|
By Suzanne Knutson
In a community where farmland has largely disappeared in the face of relentless development, Millstone Farm is both a refreshing reminder of Wilton’s heritage and a feast for the eyes. On one side of the drive up to the barn is a garden bursting with colorful vegetables; on the other, a scenic pasture where rare-heritage chickens fluff their feathers and scrabble for food in the grass. Included among them are feather-footed Sultans, fancy Dominiques, and highly prized Araucana laying hens, often called “Easter egg chickens” because of their bright blue eggs. Nearby, Shetland sheep and Devon cattle graze peacefully in the gently rolling fields, while heirloom Tamworth pigs wallow luxuriously in the mud.
Sporting sturdy farm boots and a vigorous mane of curls, Betsy Fink, who owns and operates Millstone Farm, cheerfully greets a small group of  visitors and leads them on a tour. The first stop is a peek at the veggies, which are organically grown to order for a select group of local markets and upscale restaurants. At first blush the garden seems unusual only because it is entirely enclosed—both the sides and the top—in a wire-mesh frame, and pumpkins are growing on the roof of the structure. “Everything has to be fenced to keep out the deer and wild turkeys,” Betsy explains. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes obvious that these are not your average vegetable crops. The corn is purple, the squash is zebra-striped, and the tomatoes are orange and yellow.
The farm is Betsy’s brainchild, the embodiment of her vision to establish a model for land use and sustainable farming, and a logical progression in her efforts, with her husband, Jesse, to champion environmental causes and preserve open space. Through the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, the couple has provided financial support to promote conservation, land preservation, and environmental education. “Our intent when we bought the property was to turn it into a farm,” Betsy says. By purchasing the bucolic 75 acres on Millstone Road in north Wilton in 2005, they were able to ensure that the land would remain unspoiled and, at the same time, put to good use. As Betsy says, “I believe in making working lands.”
The Finks’ interest in the environment harkens back to their college days when they were students together at SUNY’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. Jesse began his career as a forest and land manager for Georgia-Pacific. He subsequently co-founded priceline.com and served as its chief operating officer through its initial public offering in 1999. Currently, he is one of three founders of MissionPoint Capital Partners, a private investment firm specializing in clean energy and environmental finance. Betsy grew up riding horses and surrounded by dairy farms in Ithaca, New York. After college, she became a systems analyst for Prodigy Services and, later, worked for many years at priceline.com. Through the couple’s work in the environmental arena, Betsy became increasingly concerned with the risks posed by industrial farming—disease, deforestation, and lower nutrient value. She and a growing vanguard of passionate farmers seeking to reverse the loss of local agriculture are staunch advocates of sustainable agriculture, often dubbed the “farm-to-table” movement. Implicit in this approach to farming is the use of environmentally sound and humane agricultural techniques to grow and raise food.
With their farm, the Finks hope to prove that the centuries-old concept of smaller, localized farms results in fresher, more nutritious food. “We need to go back to regional agriculture,” Betsy states matter-of-factly. “Gasoline may not be four dollars per gallon anymore, but it’s a limited resource and eventually it will go back up. At some point it won’t be economically feasible to ship lettuce to the East coast from California. In addition, farming has become so centralized. We keep reading about tainted food. Well, if you’re moving hundreds of cows through the processing plant in an hour, and one of those cows is tainted, then they’re all going to be tainted.” By comparison, she says, “If you can go to the farm next door and see how the cows are being raised—whether they’re eating grass, which is more nutritious, or eating corn—you’ll know whether the beef is good to eat.”
It seems that Connecticut’s best chefs concur. Bill Taibe, executive chef of Napa & Co. in Stamford, says, “I look forward to Wednesday mornings when I go to Millstone Farm and select the vegetables I want. They grow really cool and unusual stuff. I like to get there really early before the other chefs so I get first pick at whatever they’ve just harvested. Last summer they had the most fantastic purple corn—I think I cleaned them out—and I used it to make a great succotash,” he says, clearly pleased with himself for shutting out the other chefs. Such other chefs include Tim LaBant, chef/owner of Wilton’s Schoolhouse restaurant in Cannondale Village. “I love going to Millstone Farm, interacting with the farmers, and picking my own vegetables,” he announced to the nation during a recent appearance on “The Martha Stewart Show.” And Michel Nischan, the noted chef and food-policy activist who teamed up with Paul Newman to open the Dressing Room restaurant in Westport, pays homage to the farm on his menu by referring to the salad simply as the “Millstone Mix.”
As laudable as the goals of the sustainable farming movement are, the resulting produce is more expensive. Will consumers pay more for it, particularly during economic downturns? Betsy has clearly thought long and hard about this issue. “Americans think that we should have cheap food. We’ve been lulled into thinking that all food is equal, but it’s not,” she says. “When you buy my eggs, you’re buying nutrition. My chickens are fed only organic feed and flaxseed, and we rotate their enclosures once a week so they can feed on fresh grass. As a result, our eggs are higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, so they’re better for you.”
It’s a persuasive argument and one shoppers seem to agree with because the demand for produce harvested just hours before it hits the shelves has grown dramatically in recent years. Witness the popularity of Millstone’s lettuce mixes: “Their greens sell out as fast as they come in,” reports Terry Meehan, produce manager for the Village Market, one of a handful of stores that carries Millstone’s mixed greens. They are so sought after, in fact, that some folks reserve their lettuce mixes in advance. “We’ll get 30 or 40 bags in and they all go quickly. They’re sweet and very, very fresh,” Meehan confirms. Millstone’s eggs sell just as fast, despite their lofty price. “They’re not just expensive, they’re super expensive,” Meehan says. “But the whole key to these eggs is their freshness. We get them in once a week right after they’ve been gathered, so they’re no more than a day or two old, and they all sell out. We never have to rotate them.”
Getting the farm established was no small feat, and Betsy is quick to praise Annie Farrell, a well-known and highly respected pioneer of the sustainable farming movement. “Annie helped me build the farm,” Betsy says. “But now that I’ve got others in place to run it, Annie’s role has shifted to focus on the philanthropic aspects of the farm.” As she rattles off a list of educational programs they’re developing, Betsy’s sincerity is palpable, her enthusiasm contagious. Thus, this word to the wise: Don’t spend too much time with this farm gal, or it won’t be long before you’re raising sheep in your own backyard.
|
