Shelton Family Farms Get Pandemic Boost

SHELTON — For Randy and Victoria Rogowski, who run the 100-year-old farm on Waverly Road, business is better than usual right now despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, it’s booming.

The greenhouse at Laurel Glen Farm is bright with color. Trays of beet greens, bell peppers and multiple lettuce varieties cover every surface in the large, rectangular space.

The still-growing plants are a mix of shapes and sizes, with red and brown stems topped by frilly, flat or round leaves. It smells earthy and fresh, there’s music playing in the background and everything’s as it should be, which is notable in a world where normal is hard to find.

Agriculture in the time of coronavirus is going notably well for other Shelton farms, too. 

With people worried about staying safe in food stores and navigating long waits for grocery delivery, local farms in the Valley are seeing a new wave of customers. Some – like Beardsley Cider Mill on Leavenworth Road in Shelton, which is currently building a distillery – are even expanding. 

And farmers hope the increased sales will stick after social distancing guidelines are over. 

Laurel Glen, which sustainably produces more than 50 varieties of vegetables on their 20 acres of land in Shelton, offers a ​“vegetable subscription,” or CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), allowing customers to buy ​“shares” of the season’s output and receive a regular pick up or delivery box of produce and other farmed goods. 

When they opened subscriptions in mid-April, they quickly sold out. So they increased their allotments – and immediately sold out again. The farm has offered a CSA since 2013, and subscriptions have grown every year, they said, but never by this much; they’ve tripled last year’s numbers. 

The current demand is staggering, and exciting, too. 

“I just hope it doesn’t go back to normal after this is over, and that people forget about farms,” Randy Rogowski said. Laurel Glen, initially a dairy farm run by his ancestors, has been in the Rogowski family since its inception. 

For now, Laurel Glen is keeping up with demand, and considering creative, safe ways to give customers access to locally farmed food. 

Those who missed out on vegetable subscriptions can still sign up for the farm’s ​“surplus subscription” offering, and pick up bag of various harvest vegetables once per week, or purchase farm credit, which gets customers 10 percent off at Laurel Glen’s soon-to-be-opened farm stand. 

The space, located at the farm, will feature their own vegetables, as well as local meat, pasta, cheese, coffee and milk, all from local producers. The stand allows them to partner with and highlight other farms and local businesses, the Rogowskis said. 

Victoria Rogowski said that out of all her tasks on the farm, she enjoys communicating with customers most, including through the farm’s blog, where she shares cooking tips for that week’s harvest. She said she hopes their new customers recognize and value this relationship, and all the other positives that come with shopping local – and that they’ll continue these new habits. 

“I think one of the benefits of farms is the customer relationship,” she said. ​“We feel a sense of commitment to them and it provides a real sense of community.” 

Farmers across Shelton are discussing how to make the best of this unfamiliar new territory. 

“We’re all struggling as farmers to figure out how to operate under this new normal and it’s a challenge, but farmers are up to the challenge,” said Tom Harbinson, the hospitality manager at Jones Family Farms in Shelton. He is also chairman of the Shelton Conservation Commission, which works to preserve and maintain natural resources, including land designated for agriculture. 

Harbinson has participated in Zoom meetings with farmers from other regions of the country to brainstorm next steps, including those in different climates (the south, for instance) who are already navigating distribution of warmer-weather crops. 

Jones Family Farm, known for its ​“pick-your-own” fields, Christmas trees and winery, is still deciding how to handle the first crop of the season: pick-your-own strawberries will be ready in June, and Harbinson said their team is making plans that will allow customers to enjoy the harvest while following health guidelines. For now, they are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday for bottle sales, including a check out stand in their parking area, and offer online wine orders for curbside pickup. 

Whatever they decide for the spring and summer seasons ahead, they mostly want ​“people to feel safe,” Harbinson said. 

He agrees with the idea that local farming includes benefits which might keep customers connected, even after coronavirus. 

“There’s an educational component,” he says of the relationship between farmer and consumer, who often discuss the crops in season and learn from one another. In that way, he said, that the setup is healthier in terms of getting more produce into consumer’s kitchens, as well as promoting the ​“health” of a community by keeping commerce local. 

Plus, local food simply tastes better, he said. ​“There’s nothing like a fresh strawberry harvested in a field,” he said. 

Harbinson hopes that Shelton’s farming success – and its plans to maintain land for current and future agricultural pursuits through the Conversation Commission – will serve as a role model for other regions. 

“We are part of the fabric of our community,” he said. ​“Hopefully people are recognizing that, and this will serve as inspiration for other communities.” 

Fred Monahan, who owns Stone Gardens Farm with his wife Stacia, also appreciates the positive relationships between farms in the area. 

“There’s a group of farms where we all help each other,” he said, noting that they each grow and offer something a little different, making it easy to promote one another. Shelton, he said, which has plenty of open space and manageable taxes, is well suited for agriculture, pandemic or not. 

But as with other farms, the pandemic has helped, not hurt, Stone Gardens. The farm is located on 50 acres on Saw Mill City Road in Shelton, where the Monahan family and a current staff of 15 grow vegetables and raise cows, pigs and chickens. 

“People are flocking to us,” said Monahan. Like Laurel Glens, he estimates his farm has tripled their business so far this season, selling meat butchered onsite, produce, prepared meals and other goods. 

Their farm stand, currently open to customers six days a week (they’re closed Mondays), includes a wide range of their own and other locally-sourced own vegetables and fruit, their own meat (including ground beef, broiler chickens, sausages and kielbasa and more), dairy, eggs, prepared foods like eggplant rollatini and chicken parmigiana, as well as other products. They’re currently offering pre-order and curbside pickup. 

“It’s been really, really busy here,” Monahan said. ​“It’s crazy, but my staff and family has taken it in stride.” 

He said customers, who have been driving in from as far away as Hartford, ​“have been great,” taking precautions like waiting outside if the stand gets too busy. He said a customer will occasionally ​“panic” that their farm won’t have enough product to go around. Monahan urges them to be patient, and explains that they can only package and process so much a day, but assures all customers that their meat and produce will keep coming with enough to go around for everyone who wants it. 

His team hopes that, after the pandemic, customers will keep coming, as well. They talk about it nearly every day. 

“I would think we’re going to retain some of our customers because they didn’t know we were here before, and because of our products,” he said. Once you experience local food – and get to know the farmers who grow it by name – it’s tough to go back, he said. 

Many farmers in Shelton, and likely many across the state, share the same idea. The current success of local farms, as well as their optimistic prospects for the future, feel like a kind of remedy for so much uncertainty. 

“The only thing to get you out of adversity like this is to have hope,” said Harbinson. ​“I think that this has brought forth a new awareness of community.”