“Banging her golf cart along a rugged dirt farm road she has traveled more than half her 85 years, Louise ‘Teddy’ Randall stopped to check on a field of tilled brown soil, her hazel eyes peering out from under a straw hat to scan for sprouts.
“‘We just planted the beans there last week,’ said Randall one morning in late August, sitting behind the wheel of the cart, its rear compartment laden with empty harvesting buckets and shovels. ‘We planted three or four times this year, and had no crop. My beans were so beautiful last year, I never dreamed I wouldn’t be able to raise beans. It’s just been such a crazy year.’
“This summer, her 240-acre farm, in a town considered a stronghold of Connecticut agriculture, has produced bushels of yellow summer squash, bundles of Swiss chard fans, baskets of romaine lettuce heads and other vegetables, even as typically reliable crops like beets, carrots, beans and tomatoes have been undersized – or nonexistent – compared to past years.
“Wet weather and weed infestations nearly ruined much of her 20 acres of hay. The hay, along with 90 acres of silage corn sold to a neighboring dairy farm, are main sources of income for the farm. But the vegetables are also an important part of the mix and a source of employment for Randall’s half-dozen part-time helpers.”
A recent article in The Day profiled Ms. Randall and her farm (OUR Acres Farm) in Lebanon, Connecticut.
To access the complete article, please visit:
The Day: Lebanon farmer, 85, weathers changing times (2 SEP 13)
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