiced Apple “Drop” Donuts • 1 1/2 cups flour • 1/4 tsp salt • 1 ¼ tsp baking powder • 1 cup apple butter • 1/2 cup buttermilk • 2 eggs • 1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus additional for frying
• 1 tsp cinnamon, plus additional for topping • 1/4 tsp cardamom, optional additional for topping • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional powdered vanilla for topping • 1 cup granulated sugar, for topping
These drop donuts are sweet and crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. Bet you can’t eat just one! 1. Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. 2. In separate bowl, mix remaining ingredients. Once well blended, slowly add dry mixture until well combined. Place in refrigerator for an hour - up to overnight. 3. On stovetop, heat frying oil to between 300 - 350 degrees. Drop small amounts of mixture in, about a teaspoon at a time. When puffed and moderately browned, flip over until other side is browned and donut is cooked on the inside. Place on plate with paper towel, or on a cooling rack over paper towel, to drain off excess oil and cool. 4. While still warm, toss with cinnamon and sugar (extra cardamom and powdered vanilla optional!). Consume as soon as possible; donuts get soggy the longer they sit.
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Thes e reci pes u 6 Fuj sed i appl es an d 6 Gal a app - both les sweet er var tarter ieties apple . For s, adj u st rec to use ipe more sugar .
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Spiced Apple Spread/ Apple Butter SAME INGREDIENTS - FOUR WAYS! MAKES ROUGHLY 6 CUPS • 12 medium apples, roughly 5 - 5 ½ lbs
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp cardamom
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
1. Peel, core and slice apples. Place in a large bowl. Toss with lemon juice.
Apple Butter
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix gently until apples are well coated.
SLOW COOKER
Spiced Apple Spread STOVETOP
3a. In large pot with lid on, cook over medium heat for 30 minutes. Apples will be lightly cooked. Gently mash into large pieces with a large spoon or handmasher, and return to heat for another hour and a half. Stir gently and mash again. 4a. Cook, with lid cracked, an additional hour or until remaining liquid has evaporated. 5a. Store in mason jars in refrigerator or freezer, leaving 1/2” of space at the top of your jar to leave room for expansion if freezing.
SLOW COOKER
3b. Add ingredients to slow cooker and on low, cook overnight or for 8-10 hours until ingredients have cooked down.
3c. Add ingredients to slow cooker and on low, overnight or for 8-10 hours until ingredients have cooked down. 4c. In standing blender, or with hand blender, puree mixture and cook for another hour to two hours, or until most of remaining liquid has evaporated. 5c. Store in mason jars in refrigerator or freezer, leaving 1/2” of space at the top of your jar to leave room for expansion if freezing.
Quick & Easy Apple Butter +1 Cup Water STOVETOP
1. Removing cores, cube apples with skin on and - in two batches - place in Vitamix or other blender. Adding ½ cup water per batch, puree apples well and add to large pot.
4b. Mash into small pieces with a hand masher and cook for another hour to two hours, or until most of remaining liquid has evaporated.
2. Mix in remaining ingredients and, with lid cracked and stirring frequently, turn heat to medium and cook for an hour to an hour and a half - or until all liquid has evaporated and mixture is thick and caramelized and your home smells amazing.
5b. Store in mason jars in refrigerator or freezer, leaving 1/2” of space at the top of your jar to leave room for expansion if freezing.
3. Store in mason jars in refrigerator or freezer, leaving 1/2” of space at the top of your jar to leave room for expansion if freezing. Your butter should last six months to a year in the freezer and is wonderful to save for a rainy day!
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BY GENA GOLAS CTFOODANDFARM.COM
NICOLE BEDARD PHOTOS 65
IT STARTED WITH A HAMMOCK. A mosquito net for a camping hammock, to be exact; designed by Marshall Deming in high school, and sewn by his mom out of materials from JoAnn Fabrics. A mosquito net that was soon coveted by Marshall’s hiking buddies because, well, who wants to sleep with mosquitoes in the middle of the woods on a warm summer night? Dave Marcoux and Luke Davis were two of those hiking buddies. Friends since their youth in West Hartford, the three were passionate about their hiking equipment; amassing the latest and greatest, obsessing over the functionality and features, and exploring their own ideas for gear. A decade or so later, Luke, Marshall and Dave have a few new obsessions. The three men are coowners of Hartford Denim Company, located in the Parkville neighborhood of the city. What started as custom jeans for themselves, friends, and family has evolved into a line of durable denim, duck canvas, and leather goods for the trades. If custom and quality are what you’re looking for, you need to go to HARDENCO. “Stuff breaks down,” says Luke Davis, seated at a sewing machine and stitching a hand-embossed leather logo patch onto a duck canvas apron. “People realized enough is enough. Let’s do it right the first time.” The guys at HARDENCO are experts at doing it right, evidenced in the quality of their work. In their 66
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“WHAT STARTED AS CUSTOM JEANS FOR THEM INTO A LINE OF DURABLE DENIM, DUCK CANV 68
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MSELVES, FRIENDS, AND FAMILY HAS EVOLVED VAS, AND LEATHER GOODS FOR THE TRADES.” CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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10,000 square foot workshop, almost none of the equipment is mechanized, save for the antique sewing machines and 60-year-old hemstitch machine. They do own an automated click press, a machine that could stamp the company logo onto leather patches that get sewn onto their products. Instead, the machine sits disassembled
““ LET’S DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.””
on the floor next to the non-automated machine that does the same job, serving as a landing pad for scrap from the 1,600 leather coasters that have been pressed by way of the machine’s huge hand wheel. These coasters, soon to head out to Treehouse Brewing Company in Charlton, MA, have been first hand cut and then hand stamped, the batch being touched no less than 3,200 times. The leather used for these coasters is thick; a good, catch-the-drip-off-a-frosty-pint thick. It’s an all-natural, vegetable-tanned leather, and the thickness of the material makes it perfect for embossing. The leather is also compostable, because it hasn’t been treated with harsh chemicals. The leather’s tannins, when mixed with water or other liquid from the glass that sits on top of the coaster, will leave ring marks, but this is just part of the charm of HARDENCO’s coasters. They tell a story that only starts at HARDENCO, one that can be followed, drink-by-drink, across the coaster’s surface. The heavy denim used at HARDENCO is a 16-ounce selvedge denim (a selvedge end gives a clean and finished look and prevents the cut edge from unraveling), woven in Greensboro, North Carolina by Cone Mills. The 110-year-old mill was the last selvedge denim mill in the United States when it closed in December 2017. Cone CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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“ PROVIDING GOODS FOR THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY IS A NATURAL FIT FOR THE GUYS AT HARDENCO.” CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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Mills used antique shuttle looms, a necessity to produce the selvedge denim. Since there are no other selvedge denim mills left in the United States, the remaining denim at HARDENCO has become a rare product, and the men are working on a limited release run of products using this denim, to be available for retail sale. While the closing of the mill was a huge blow to HARDENCO, the event is forcing innovation from the trio, as they look for the best possible use of the cloth.
the time. They soon incorporated their business to gain access to materials, but the business itself evolved slowly over time to what it is today. That summer, they worked with one sewing machine and a plywood-top cutting table, hopping from garage to garage as their respective parents were away on vacation. Their first run was twelve pairs of jeans; their second run was another twelve pairs. As the weather got colder
The duck canvas used at HARDENCO is the same durable cloth used in standard heavy-duty work wear. It is produced by Mount Vernon Mills in Trion, Georgia, whose most notable client is Carhartt. Dave says of the denim and canvas, “When choosing which cloth to work with, we value strength most of all. Character, hand feel and color also factor in.” The rigidity of HARDENCO’s materials gives their products a refined, almost formal quality. Denim jeans or aprons as a uniform for fine dining? You bet—HARDENCO’s products will make you rethink your opinions on denim. HARDENCO got their official start with custom jeans manufactured in their parents’ garages. It was the summer after college graduation, 2010— Marshall had studied business and art, Luke went for landscape contracting, and Dave earned a degree in social work—but the three graduates were scratching their heads at home, none of them doing the work they went to school for. Wanting a superior-quality product, Luke had been making his own selvedge jeans in college, dissatisfied with what was available off the rack here in the States. Japan was just about the only place to readily find selvedge denim, but the materials were not what he wanted and he did not always find the cuts and styles suited to an American body type. When more and more friends and family began requesting handmade denim for themselves that summer, the men knew they were onto something. With Luke’s knowledge of selvedge denim, Marshall’s prior experience in leatherwork, and Dave’s carpentry experience, the skills were there to make a business work, although they didn’t realize it at 74
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OR LEATHER, IT’S SOMETHING WE CAN DO.” CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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“...ALMOST NONE OF THE EQUIPMENT IS MECHANIZED, SAVE FOR THE ANTIQUE SEWING MACHINES AND 60-YEAR-OLD HEMSTITCH MACHINE...” and demand increased by way of word of mouth, the men moved their business to Hartford. Eight years and 5 locations later, HARDENCO is now home at 236 Hamilton Street, right around the corner from their first Hartford location on Bartholomew. In the early years of the business, the niche for HARDENCO was the possibility of customization. There was a growing following for HARDENCO denim. The more pairs of jeans they CTFOODANDFARM.COM
made, the better they got. They developed a base pattern and then improved upon it as they honed their skills, giving a better look to their jeans but also making the production more efficient. They started acquiring machines and other tools to work with leather, and set out to expand their product line. Aprons were next. The pattern was easy because they were flat and much less complicated than the jeans. 77
“ IF CUSTOM AND QUALITY ARE WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR, YOU NEED TO GO TO HARDENCO.” HARDENCO had become known for their customization, and the aprons were no exception. Imagine a veteran bartender on a busy Saturday night. She’s pouring drinks, popping off bottle caps, uncorking bottles of wine - but all of her tools are loose in a stock apron pocket, and she has to fumble in the pocket, around at least one check presenter and her tips every time she needs something. HARDENCO has a solution for that. Do you always tend to reach for your wine key in the same spot every time? HARDENCO can add a pocket there. Would a loop be better? They can add a leather loop instead. HARDENCO aprons can be specified to a customer’s exact needs. The aprons can feature leather straps, affixed to the aprons with snaps, so that the straps can be removed for washing and preserve the integrity of the leather. Providing goods for the restaurant industry is a natural fit for the guys at HARDENCO. Each of them industry veterans, they have connections to area restaurants and bars, and can get realtime feedback from their chef, server, bartender, and expeditor friends. “It’s a part of where we’re from, our circle of friends,” says Dave Marcoux. “This is the obvious path. Who knows where we’re going to go next with it?”
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Next, in part, are more products for the restaurant industry. The trio has manufactured check presenters for restaurants like The Beamhouse in Glastonbury, and wine menus for Firebox in Hartford. A restaurant looking to outfit themselves with an entire suite of custom HARDENCO products can request packages of their products, including but not limited to aprons, coasters, check presenters, tote bags, menus and, of course, jeans. HARDENCO eagerly welcomes customers to come to them with ideas; the customization is a part of their identity. “If it’s sewn or leather, it’s something we can do.” HARDENCO offers free repairs for any product they make and, for really old, well-loved jeans that can no longer be repaired, they have a trade-in program. Dave, Luke and Marshall are ready for anything. They are in a facility that has room to grow. They are full of ideas, and enthusiastically await the ideas their next customer might bring them. Sitting with the guys in their retail store, they are confident, yet eager. “We don’t even know if we’ve found our true product. We are all open to possibilities. We’re open-minded individuals and that could bring us anywhere. We’re not good at saying no.”
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How to reach HARDENCO: Manufacturing facility and retail store: 236 Hamilton Street, Hartford Retail store hours: Monday through Friday 9am-5pm or by appointment
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Products can also be found three times a year at Brimfield Antique Shows, in the Brimfield Barn. 860-880-0495 connect@hardenco.com Instagram: @hardenco
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sweet pea cheese
the middle of the three hour milking process. Someone has to oversee the births, and that’s you…so all of your regular tasks fall behind schedule.
In
the world of family farming, the rhythm of life spans from dawn to dusk, and often far beyond. It’s tightly interwoven with the needs of family, livestock, and the land you work. Just ask the Hayes family, eighth-generation farmers at the House of Hayes farm, circa 1680, in North Granby. The 100 acre farm keeps dairy goats and cows, and beef cattle, and is home to Sweet Pea Cheese.
What if you had an extra hand to take over milking? A milkmaid robot, even? That’s actually a thing. The farm recently purchased a Lely Astronaut robotic milking system. At a cost of $189,000, this investment in the future of dairying was substantial, but allows the cows the freedom of choosing when they want to be milked and removes the need for human intervention. The cows have been trained to go to the automated milking stations whenever they feel like they need to release
On any given day the farm’s ‘to-do’ list can take an unexpected turn. Consider a morning on which a goat and a cow both start to give birth while you’re in
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“What if you had an extra hand to take over milking? A milkmaid robot, even?”
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milk, as often as every 4 hours. Instead of the farmers milking 125 cows twice a day, the Lely Robot milks an average 3.2 times per day. And more frequent milkings increase milk output. Each milking cow at House of Hayes Farm wears a radio frequency collar that is read by the machine when the cows step into the milking station. The machine is fitted with a laser light that locates the teats, cleans them twice with soft rollers and a cleansing solution, before aligning the suction cups that actually do the milking. The machine records the cow’s name, measures the quantity of milk production, and even detects if there is something wrong with a batch of milk, there-
by dumping it and printing out a report to alert the owners. Each cow anticipates the reward of feed being offered during the milking process in a quantity customized to them. Milk production has increased significantly. Stanley Hayes, eighth-generation farmer at the House of Hayes Farm, works with his wife Dorothy to manage the farm - and Sweet Pea Cheese - every day from before sunrise to after sunset. Their son Daniel and daughter Ellen, and Ellen’s children, can be found working each day (the latter sometimes running through the fields barefoot). In 1984, Stanley and Dorothy partnered with Hayes’ father, Roger, to begin operating the farm. Fortunately, Dorothy is a trained veterinary technician - a skill that is indispensable to birthing cows and goats, as well as the myriad other needs of the Hayes family herd. Presently, a herd of 60 goats also reside on the farm, of which 45 are
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Saanen goats - a Swiss breed with an allsold bottled and used to produce feta, white coat and sizable ears, and occasional- cheese curd, soft cheeses, yogurt and milk ly, beards and wattles. The rest of the herd products. is made up of La Mancha goats, known for Sweet Pea Cheese, both goat and bovine their tiny ears. products, can be The goats are “The milk of the farms’ cows purchased at the milked twice farm from 7 AM daily…though and goats is currently sold to 7 PM, seven there are not yet bottled and used to produce days a week. robotic stations feta, cheese curd, soft Success has come available for from increased milking goats. cheeses, yogurt and milk.” milk production Their milk is and the specialty cheeses, both goat and then pasteurized at 145 degrees for thirbovine (insider tip: the chocolate milk is ty-five minutes. After cooling, it is manuwonderful). Sweet Pea Cheese sells their ally poured from holding tanks into gallon products at various farmers’ markets 4 days and half-gallon containers. Sister-in-law per week, as well as at other farm shops Nancy works in production, wiping and throughout Connecticut. labeling the filled containers. Ellen’s daughter, Amelia, age five, was my In 2008, the family decided to take the tour guide through the recently-planted plunge into the world of cheeses. Stanley corn maze, which bears her mark: upon and Dorothy, with the help of Daniel Amelia’s request, Stanley planted a butterfly and Ellen, started Sweet Pea Cheese, design, sure to enchant and amuse kids of catering to a growing demand for artisanal all ages. The maze opens September 15th, cheeses, especially goat cheese. The milk on Granby Open Farm Day; hours vary. of the farms’ cows and goats is currently
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Sweet Pea Cheese at the House of Hayes Farm is located at 151 East Street, North Granby, CT. 860-653-4157, hodairy@cox. net. More information, and a farmers’ market schedule, can be found on Facebook.
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through bucolic farmland on the autumn leaf-strewn roads of Connecticut on our Farmstead Cheese Trail - and prepare to be enchanted. A variety of great cheeses are being made in our state, including decadently creamy and aromatic Camembert, Gouda and Swiss types from dairy cow milk; and perfectly tangy blue cheese, cave-aged sheep cheeses, and goat’s milk chevre and feta. These cheeses are crafted by hand with the milk from each farm’s dairy herd, and have unique flavors owing to the local terroir. Along the trail, sample delicious cheeses, learn about the cheesemaking process, and meet the passionate and creative artisans who are bringing Connecticut farmstead cheese to prominence. These eight farms are open to the public: DEERFIELD FARM BY LAURIE BONNEAU
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- Lyme Sankow Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme smells like sweet hay and crisp leaves on a warm fall day. The farm store sells their own wool from their sheep herd and socks, sweaters, and blankets made from it, as well as lamb, beef and a selection of artisan cheeses. Slender sheets of their Pleasant Son, an aged cow’s milk cheese, shaved onto pizza before it makes its way into a hot oven, adds a delicious creamy funk. Pleasant Valley is an aged sheep’s milk cheese that is mild and nutty. The feta pesto makes a great sandwich spread with roast beef (or rare slices of cold roast lamb) and crusty local bread tucked with arugula. Open 7 days a week, 9-4. PHOTOS BY CARLA MCELROY
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- Colchester Cato Corner Farm’s bustling Colchester farm store offers an incredible diversity of their awardwinning raw cow’s milk cheeses, each with its own distinct profile and personality. Knowledgeable staff offer comprehensive tastings. You’ll be tempted by Womanchego their funky, oozing, Hooligan which
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regularly collects awards and prizes locally and internationally; and the deliciously mild Dutch Farmstead, completely meltable, nutty and creamy. Bloomsday is a personal favorite: faintly sweet with a beautiful texture of happy, bubbly holes and slight funk. Fri & Sat 10-4, Sun 11-4.
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“These cheeses are crafted by
hand with the milk from each farm’s dairy herd, and have unique flavors owing to the local terroir.
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- lebanon Beltane Farm feels like a magical hodgepodge of rustic buildings and wandering farm life where waddling ducks, scratching chickens and curious goats amble about freely. On a wooded lane in Lebanon, this goat farm samples their fresh chèvre and aged goat cheeses in the wooden Tasting House. Try some of the creamy, bright, soft chèvre or their aged Arcadia, a good melting cheese. The farm store is open on Sundays 11-3, but call ahead just in case and bring cash. PHOTOS BY CARLA MCELROY
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- preston Sweet Grass Creamery in Preston is the newest addition to the Connecticut farmstead cheese scene, offering soft French-style Fromage Blanc, plain and with French herbs, made from their pastured Jersey cows. Aged cheese production will soon commence in the cheese cave built into a pasture hillside. The creamery is situated on the fourth generation Mattern Farm, surrounded by 200 acres of lush green acres. While you’re there, wander the wooden fence line to meet the friendly, inquisitive little brown cows who surely will lean over for a scratch on the cheek. Watch the bottling of milk and making of yogurt or cheese through the viewing window - and bring a bottle of wine and cheese accompaniments to dine al fresco. In the farm shop, in addition to cheese, you’ll find their pasteurized creamline milk and yogurt, as well as locally sourced farm and artisanal products. Open daily, 8-6, year round. PHOTOS BY WINTER CAPLANSON
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- Suffield Hastings Family Farm, a tidy collection of red barns and buildings and fields that seem to stretch forever, is a family run farm (as so many on this list are). Their friendly farm store carries local meat, honey, eggs and produce from neighboring farmers, as well as an impressive selection of their own farm-made flavored yogurts. Hastings makes a creamy Gouda and sharpish cheddar that alone are worth a visit, but the Caerphilly (a Welsh-style aged cheese named after one of their cows) is really special: a nutty, slightly dry cheese with a complex flavor and texture that invites grating in downy piles on top of toasted bread. Located in Suffield, open Mon-Sat, 9-6. PHOTOS BY LISA NICHOLS
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“ bucolic farmland Wend your way through
on the autumn leaf-strewn roads of Connecticut on our Farmstead Cheese Trail - and prepare to be enchanted.
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- North granby Sweet Pea Cheese is an intimate huddle of farm buildings in North Granby. The farm does not offer tours but visitors can watch the amazing robotic milkers from a viewing room attached to the cow barn. The cows at Sweet Pea contentedly munch sweetsmelling silage and hay, and make their own way into the milking booth twice daily, where a machine gently cleans their udders and milks them as they continue to munch. The cashonly farm store is open seven
days a week from 10 until 7. The small store offers jam, goat milk soaps, eggs, meat (beef, pork and goat), goat and cows milk, yogurt and soft ripened cheeses as well as a window view into their cheese-making room. The goat milk Labne is a delightful, very thick, tangy spreadable cultured cheese begging to be spread on soft warm pita bread with fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil - or used as a compelling substitute for cream cheese or creme fraiche. Open daily, 8-7.
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- durham Deerfield Farm in Durham offers a small, self-serve farm store tucked off the corner of the long, open barn. Their creamy raw milk has a bit of a cult following. Call ahead for meat orders and to reserve raw milk in gallon jugs. Chocolate, strawberry and coffee milk (a personal favorite) round out the pasteurized Jersey milk offerings. Deerfield makes soft, mild, farmer-style cheeses and a crumbly ricotta that sits happily on the savory end of the ricotta spectrum, perfect for lasagnas or mixing with salty, sharper aged cheeses and herbs for baking up into golden phyllo packets. Open 7 days a week, 10-6. Cash only. PHOTOS BY LAURIE BONNEAU CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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- Litchfield Arethusa Farm Dairy is a glorious temple of all things creamy in Litchfield - where their dairy cow herd is located - and on Chapel Street in New Haven. Arethusa Farm has a well-deserved reputation for excellence in animal care and craft, and their cheeses have won international acclaim. If you can ignore the incredible (and reasonably priced) ice cream, take the time to sample cheeses, purchase massive wedges or - at the New Haven shop - order a comforting classic grilled cheese! The Arethusa camembert is creamy and surprisingly light, Tapping Reeve is a mild but nutty cheddar-cousin and the Arethusa Blue is salty and creamy, recently winning first place in the World Championship Cheese Contest. Other cheeses nestle in cold cases alongside farm-made butter, sour cream, ice cream (yes!), and milk. Open daily; hours vary by location. PHOTOS BY WINTER CAPLANSON
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- wethersfield For a great selection of Connecticut cheeses together in a retail setting, the Old Wethersfield Country Store offers a number of cheeses on this list in one convenient and charming spot. As well as being committed to supporting local dairy farms and cheesemakers, the shop has an entire wall of nostalgic candies and ice cream, teas, chocolates, Connecticut-made gifts and quirky knickknacks. Open Tues-Sun, hours vary. PHOTOS BY WINTER CAPLANSON
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“ Life starts ALL OVER AGAIN WHEN IT GETS CRISP IN THE
- F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, THE GREAT GATSBY
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OF THE
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The air is different in autumn, shaking
off the heavy humidity of summer and delivering, on crisp afternoons and with morning mist over the water, a subtle reminder of the looming winter ahead. Savor the last days of warmth and sun by concocting fall fruit liqueurs for holiday gift giving. They’re easy to make, with no fancy ingredients or equipment involved. Whip up a batch and let the ingredients coalesce, meld, and deepen, until you’re ready to pour into a pretty bottle and tie on a gift tag! Craig Ventrice, Beverage Manager at Jesup Hall in Westport, shared his methods for making Apple Pie Liqueur and Date & Vanilla Cordial, and expertly crafted cocktails incorporating them. Copy these recipes onto cards for your recipients, or stir up your own toast to the harvest!
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Savor the last days of warmth and sun by con fall fruit liqueurs for holiday gift giving.”
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APPLE PIE LIQUEUR 2 C sweet apple cider 1 C hard apple cider 2 C brown sugar 1 C granulated sugar 5 cinnamon sticks 2 cups of Calvados (any apple brandy will do) Add the first five ingredients to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain liquid and add 2 cups apple brandy. Pour into Mason jar or air tight bottle and cover quickly. Let cool and store in a cool, dark place for up to six months. Can be used the day after making but improves with age. BONITA APPLE BUM COCKTAIL The combination of the brown sugar and the deep, nutty spices gives this cocktail beautiful balance and the Angostura Amaro offers up a rich brightness with hints of cinnamon clove. Absinthe is used as a prominent modifier in this cocktail. The bold and aromatic fennel and anise flavors play extremely well with the apple and baking spice flavor of the liqueur. INGREDIENTS 1.5 oz Apple Pie Liqueur 1.0 oz gin .25 oz Angostura Amaro .25 oz absinthe .25 oz simple syrup .75 oz lemon juice Pour all ingredients into a shaker, fill with ice and shake. Fine strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass. Garnish with fresh apple slices.
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All gins are not cr The Gray Whale Gin eated equal. used in th subtle wit h notes o is drink is f b r finish fro ight citru m the sea s and a sa vory kelp used the distill as a botan ation pro ic c a e l in ss. Do try isn’t for y it…but if ou, substi gin tute vodk a.
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DATE & VANILLA CORDIAL 2 C chopped dates 1 ½ C water 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 C red wine (think California Pinot Noir) 2 C granulated sugar 1 ½ C vodka Bring the first four ingredients to a boil in a saucepan, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Strain liquid (some solids/skin will be in your liquid; use cheesecloth, muslin, or coffee filters and squeeze to expel as much of the liquid as possible). Add sugar and whisk until dissolved. Stir in vodka. Pour into a mason jar or airtight bottle and seal quickly. Let cool, and refrigerate for up to three months. Can be used as soon as the day after making, but improves with age.
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BLIND DATE COCKTAIL This cocktail is best described as “fall in a glass,� tempting you with caramelized dates and their warm, burnt sweetness; fall-baking-essential allspice; earthy maple syrup; and the spicy tones and drier taste of vermouth. Egg white provides a beautiful mouthfeel, while Angostura Aromatic Bitters deliver flavors of tamarind, cinnamon, and nutmeg - and a deeply vibrant color. INGREDIENTS 1.5 oz rye 1.0 oz Date & Vanilla Cordial .25 oz Connecticut maple syrup 1/8 tsp. allspice .5 oz Dolin Blanc .5 oz lime juice 1 egg white Angostura Bitters Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Dry shake without ice to emulsify the egg white. Add ice and shake again. Fine-strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with Angostura Bitters art.
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“ WHIP UP A BATCH OF FALL FRUIT LIQUEURS AND LET THE INGREDIENTS COALESCE, MELD,
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AND DEEPEN, UNTIL YOU’RE READY TO POUR INTO A PRETTY BOTTLE AND TIE ON A GIFT TAG!
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Waste Not, Want Not. As Jesup Hall’s chefs have a nose-to-tail approach to cooking, so does the restaurant avoid wasting any usable bits of local fruit. Craig Ventrice’s beverage menu incorporates homemade infusions created from the apple cores or stone fruit skins left over from the kitchen’s work in preparing dishes. The rich flavors of apples in a salad accompanied by blue cheese pair perfectly, too, with a tart, acidic apple drink like the Bonita Apple Bum Cocktail! What scraps might you turn into boozy deliciousness? Lemon peels can be soaked in vodka for a couple of weeks, strained and combined with some simple syrup (one part sugar dissolved in one part water) to make a homemade limoncello. Do the same with orange peels, but add a cinnamon stick and a dozen whole allspice berries for perfect orange liqueur. Pineapple skins infused in gin? Yes! Get creative. Jesup Hall is happy to inspire!
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WHIT E FLOWER FA R M
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B LO O M I N G BEAUT IFULLY IN THE LITCHFIELD
H I L LS by HILARY ADORNO WINTER CAPLANSON photos
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IN THE LATE 1930’S,
two important figures in journalism history traded the commotion of New York City for several serene acres in Morris, Connecticut. He was William B. Harris, the senior editor of Fortune Magazine. She was Jane Grant, the first female journalist for the New York Times, the co-founder of The New Yorker, and a prominent figure in the women’s liberation movement. After settling into their tranquil farmhouse, they began acquiring acres of adjacent property. What started as a garden intended for cut flowers, blossomed into White Flower Farm, which has been in continual operation since it was founded in 1950. The name “White Flower” pays homage to Harris and Grant’s first perennial border named “The Moon Garden,” which still produces gorgeous blooms of exclusively white flowers. Before Google searches and e-commerce transactions, Harris and Grant worked diligently to source plants and shrubs beyond standard issue phlox and rhododendron. They tested selections from the tried and true celebrated gardens of England and brought the best performers to the United States. Their core values for White Flower Farm firmly asserted “good plants and good service... will always have an audience” – which became a proven concept in short order. Utilizing his journalism chops, Harris began to write under the pen name Amos Pettingill, publishing a book in 1971: “The White Flower Farm Garden Book - what every gardener should know about raising (or not raising) more than 1,100 plants and shrubs.” Most people didn’t realize Harris and Pettingill were synonymous, and the latter was considered not only entertaining but also a great authority on all things horticulture.
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In 1972, Jane Grant lost her battle with cancer, leaving Harris with a sizable property and business to manage. He began considering offers for the purchase of White Flower Farm, and met and began mentoring businessman and Bostonian Eliot Wadsworth II. Sensing Wadsworth’s commitment to maintaining excellence in product development and extraordinary customer service, Harris agreed to sell Mr. Wadsworth the property and business in 1976. Demonstrating his loyalty to preserving what had been established, Wadsworth even assumed the Amos Pettingill pseudonym and continued to write as Amos until Amos “retired” in 2016. There was a seamless transition of ownership from Harris and Grant to Mr. Wadsworth, which is quite a triumph when considering the average success/fail rate of most acquisitions (today the rate is between 70% and 90% in favor of failure). Thanks to Mr. Wadsworth’s impassioned devotion to White Flower Farm, it remains a very successful and respected plant nursery, welcoming thousands of visitors to the 200-acre farm annually. There is a retail shop on the property, but most of their sales are generated by their flower-filled catalog which is distributed to addresses across America, offering everything from bulbs to perennials, cut flowers, houseplants, shrubs and trees. White Flower Farm ships all over the United States (except Alaska & Hawaii) and they maintain a complex shipping schedule, ensuring plants arrive at just the right time for planting (determined by planting zone). Some plants are even shipped with accompanying heat packs, creating a temperature safe environment during their journey. 133
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I met with Head Gardener Cheryl Whalen on a gorgeous, temperate summer evening. Cheryl has been employed at White Flower Farm for over 30 years, starting in 1988 as greenhouse grower, working her way up to production house manager and finally becoming Head Gardener. In addition to managing the garden staff, Cheryl conducts garden walkthroughs for White Flower Farm employees. This function serves many purposes, including an educational experience for White Flower Farm’s customer service team, enabling them to speak knowledgeably about products, troubleshoot issues and make recommendations. In fact, many of the customer service staff are master gardeners or hold horticulture degrees, which is a pretty incredible pedigree for what is traditionally considered entry-level work. Cheryl beamed with pride as we walked along the never-ending
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and numerous display gardens that she plans and manages. These impressive and diverse gardens serve several purposes: 1) they test performance and dependability; 2) they are actual models used for product photography for the mail-order catalog; and 3) they are physical demonstrations of White Flower Farm’s offerings, helping customers make their gardening dreams come true. My favorite part of White Flower Farm is the 280’ long Lloyd Border, inspired by the Arts and Crafts style of gardens of Great Dixter, the home of Christopher Lloyd, in East Sussex, England. Lloyd (not the actor who played Jim Ignatowski on Taxi – because I asked) rose to gardening prominence in the late 1950’s thanks to his legendary, denselyplanted country gardens. In 2001, Mr. Wadsworth consulted Great Dixter’s famed head gardener, Fergus Garrett, who designed the
Lloyd Border that lives at White Flower farm. It features over 3,000 annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees and bulbs of every size, shape and color. It blooms from spring to fall, allowing visitors to see how White Flower Farms plants can be grouped and used in their own gardens. As Cheryl and I walked along the Lloyd Border, I foolheartedly attempted to identify plants and failed miserably. Thankfully, Cheryl had every single name on the tip of her tongue. She is a genus genius. Cheryl’s story starts with her education at UCONN. Originally enrolled as a biology major, she soon realized working in a lab was wholly unappealing. She decided she wanted to work outdoors and had an epiphany in her sophomore year, switching her major to horticulture. When she announced her decision to her family, her father was concerned and asked her how she intended to make a career out of
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horticulture…and she didn’t have an answer. Fate replied instead when, a short time after graduation, she was hired by White Flower Farm. Cheryl never looked back.
one could possibly imagine. The real fun, however, happened when we harvested the Hemerocallis (Daylily) roots that would be for sale in their popular catalog.
White Flower Farm is breathtaking and expansive; it is a must-visit for anyone who comes to the area. On its rolling hills you will find meticulously curated gardens as far as the eye can see, punctuated by stunning 60+ year-old specimen trees, including a 40‘ tall weeping beech that makes me weep with joy every time I see it. And here is where my life and White Flower Farm intersect: in 1984, I was looking for a summer job and found an ad in the Torrington Register placed by White Flower Farm. Thankfully, I was hired to work in the fields, and that summer, I weeded more than
Teams were assembled, and we followed a huge piece of heavy equipment called a “harvester.” Each team was assigned a seasoned professional who performed quality control. We would gather the roots, divide them as needed, and the Quality Control person would classify each plant as salable or not (the “not” group would get replanted and reconsidered in the future). I was taught the value of hard work as well as the effort required to produce beautiful results. A great employee perk was free bulbs and plants, which I overwhelmingly installed in the yards of my friends and family.
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ON ITS ROLLING
HILLS YOU WILL FIND MET ICULOUSLY
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GOOD PLANTS & GOOD SERVICE
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Every year thereafter I received beautiful reminders of that summer’s effort (and I still drive by their yards to make sure they’re not neglecting my installations). Today, I’m lucky enough to live five miles from this precious gardening resource - and I take every opportunity I can to see what’s growing at White Flower Farm. Any staff member I tap on the shoulder will have an encyclopedic knowledge-base to help me identify what will live in my garden and where it is best suited. With their help, I’m now working toward overwhelming my own garden. This year I attended the 13th annual tomato sale (held each May). I arrived first thing in the morning, but the throngs of people scurrying around with their arms full of plants
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incited fear: I wondered if I missed out on the best offerings. I shouldn’t have wasted my energy because as soon as entered the sale grounds I had to stop and catch my breath. I saw seemingly endless tables in rows covered with thousands of tomato plants organized in alphabetical order, allowing shoppers to hone in on their coveted varieties. I’m a vegetable growing novice, so I selected plants for extremely scientific reasons: their names. This is how I ended up with Clint Eastwood’s Rowdy Red, Mortgage Lifter, and Purple Reign growing in my garden. (They were all delicious, so my theory warrants consideration). You can visit White Flower Farm at 167 Litchfield Road, Morris, CT or online at: whiteflowerfarm.com
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FALL PLANT ING T IPS FROM CHERYL: PERENNIALS & SHRUBS: Cheryl says planting of perennials and shrubs is safe through September. She cautions gardeners to make sure roots have time to establish themselves in the soil before the ground starts freezing, to avoid heaving.
BULBS: Fall is a great time to get bulbs in the ground. Try to get daffodils in the ground in September because they take a little more time to root. Tulips like to wait for October because they root quickly and if the temperature gets too warm they might try to start growing (which you don’t want). Hyacinth, Allium and minor bulbs (grape hyacinth, crocus, and species tulips) can all be planted in October.
FALL CLEAN-UP: Cheryl encourages gardeners to leave some plants behind for wildlife to use for shelter and food sources.
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WHITE FLOWER
FARM IS BREATHTAKING & EXPANSIVE
A MUST-VISIT FOR ANYONE WHO COMES TO THE AREA
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Lisa146Stone Kim photo
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bliss “Every leaf speaks
to me. Fluttering from the autumn tree.” - Emily Bronte
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If you’ve kept a backyard flock of chickens, you already know the basics of raising poultry. Could raising your own Thanksgiving turkey be next? Here’s what you need to know:
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To raise a bird sized 12-20 pounds, as most cooks prefer, get your baby turkeys, called poults, in mid- to late July, not spring as you would baby chicks. “The first year we raised turkeys we didn’t know better and got them in June,” recalled Carmen Hall of Bluebird Farm in Willington. “When it was time to take them to the butcher for Thanksgiving, they were 45 pounds each! No one wants a turkey that big. We had to have them cut in half for a family-sized portion.” While many feed stores get in hundreds of chicks every spring, they will not have turkey poults for you in July. You’ll need to incubate and hatch your own or mail order day-old poults, costing $8-$13 each. Many of the same online sources that sell chicks also sell turkey poults. Hatcheries like Meyer will ship you as few as 5. Turkeys are curious, graceful, and personable, and they don’t scratch everything up as chickens do. Both toms and hens can be raised for meat, but the males will grow much larger. You needn’t worry about them being aggressive like roosters; your tom turkeys raised for Thanksgiving will not be around long enough to develop mature adult behaviors like fighting over females.
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After you confirm that your zoning regulations will allow you to add turkeys, one of your first choices will be whether to raise traditional or heritage turkey breeds. Traditional turkeys, like the Broad-Breasted White, are bred for rapid weight gain but may have difficulty walking, an inability to fly, and be more diseaseprone. They are a “modern” eating turkey, similar to what is found in the supermarket. If they are raised on pasture, though, they will taste far more flavorful than store-bought! Heritage turkeys, on the other hand, closely resemble the wild turkey. They run, fly, forage, and have beautiful plumage. There are about a dozen heritage breeds currently available, but the most popular are the Bourbon Red and Narragansett. While heritage birds will be smaller in the same amount of growing time, their meat has more depth and complexity. Heritage turkeys are also more active and intelligent, making them enjoyable to keep. The striking white-and-black Royal Palm are perfect if you desire a smaller (10- to 16-pound) turkey.
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Place your hatchery order early. Unlike the slow rollout of spring across the nation spurring chick sales, everyone growing birds for Thanksgiving wants delivery of chicks at roughly the same time. Turkey poults are slower to feather out and more fragile than chicks. They’re more sensitive to temperature fluctuations, including exposure to chilly air conditioning during shipment. Report poults that are dead upon arrival, or ones that are lethargic and die within 24 hours, to the hatchery for credit or refund, or to request replacements be shipped ASAP. If you do end up with poults varying in age by a week or so for this reason, no worries: they will all get along fine and can be raised together. Turkeys are large and require more space than the average chicken. For a flock of a dozen turkeys, you’ll need about an eighth of an acre of pasture (75 feet by 75 feet) secured by woven wire fencing or electrified poultry netting to keep out coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and even bears, all of whom would love a free-range turkey dinner. Turkeys need places to dust-bathe and roosts to fly up to at night. A moveable coop will be more secure and can be towed to fresh range as needed by a garden tractor or an all-terrain vehicle. Ready a brooder area just like you would for chicks. Use a heat lamp to keep it between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first week, then slowly lower the temp by raising the lamp, cooling it by 5 degrees each week.
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“Turkeys are curious, graceful, and
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personable”
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Poults need a non-medicated, high-protein feed like Purina Game Bird + Turkey Startena. At 8 weeks, they can transition to an adult feed like Purina Flock Raiser. Feed consumption will rise from as little as a half-pound per bird, per week, at 2 weeks old to nearly a pound per day near maturity. Raising turkeys and chickens together is not advised as chickens can harbor a disease called Blackhead which they are resistant to but is 100% fatal to turkeys. Clean adequate pasture, movable roosts, fresh water, well-formulated food, and protection from predators are what turkeys need to thrive! Before your turkey raising adventure begins, however, you must consider the end. If you’re going to have them processed then you need to find a processor willing to take them, which is not as easy as it sounds. Many facilities are at maximum capacity processing poultry during the Thanksgiving rush, and others hesitate to take turkeys because of the stress on machinery caused by the size of these birds. Some options to check into: Antonelli’s Poultry in Providence, RI; Baffoni in Johnston, RI; Impaoco in Feeding Hills, MA; and Westminster Meats in Westminster Station, VT. Expect to pay $10 or more per bird for processing and packaging, based on weight. If you’re going to process them yourself, you must learn how to do it properly. The steps are much the same as slaughtering chickens but you will need a bigger killing cone and a scalding pot generous enough for your largest turkey. The perfect solution may be to pay someone experienced in backyard processing to teach you and work alongside you for your first time. “My first tries at slaughtering from only book knowledge were very poorly executed,” said Christopher Andrews of Hurricane Farm, “and then an old timer came over and showed me how to do it efficiently.”
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Knowing that you raised that perfect, golden-roasted turkey on your Thanksgiving table could only be beat by also growing the potatoes, Brussels sprouts and squash…get planning, Homesteaders!
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“Heritage turkeys run, fly,
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fora
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age, and have beautiful plumage
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and gives occasion to splurge on the centerpiece for that meal: a local, farm-raised turkey. Opting to eat local means you’ll get a fresher, better quality product; be supporting the local farm economy; and tie holiday memories to a meal you can feel good about. Most awful things you’ve heard about factory farming are true, and probably more that insiders know but you’d rather not. While commercial agriculture plays an important role in feeding the world, you might prefer - as we do - a turkey raised on pasture at a local farm, where your purchase supports humane treatment of these birds. At Ekonk Hill Turkey farm, as soon as our turkey poults are fully feathered and old enough to tolerate the change in
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temperature that the outside environment offers, they make the move to our barn, with the doors wide open to pasture. Our birds get six acres of pasture and brushy area, and we increase the fence line to encompass ten acres as the season progresses to give them fresh grass to forage. The turkeys seek shade in the brush or under the corn we plant for them. They sunbathe, roll around in the dust, get plenty of exercise, and graze
on grass, bugs, and enjoy their favorite autumn snack: pumpkins. Basically, they get to live and act like turkeys. When predatory birds fly overhead they all run for cover, as turkeys should, but our guardian protection dog is at work roaming the pasture keeping predators at bay. I believe the sunshine and fresh air in which we raise our turkeys has contributed to their positive health and growth all of these years.
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When their time comes, our processing facility is less than 50 yards from their pasture. For the week of Thanksgiving, we hire a crew to work alongside us during processing. A family member or longterm, trusted employee does the dispatching quickly and properly, with little stress on the birds. In about 4 hours, the turkeys are cooled below 40 degrees, but not frozen, and are packaged. We then match the size of each turkey to a customer’s order as they go out the door. That’s a fresh turkey! Our Thanksgiving turkeys come packed similarly to the ones you see at the grocery store, with head,
feet, and feathers all removed. Just because you’re buying from a small farm doesn’t mean we’re not going to work hard to prep your bird for you! In addition to the weight range of your bird, you’ll need to decide whether you want a heritage or modern breed turkey. Most people want a broadbreasted turkey, whether they know much about the breeds or not. It has nice plump breasts and large legs, the turkey being almost as wide as it is long. This is the turkey most people picture when they envision the holiday bird. We raise almost 4000 broad-breasted white, and a handful of
“Electric fencing and their Anatolian shepherd dog
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g
broad-breasted bronze, turkeys. These are modern breeds that grow well, both on pasture and in a commercial setting.
because people buy them to eat, farms continue to breed and raise them, therefore conserving those genetics and making sure they don’t die off.
We also raise about 50 heritage breed turkeys each year: Narragansett, Bourbon Red, Royal Palm, Chocolate, Blue Slate, and Black Spanish birds old varieties, more similar to wild turkeys. They forage and love to jump and fly up to fence railings, trees, even on a tractor if you leave it in the pasture awhile. By purchasing these birds, you are supporting genetic diversity and the conservation of heritage breeds. This sounds contradictory, but,
The shape of a heritage turkey is long and lanky, with less fat under the skin, and less meat than a modern variety. Their meat is more flavorful, though, and they have a greater ratio of dark meat to white. Most of our heritage birds go to people who reserve the delicacy year after year. Heritage breeds, plucked and packaged, range from about 8-14 pounds at Thanksgiving, while broad breasted birds run 10-40 pounds. The
‘Blue’
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“Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm raises
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heritage breeds are more expensive per pound because they are a larger initial investment as day-old poults and aren’t nearly as fast or efficient at turning feed into muscle as broad-breasted varieties. Personally, I go along with the masses and prefer the broad-breasted turkey on my
Most people “want a broadbreasted turkey, whether they know much about the breeds or not.
”
dinner table. Because of their improved feed conversion, the broad-breasted breeds are more sustainable in working to feed the world. All the breeds of turkeys we raise here a have great quality of life, but I’ve always been a softhearted person so I prefer to consume the one who had the most to give. And if the animal had to die to feed us a meal, I’m glad it only took one turkey, instead of three, to feed the lot of us around the Thanksgiving dinner table. A truly fresh, local turkey has the ability to attract a customer who doesn’t typically shop local for their food. It’s a great gateway to becoming more interested in sourcing directly from farms. Because there’s such a strong market for pastureraised turkeys, they can be a vital part of a farm’s business plan. We’ve raised our own Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys for as long as I can remember. We always wanted a connection to our food, to know how the animal we were eating lived and what
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“Heritage breed turkeys forage and love to jump and fly up to fence railings, trees, even on a tractor if you leave it in the pasture awhile. ” went into growing it. One year be raised without drastic initial started with no equipment at all, we raised 15 additional turkeys for friends and family, and other people began inquiring about them. The next year we raised 30 turkeys for sale, and each year added a few more. This season we’re producing just short of 4,000 pasture raised turkeys! Turkeys don’t take up the amount of space on pasture that hoovestock do, allowing them to 168
investments. Because they are hatched in the spring and summer months and are processed in the fall through the holidays, they don’t require the expensive infrastructure for overwintering. We’ve always processed our own birds, initially falling under an exemption for custom processing for the customer, and now are a state licensed facility. But we
just a knowledge of the animal’s anatomy and respect for its life. Our farm has grown from six to 360 acres, adding cattle and sheep in recent years. The slow and steady growth of our turkey business has made all of this possible. One regret we have in the way things happen at Thanksgiving is that we don’t get to see many of CT FOOD & FARM / FALL 2018
our customers. Many people travel from New York City and Boston and only come to the farm once a year. It would be awesome to share our pride in the product we grew and be able to greet these customers who are supporting our farm during this incredibly busy week for us.
over during Thanksgiving and get to be the face of our farm. They do a great job, but I hope our customers know they mean the world to us. We are so lucky: as a family we have put in years of sweat and tears, but as a retail farm we wouldn’t be anywhere without our customers.
Because our turkeys are fresh, and we are processing them as they are handed to customers, we are so tied up in the back managing processing and packaging that the girls who work in our farm store usually take
You can order an Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm fresh Thanksgiving turkey with a $20 deposit in the farm store in Sterling, via phone, mail, or at the Downtown Milford, Ledyard and Coventry Farmers’ Markets. Turkeys can be picked up at the
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farm any of the five days before Thanksgiving. The balance of the cost is paid at pickup, with the weight range requested matched as closely as possible. Heritage turkeys sell out quickly, and we recommend ordering them in September. Our broad breasted varieties can generally be ordered until November. We also often have our turkeys, frozen, available in the farm store throughout the year, in addition to ground turkey and turkey pieces.
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PRO TIP:
Adding a turkey as a pet or farm attraction? Heritage breed turkeys have a much longer lifespan. We lost our mascot here at Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm this past winter, a Narragansett Tom named Swabbles, who I had pardoned over 12 years ago. In contrast, the presidentially-pardoned turkey, a broad breasted white Tom, never lives much over a year after its pardon, before dying of natural causes. I so wish they would pardon a heritage breed or even a hen verses a tom, as the females have much longer lifespans!
Editor’s Note:
Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm raises their turkeys like we want ours raised: on-pasture with free choice access to fresh water, allnatural grain, and shelter. Electric fencing and their Anatolian shepherd dog ‘Blue’ keep the birds protected from predators. They raise Broad Breasted White and heritage turkey breeds including Narragansett, Bourbon Red, Royal Palm, Chocolate, Blue Slate, and Black Spanish. The farm store offers their own ice cream and cider doughnuts, and they serve a Thanksgiving Sandwich made with roasted turkey breast, stuffing, cranberry sauce; and a Gobbler Sundae a mound of mashed potatoes topped with roasted turkey breast, stuffing, gravy, and topped off with a ball of cranberry sauce. Know what? It smells like Thanksgiving there as soon as you step out of your car. CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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eat and tears, w s f o s r a e y in ave put as a family we h anywhere e b ’t n d l u o w e rm w but as a retail fa stomers.” without our cu
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Here are four other notable Connecticut farms producing hormone and antibiotic free turkeys raised on pasture, without any additives or preservatives added to your finished bird: Radical Roots Farm in Canterbury raises Heritage Breed Narragansett turkeys that are fed produce and non-GMO grain from a local feed supplier, and high protein larvae grown on the farm to reduce food wastes. Turkeys can be ordered by phone at 931-241-3325, at the farm, at the Scotland Farmers’ Market, by email, and online. They accept cash, check, credit/debit, PayPal, and Venmo, and pickup is at the farm or a farmers’ market they attend. They offer local delivery for a modest fee. This farm also offers rendered lard for candle or soap making, produce, meats in smaller packages such as pork chops, ham, bacon, lamb, etc. Their livestock love visitors that will give them belly rubs! Soeltl Farm in Salem raises Giant White, New Holland, and Small New Holland turkeys that are milk and grain fed with generous servings of surplus garden veggies. Turkeys can be ordered by phone at 860-887-3329 or email for pickup at the farm where you can also purchase their milk fed beef, veal, pork,
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goat, chicken, duck, and goose, as well as eggs. Look forward to meeting their dairy goat and two friendly Guernsey cows. Stone Gardens Farm in Shelton raises Broad Breasted White turkeys that are fed non-GMO grain from Hiland Naturals, a Project Non-GMO certified company. Turkeys can be ordered at the farm or by email, for pickup at the farm. While there, you can also purchase their produce and other farm raised meats, and pre-made sides like gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Truelove Farms in Morris raises Mammoth Bronze turkeys on a diet of grain, produce scraps from a local organic market, and maple leaves…their favorite! For information or to order, email them, stop by their farm shop, or visit their stall at farmers’ markets they attend. Turkeys can be picked up at the farm, where you can also buy meat, eggs, and pork sausage for stuffing.
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How to roast a
rez los Pe r a C f e t & Ch mono r e photos H e erin anson l h p t a a C K r By Winte
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Farm fresh turkeys cook faster than frozen or store bought birds because the high moisture level of the meat transfers the heat more readily during cooking. Be careful not to overcook the turkey as this will dry out the meat. Plan on 15 minutes per pound at 325 degrees for fresh turkeys. Oven temperature may vary, so adjust time accordingly and allow an additional hour just in case the turkey doesn’t comply with this time frame. Keep in mind that the turkey should sit for 30 minutes, after removing it from the oven, before you carve it, so the extra time also provides a cushion should the turkey need to roast longer. Remove your turkey from the bag and place it in the sink. Pat dry any excess juices. Remove the giblets and neck.
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Grease the turkey with a little soft butter before roasting and place it in a large roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper, and according to personal taste use rosemary, sage, thyme, or other herbs. Cook the turkey breast side down for a little more than half of the roasting period, then turn it breast side up. Cover the bird loosely with foil until 1 hour before it is done, then remove the foil to allow the breast to brown up. If you stuff your turkey, plan on about 20 minutes more cooking time. A meat thermometer is the best way to test if your bird is ready. The thermometer should read 165 degrees in the thickest part of the inner thigh when the turkey is done. Begin checking the bird one hour before the end of your roasting time.
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Encore Turkey Recipes
by Chef Carlos Perez
Never waste a turkey carcass…make stock from it! Roasted turkey stock is the base for wonderful soups and can be used in paella, jambalaya, risotto, pilaf, or wherever you would use chicken stock. Deliciously rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants…all the cool kids are drinking it as “Bone Broth” now.
Bone Broth 1 leftover carcass from a 10- to 15-pound turkey
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
4 yellow onions, quartered
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 large carrots, scrubbed and cut in 2 inch pieces
2 bay leaves
4 celery ribs, cut in 2 inch pieces
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Olive oil (as needed)
2 gallons water (you may not need all of it)
2 cups white wine Roast carcass in 425 F until golden brown. Remove, break into pieces and place in a stock pot. Over medium heat, also add to stockpot: onions, carrots, and celery. Sauté until slightly softened and fragrant, adding a little olive oil if needed and loosening any bits of turkey that stick to the bottom.
Add remaining ingredients to stock pot, cover with water, and simmer for 4-5 hours, skimming any foam, solids, or fat off the top of the broth as needed. Strain broth, once through a colander to remove larger pieces of vegetables and turkey, and then through a chinois or
cheesecloth to produce a clean, golden broth. Let broth settle for 20 minutes, and then begin to skim off any additional fat that floats to the top. Broth may be used immediately at this point, or refrigerated for later use.
Add white wine, and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until liquid is reduced by half.
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c a r s a s c . . … y e k r a tu
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Thanksgiving Leftover Pot Pie This “next day” meal is a dish to look forward to in its own right! 1 stick butter 1/2 cup diced yellow onion 1/2 cup diced carrots 1/2 cup sliced celery 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp white pepper 2 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 cup heavy cream 1 lb leftover, cooked turkey meat 2 sheets puff pastry optional additions: corn, cut from the cob butternut squash, roasted and diced turnip, diced Preheat oven to 400 F Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, and celery and sauté until slightly softened. Gradually stir in flour, salt, and pepper a little at a time, making sure to avoid clumps. Gradually stir in chicken broth and heavy cream, reduce heat to low and let thicken. Fold in turkey, and any optional additions. Set aside. Line a 10” pie pan with one sheet of puff pastry. Using the tines of a fork, press holes into the pastry which will prevent it from rising. Pour in turkey and vegetable mixture. Top with 2nd piece of puff pastry, seal the edges, and cut a small slit in the center to allow steam to escape. Place pie on a sheet pan in the oven, and bake for 30-35 minutes until the puff pastry is golden brown and mixture is bubbling. Cool slightly before serving.
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“This “next day” meal is a dish to look forward to in its own right ! ” CTFOODANDFARM.COM
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Home Pottery The
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creating and connecting, on my own terms by Eina Rieger artist & owner of einamade: modern ceramics
Studio Winter Caplanson photos
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o
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studied ceramics in college and then took a long break from creating ceramics. I got back into ceramics with a clay class at a local art center. The process of making again felt incredible and I wanted to do more and more. I loved the camaraderie of the clay class at the art center, but quickly outgrew the space and struggled to find blocks of time to create there. As a busy working mom and wife, I was feeling partly inspired and partly frustrated. I enjoyed the pottery class, but found it challenging to make the time around family, work, life and the art center’s schedule. My friend and fellow West Hartford artist, Stefanie Marco Lantz, ultimately provided the catalyst to jumping back in more fully. She reached out about selling my work at a local Holiday Pop-up Market, something I didn’t think I was ready to do. The idea of “putting myself out there” intimidated me, but when I did, the response to my work was positive and encouraging! Revenue from the pop-up sales gave me the money I needed to build out my own studio space and got me started on the einamade adventure.
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Creating Space & Gathering Equipment A ceramics studio is about space needed to create, and store work and equipment. My studio is in a spare room in my home separated into work zones with areas for throwing, tool storage, glaze storage, drying, wedging, and packing. The space keeps me organized and the work flowing. Many people use a three-season porch, basement, or a garage as a studio. One of the most important considerations in choosing your space is to be sure that your ceramics studio is not connected to any ducted heating or cooling system in the house. Even if you keep your studio super clean,
“The idea of ‘putting myself out there’ intimidated me, but when I did, the response to my work was positive and encouraging!” you don’t want to risk spreading clay dust around the rest of your home. We also installed a black and white checkered linoleum floor for easy cleaning. Once you have a space, you need power and plumbing. Putting in a sink is ideal. We installed a shop sink in my studio, but buckets of water will work in a pinch. A pottery wheel can be plugged into a regular grounded 184
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“My studio is in a spare room in my home separated into work zones with areas for throwing, tool storage, glaze storage, drying, wedging, and packing.”
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outlet. The wiring for every kiln is different and you should contract a licensed electrician to wire a dedicated outlet for your kiln. Installation cost will be relative to how close your kiln is to your main electrical panel. Depending on your budget, finding equipment can be the most challenging part. I purchased a mix of used and new equipment to outfit my home studio. Sheffield Pottery, Rusty Kiln, and Bailey Ceramic Supplies and Equipment are excellent local resources for new pottery wheels, kilns, slab rollers, and every tool imaginable. Used equipment can be found on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and the Facebook group “The Potter’s Attic.” My wheel came to me via eBay and my fellow pottery friend, The Cottage Potter. I found my used kiln
on Facebook Marketplace and I purchased my slab roller new. Wire shelving was acquired from the local home improvement center and my husband created a large table on casters as my main work surface. You can expect to spend between $3,000 to $7,000 depending on how much plumbing and electrical work needs to be done and whether you can find used equipment or buy new. Use what you have and expand where you need to. My home studio works for me and my family. It allows me to work and keep ears on my boys finishing homework or playing. I am able to run up and check how the clay is drying. I can work for hours, or just minutes, and I am fortunate to share my love for clay when we have friends and family to visit.
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Connecting to Community For me, staying connected is important to maintaining a healthy creative life, especially since I work alone in my home studio. Listening to podcasts while I work is both enjoyable and informative. Two I highly recommend are The Potter’s Cast by Paul Blais and The Create and Thrive Podcast by Jess Van Den. The Potter’s Cast interviews a different potter every week and both speak to the creative and business side. I find value in both local artistic communities and social media. Social media works well for me since it is not time-of-day or duration-of-available-time dependent. I can engage when and where I want. The local groups help with deeper connections and more local collaboration. Instagram is an amazing platform on which to learn, network, and promote your work with buyers and fellow artists from across
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the globe. The ceramics community is a generous one with ideas and business tips. I have been fortunate to forge relationships with fellow artists both locally and across the country. Clay techniques, business card sources, shipping tips, and more have been shared through direct messages and phone calls. Two Instagrammers that inspire me most are Catie Miller Ceramics and Awk Clay Works. Instagram and Facebook have also been a way for buyers, galleries, and shops to find my work. The WeHa Artist Emporium and The Nutmeg Collective have been a wonderful way to connect with my local artisan community. Both groups have a social media presence to promote your work and popup shops to connect you to customers. The WeHa Artist Emporium organizes an annual juried show at the Noah Webster Library in West Hartford to highlight local artists. Both groups coordinate meet-ups with members throughout the year to help us connect with fellow makers. You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
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“Use what you have and expand where you need to.”
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I still keep in close contact with my clay buddies from the art center. We send each other ideas, chat over dinner, and take field trips for supplies. We even go on pottery tours together! Local potters Lyn Harper, Patrick Rivera and David Davis Wilson have organized the first annual Pottery Trail for Hartford County! The CT Mountain Laurel Pottery Trail will allow art aficionados to follow a map to eight local ceramic artists in the towns surrounding Hartford. The tour will take you to studios in Glastonbury, Windsor, Bloomfield, West Hartford, Simsbury and Granby. The 194
artists will open their studios on Saturday, October 13th, and Sunday, October 14th, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. This is a unique opportunity for visitors to view the working spaces of these artists, purchase artwork, and converse with the artists about their process. I am excited to participate in this event that highlights the artistic talent in our area and celebrates the diverse styles of the participating artists. More information can be found at ctpotterytrail.com, on Instagram at @ctpotterytrail and on Facebook by searching CT Mountain Laurel Pottery Trail.
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Eina Rieger is artist & owner of einamade: modern ceramics. Her ceramics bridge the gap between art and function. She loves bringing a bit of extra color and whimsy to everyday objects. Eina enjoys playing with textures and colors through the use of underglazes and slips to create the vibrant colors and modern patterns on her work. She is inspired by nature, vintage and modern textiles and the printmaking process. You can find more about Eina and her ceramics on Facebook and Instagram under einamade.
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HILARY ADORNO lives and
works (from home) in Morris. Technically in the village of Lakeside (beside Bantam Lake), which was once known as Footeville, which were all originally Litchfield.
NICOLE BEDARD, is a brand
photographer documenting what you do and how you do it. Fueled by coffee and genuine curiosity.
AMY BENSON, a freelance web
and graphic designer, has had an eye for photography since college.
LAURIE BONNEAU retired
early from academic biology, returning to photography for worthy causes and worldly clients like Farm Aid and NASA.
WINTER CAPLANSON, our
editor-in-chief, believes in patchouli, vintage lenses, the color turquoise, and a woodshed full of seasoned oak.
PAULA DEUTZ loves meeting
people and photography. A former banker and ski instructor, she now works in equine facilitated therapy between her travel jaunts and submitting pieces for the magazine.
GENA GOLAS makes delicious things at two Hartford area cafes, and in her free time (ha!) for her own some-time gig, Lovely Oven.
THERESA GOVERT, a
community organizer, has never thrown a party that didn’t raise awareness about a pressing social issue. Thank goodness she throws a good party.
Behind the Pages
our contributors
AMY HOLOMAKOFF ’s favorite time of year is fall. Crunching leaves. Pumpkins. New apple recipes! Instagram @theroadiechef.
CARLOS PEREZ, Executive
TERESA JOHNSON, our editor, works as a wedding and portrait photographer in Connecticut and beyond…when she isn’t silently correcting others’ grammar.
Chef at 4 Eat & Drink and owner of La Palette Bakery honed his craft under some of Manhattan’s top chefs. Chef Perez is now a judge for CTs Feed the Beast Competition and a member of “The Resistance” chefs’ movement, dedicated to furthering the prominence of our state’s spectacular cuisine.
JENNIFER LAVOIE, a lifelong
EINA RIEGER is a Connecticut
CT native, is more than over the moon about being able to visit, taste, drink, and write about all the amazing Nutmeggers whose passion and creativity make us proud!
AMELIA LORD is a chef in
southeastern Connecticut, doing all the cheffy things. See what’s what on Instagram.
CARLA MCELROY is a
documentary photographer specializing in family story telling. She is a terrible writer so she tells stories with her photos instead.
LISA NICHOLS is a designer and
photographer trekking around the world in search of quirky moments, interesting people, and amazing coffee.
native, mother of two, and art teacher. Her passion is einamade. She creates in her West Hartford studio.
RITA RIVERA, our graphic
designer, is an Oklahoma native who somehow ended up in New England. She cusses too much and drinks too much soda.
JOHN SHYLOSKI is a passionate photographer that loves fall for its apples, cider donuts, The Big E, and marathons.
JAKE SNYDER loves fish, to
fish, and working with fish. He’s a biologist with the State of CT, and his photography fills up all of his free time. JENNIFER MARCUSON photo
“ need a
YOU
don't
fork TO EAT
S I LV E R
good food. ~ Paul Prudhomme
”
WINTER CAPLANSON photo with Sweet Grass Creamery
