Date: Fri 17-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Fairfield-Hills-farming

Full Text:

FARMERS HAVE PLANS TO WORK LIGHTLY ON THE LAND

(with cuts)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

Standing in the middle of a freshly cut field at Fairfield Hills, Jon Audietis

bent down, picked up a handful of hay and sifted it through his fingers.

"It's still damp," he said. "We'll let it dry in the windrows until tomorrow.

I'll come back and bale it before it rains."

Mr Audietis, who lives and farms in Oxford, and Randy Vaszauskas, owner of the

Berry Farm on Crook Horn Road in Southbury, have signed a five-year lease with

the state Department of Agriculture to farm 100 of the 250 available acres of

farmland on the site of the former mental hospital. They plan to grow

vegetables and fruit, and also keep some of the land in hay.

Bernard Dzielinski of Homestead Hill Farms in Ridgefield was awarded a

ten-acre section on which he will grow potatoes, winter squash, cabbage and

peppers. Under the terms of their leases, the farmers will pay the state about

$25 an acre per year for the land.

The Veterans Claims Assistance Program, a private nonprofit organization for

disabled veterans, will do organic farming in four greenhouses to be located

on five acres at Fairfield Hills. They will produce vegetables for consumption

by persons, including some veterans, who suffer from Multiple Chemical

Sensitivity and do not eat vegetables grown with chemically-based fertilizers

and pesticides.

Mr Audietis, 21, who graduated from Nonnewaug Vocational Agricultural High

School in Woodbury and earned an associate's degree in agronomy at SUNY

Cobbleskill, also serves as a director on the Fairfield County Agricultural

Extension Council.

While still in school, he began an association with Randy Vaszauskas, who has

been in agriculture all his life, having grown up on his mother's poultry and

vegetable farm in Middlebury. Mr Vaszauskas sells all the produce he grows at

a roadside stand and at ten area farmers markets, including the Saturday

morning market at the Cooperative Extension System office in Bethel, where Jon

Audietis also has a stand.

"Both of us have worked closely together for the past few years by sharing

equipment, trading labor and simply helping each other out. This has been a

mutually beneficial arrangement and we plan to continue it in the future," Mr

Audietis said.

"As environmentally-minded farmers, we both practice Low Input Sustainable

Agriculture (LISA) on our farms. The concept behind LISA is to leave as little

impact on the environment as possible while still producing a crop. To do

this, we both take yearly soil samples and periodic tissue samples to

determine the needs of the crop. We then supply only what is needed so as to

avoid excess.

"Weed control is another part of this plan of conservation. We both use

cultivation as a means of reducing the amount of herbicides that are necessary

to grow our crops. Crop rotation also is a remarkable way to reduce weed

pressure and [it] benefits the crops in many other ways. Since water is a

dwindling resource in other parts of the country, we use drip and

micro-irrigation to avoid creating the same problem in this area."

Mr Vaszauskas said he is well aware that the fields at Fairfield Hills are

over the Pootatuck Aquifer, Newtown's primary water supply. The same type of

situation exists in Southbury, where the Berry Farm is located over the

aquifer that serves Heritage Village, he said.

Because of this, another important part of LISA which they intend to implement

is Integrated Pest Management (IPM), he said.

"The concept behind IPM is to monitor problems, insects, weeds, and diseases,

and not take action until they reach a certain damaging threshold. This

greatly reduces the common mentality of hopping on the tractor (to) spray just

because it happens to be Monday. To properly implement IPM we have both

participated in various IPM training programs offered by the Agricultural

Extension Office. In addition, we work with a retired extension agent, Joe

Maisno, as a crop consultant who weekly inspects our vegetable crops."

Mr Audietis said the land at Fairfield Hills will be used to grow small fruits

and vegetables which will be sold at retail stands and farmers markets. Some

of the land also will be kept in hay production to make a complete crop

rotation.

The two farmers are examining the possibility of starting a composting

operation which would utilize town leaves and manure from the Governor's Horse

Guard, which is also located at Fairfield Hills.

"Randy (Vaszauskas) worked most of the property approximately 30 years when

the state discontinued farming the land," Mr Audietis said. "At the time it

was in premium condition and grew fantastic crops. Unfortunately, the land has

declined a great deal since then due to neglect. The fertility is very low and

there are large patches of weeds in some of the fields."

Mr Audietis said the soils can be rebuilt, and he is working with the National

Resource Conservation Service to determine how best to do it. Soon he will

begin to plow some of the fields and put in a crop of winter rye.

As he spoke, walkers strolled down the road that cuts through the fields,

ignoring the state's No Trespassing signs.

"We plan to leave some sort of buffers around the fields -- maybe plant some

corn to serve as a buffer -- so that people can use the borders for walking

paths," he said. "We want people to be able to continue to enjoy the land and

nature. There just aren't any other large open areas like this anymore."