Tag: farm

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

New Hartford’s Shifting Center

Yankee Farmlands № 98 (Farm in New Hartford, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 98”
Farm on cold January morning, Village of Nepaug in New Hartford, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

In the rural valley of Nepaug beneath the looming silhouette of Yellow Mountain, farmland is daubed with molten light upon awakening to another January morning. A dirt road creased with frozen ruts weaves amidst piled fieldstones, timbers and greenhouses before vanishing into the farm’s interior.

Although many of Connecticut’s towns have existed for centuries, their configurations have changed dramatically over time. For example, in the 1720s, New Hartford’s pioneering farmers from the Connecticut Colony settled at Town Hill just north of Yellow Mountain (which would’ve been on the far side of the hill as it’s seen in this piece) and thought of their village as the “town center” for next 100 years.

By the 1820s, though, the village of Nepaug emerged as the new town center when its productive streamside mills became the focal point of the community. But even Nepaug would eventually pass the torch when, in the 1870s, New Hartford’s very first Town Hall was built in the district of North Village. North Village had simply outgrown Nepaug during the intervening five decades and, to this very day, it still claims the unofficial designation of town center.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 98” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work in my Yankee Farmlands project, an on-going series that explores the Connecticut countryside in celebration of the agricultural heritage of New England.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Making a New England Peach

Yankee Farmlands № 95 (Peach orchard during autumn, Guilford, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 95”
Peach orchard during autumn, Guilford, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Well into November, and with the surrounding forests already stripped bare by icy winds, an orchard of wizened peach trees clings valorously to its autumn trimmings. A mosaic of fallen leaves scattered upon the grasses beneath, however, signals the inescapable reality of the coming winter.

For those who understandably associate peaches with the forgiving climate of the American South, it might seem almost bizarre to find orchards of the fruit tree dotting the New England landscape from Connecticut to Maine. Indeed, peach trees weren’t well-suited to cold weather in the beginning, often being found in the Northeast only in small plantings or backyards, more as novelties than serious fixtures in the orchard.

It wasn’t until the late 1800s that New Englanders began seeking out resilient specimens and isolating genetic flukes to produce new cold-hardy varieties that would prove commercially viable in their neck of the woods. The trees still aren’t as resilient as the venerable apple and pear –crops are occasionally decimated across the region by brutal cold snaps– but the peach has nonetheless found a permanent and welcome home in orchards of New England.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 95” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

On the Origins of Memorial Day

Yankee Farmlands № 94 (Barn draped with the American flag, Stonington, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 94”
Barn draped with the American flag, Stonington, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Although memorial occasions for fallen soldiers had long existed in some form, it was on the heels of Civil War that hallowed days of remembrance arose with great frequency in communities across the American countryside. Known informally as Decoration Days, these ceremonies traditionally called for adorning the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers.

When the federal government sought to formalize and unify these assorted ceremonies in 1868, the date of May 30 was chosen. As for why that day was selected, some say it was because the date lacked any association with a specific battle, while others note that late May ensured a wealth of blooming flowers for decoration.

The holiday has endured many changes since those early days. “Memorial Day” gradually supplanted “Decoration Day” as the preferred name, the date was moved from the 30th to the last Monday in May and, of greatest importance, the graves of fallen soldiers have grown ever more numerous. What hasn’t changed is the significance and the sentiment which it embodies. And so, I leave you to the upcoming Memorial Day with the words of poet Kate Sherwood, penned in her 1885 work “Camp-fire, Memorial-day and Other Poems”:

Ah, not in anger, not in strife,
we come with laden hands ;
The crimson retinues of War
are off in other lands ;
We bring the blossoms we have nursed to
shed their honeyed breath
Where erst the reeling ranks of wrath
unbarred the gates of death ;
We lift the dear dead faces
of our heroes to the light,
We praise the pallid hands of theirs,
we clasp and hold them tight ;
We say: O brothers, rise and see
the Peace you helped to woo,
Whose snowy pinions hover o’er
the Red, the White, the Blue.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 94” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

A Bit of a Delay

Yankee Farmlands № 93 (Farm in Washington, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 93”
Washington, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Despite being bathed in the molten glow of dawn as October comes to a close, icy temperatures more befitting of winter descend upon this mowed cornfield in the hills of Western Connecticut. Snow lingers in the shadows beside a rickety cart, remnants of a recent storm that stubbornly persist despite autumn’s protests.

I originally intended for my Yankee Farmlands project to be rolled out in real-time, each new installment having been produced only a week or two before its release. For two years or so, that’s exactly what I did. But an increase in clients and a heavy shooting schedule last autumn made it prohibitive to continue such a rigorous roll-out.

The result? You’re just now seeing the project installments that I was shooting about seven months ago. But I must say, there’s something strangely satisfying (in a contrary sort of way) about rolling out imagery of a chilly autumn day just as Connecticut abruptly ticks up into the 90s.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 93” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Atop the Barndoor Hills

Yankee Farmlands № 92 (Barndoor Hills, Granby, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 92”
Granby, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Nestled in a cozy valley between the monolithic Barndoor Hills, the stables and white-fenced pastureland of a picturesque horse ranch contrast with the expansive forests of Connecticut’s northwest.

Prior to the advent of automobiles in the 20th century, horses were a ubiquitous mode of transportation throughout the United States. And, perhaps thanks to Wild West films, it’s not hard for us these days to envision an era when horses were commonplace. But when did these animals arrive in New England?

Native Americans living in New England did not possess horses prior to European contact. And although the Pilgrims were exceptionally familiar with horses in their homeland, they neglected to bring any along on their pioneering voyage to establish Plymouth on the Massachusetts coast in 1620. Explicit mention of a horse in Southern New England doesn’t appear in records until 1632, when the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony mentions riding the “Governor’s mare” while traveling between villages.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 92” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Quiet Store in the Quiet Corner

Yankee Farmlands № 90 (Farm stand in Eastford, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 90”
Eastford, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

A scattering of pumpkins and bushels of fresh squash and gourds sit by the roadside beckoning to passersby to visit this farm store in Connecticut’s Quiet Corner. Potted chrysanthemums sit in arrangement beside the store’s corrugated walls, enjoying some mid-day sunlight as October wanes.

There’s good reason that Eastford and surrounding towns in Northeastern Connecticut have come to be referred to affectionately as the “The Quiet Corner”. With only about 60 people per square mile, Eastford is among the most sparsely populated towns in the entire state, and that trend towards being a quiet, out-of-the-way hamlet stretches back well over a century.

Even in the late 1800s, at a time when a great deal of Connecticut was booming with industrial might, Eastford was arguably languishing. The town was “touched by no railroad”, according to an 1881 state agricultural report. The account went on, noting that Eastford had actually “lost population since… 1870” and lacked any significant manufacturing or markets.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 90” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

In the Hills of Salisbury

Yankee Farmlands № 89 (farm in Salisbury, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 89”
Salisbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Barns nestle into the shadowy foot of a steep hill in Connecticut’s rugged northwest. The forest canopy has noticeably thinned as the latter days of October grip the landscape, only evergreens and a few stubborn broadleaves retaining their foliage.

In the 1830s, J. W. Barber described Salisbury not only as a farming community, but also as being “much celebrated for its very rich and productive iron mines”. The first forge had been constructed there in 1732 and was followed in time by several dozen more that came to dot the Housatonic Valley in the 19th century. Barber reported that thousands of tons of ore were being extracted each year from Salisbury alone at a site referred to as “Old Ore Hill”.

But, as was the story with so many of New England’s early industrial pursuits, the burgeoning population centers further west gradually made it less practical to have iron operations centered in the hills of the Housatonic Valley. In 1923, not quite a century after Barber swooned over Connecticut’s mighty iron mines, the last of the state’s blast furnaces was extinguished. Today, the sparsely-settled forests of Salisbury offer little trace of its illustrious industrial past.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 89” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Pumpkins by the Thousands

"Yankee Farmlands № 88" (Pumpkin patch in Enfield, Connecticut)

 “Yankee Farmlands № 88”
Enfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

With the color-rich forests of Northern Connecticut having reached a kaleidoscopic peak in mid-October, pumpkin patches yield the year’s final crop amidst a tangle of withering vines.

Pumpkins are a crop which is uniquely associated with autumn in the United States, whether it’s being called upon to fill pies or serve as decoration. Given that the treasured Connecticut Field Pumpkin is America’s traditional variety, it’s only fitting that they would enjoy a strong foothold in the Nutmeg State.

In fact, upwards of a million pumpkins are grown across Connecticut each year, an impressive annual haul which keeps the state well-stocked as leaves change and Halloween gives way to Thanksgiving. But when it comes to growing pumpkins on a massive scale, Illinois is the undisputed leader, producing over 300 million pounds of pumpkins on 15,000 acres of farmland in 2015 alone!

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 88” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

The Broadleaf Harvest

"Yankee Farmlands № 87" (Tobacco shed in Windsor, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 87”
Windsor, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Beside radiant autumn forests flush with an October palette, shadows embrace a rickety old tobacco shed freshly divested of its cured crop. Bare tobacco stalks, having been stripped of their leaves, lay piled upon a trailer ready to be carted away.

“Connecticut broadleaf tobacco is the Dangerfield of the cigar industry, a rumpled everyman tobacco that gets little respect,” wrote one journalist, kicking off a piece in a Cigar Aficionado magazine. And there’s truth to that assessment: broadleaf lives in the proverbial shadow of world-famous Connecticut shade tobacco, the two varieties forever vying for turf in the same fertile soils of the Connecticut Valley.

But while Connecticut broadleaf may not enjoy the same mystique as its shade-grown counterpart, its bold taste –described as a “heavy, muscular flavor” in the same Aficionado article– nonetheless earns it a spot in everything from machine-made Backwoods cigars to premium, hand-crafted maduros.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 87” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Corn & The Litchfield Hills

Yankee Farmlands № 86 (Roxbury, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 86”
Roxbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Crowded stalks of corn reach skyward from a humid field, the crops abruptly giving way to misty woodlands and the dreamy silhouettes of Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills.

While the crops grown throughout New England these days span a broad range from apples and blueberries to green beans and pumpkins, there’s no question that corn still reigns supreme. Whether for grain or silage, corn occupies tens of thousands of acres throughout the state. The only crop more common is one that would never make it to our dinner plates: hay and other forage crops that generally feed farm animals.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 86” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work from my Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

October & Tomatoes

Yankee Farmlands № 85 (Field of tomatoes, Cheshire, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 85”
Field of tomatoes, Cheshire, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

As dawn breaks over the Naugatuck Valley in early October, thousands of stakes still dot a rolling field of tomato plants and bear the weight of the season’s waning crop. Barns peer down over the land from atop the farm as woodlands beyond climb ever higher toward a cerulean sky daubed with airy clouds.

Although the English were experimenting in their gardens with an exotic fruit known as the tomato as early as the 1500s, it would be a long time before they grew popular. Perhaps because the plant’s blossoms bore resemblance to poisonous wildflowers known as deadly nightshades, the tomato was widely believed to be toxic.

In fact, tomatoes were unheard of in the British colonies of North America for quite some time, with the earliest record of their cultivation appearing in the Carolinas in the early 1700s. Despite some lingering suspicions of the plant in America, tomato recipes began emerging en masse during the early 19th century. By the mid-1800s, it seems that the fallacy of the poison tomato, honored as common knowledge for two centuries, had finally been put to rest.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 85” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work in my on-going Yankee Farmlands project.

Categories
All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Bloomfield’s Farm Fresh Eggplant

Yankee Farmlands № 84 (Field of eggplant and produce box, Bloomfield, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 84”
Field of eggplant and produce box, Bloomfield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

As the final days of September approach, this leafy field of eggplant rears its final crop of ripened vegetables. A waxy produce box, honest in its “farm fresh” claim, lays beside the field in wait for the harvest.

It’s not uncommon that farm fields might be planted with dramatically different crops from one season or year to the next. For one thing, this practice ensures that the nutrients important to a given type of crop aren’t exhausted from the soil disproportionately. Sometimes, the motivation may be purely monetary: the old crop just isn’t fetching the same profit as it once did.

This particular field had been dedicated to shade tobacco for years before being planted with eggplant instead. And, although it surely had no bearing on the decision to switch crops, it’s interesting to note that eggplant contains more nicotine than any other vegetable. Strange, right? But no worries, you’d need to eat nearly 30 pounds of eggplant parmesan to consume the same amount of nicotine found in just one cigarette.

Purchase a Fine Art Print or Inquire About Licensing

Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 84” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

Want to See More?

Be sure to check out all of the work in my on-going Yankee Farmlands project.