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Recognizing that farming is an integral part of the Glastonbury community, the Glastonbury Town Council recently passed a ‘Right to Farm’ ordinance, which became effective Aug. 11.

The ordinance recognizes that, as farms operate, they produce odors, noise, and dust, as well as the use of chemicals, irrigation, and water management.

Council member John Cavanna said it is a good first step in supporting the town’s agriculture businesses, especially given the flooding that damaged crops this summer and caused significant losses.

“If there has been a bad year to be a farmer in Connecticut or the Northeast, it’s been this year,” Cavanna said. “I’d like this to be a first step in a continuing set of stairs that we can try to build and do something better to help the farms out in this community.”

“I love this idea,” said council member Mary LaChance. “My neighborhood, when I was growing up, had a cornfield next to it. There were certain times of the year when it was a little stinky, but it was really great to have farms within the town. I think it’s the least that it can do for the farmers this year.”

Council member Whit Osgood pointed out that the ordinance does not supersede any zoning regulations or other ordinances, so it has no teeth.

“In other words, in my opinion, this is basically virtue signaling,” Osgood said. “We already have state law that provides for protections for farming. This does nothing to the state law. So, is it really the council’s need to address something that we don’t need to address, when we have pressing matters that are costing the town millions of dollars, that we are probably inadequately addressing? I think we should be spending our time more wisely.”

Council member Jake McChesney disagreed with Osgood.

“I am very happy spending my time supporting our farming community,” McChesney said, adding that his family comes from Vermont and has a history of farming.

“Part of the reason why we moved to Glastonbury is the strong farming community,” he added. “It’s a draw in town, it’s a huge feature in town, and it’s a part of our history. To the extent this is virtue signaling that we value our farms in town, I’m perfectly fine with that. I also think it has value substantively. I also think there is value to signaling to our farming community that we are here with you.”

Councilman Kurt Cavanaugh said he wishes more could be done to aid farmers who have crops destroyed by natural disasters.

“I find it quite shocking that farmers are given the opportunity for low-interest loans, but when banks fail, they get bailed out,” he said. “I’d like to see the same bailout opportunity for farmers up and down the Connecticut River and all along the East Coast.”

Council Chair Tom Gullotta offered that the ordinance could be changed or added to, and agreed that having it in place is a good starting point.

“Let’s put this in place this evening,” Gullotta said. “Let’s go forward with this. As with so many things, it doesn’t say it can’t be revisited.”

For more information, visit www.glastonburyct.gov.

The owner of Rose's Berry Farm in Glastonbury is retiring and the farm will shut down at least for the near future.

GLASTONBURY, CT — A cultural and business staple that has been around South Glastonbury for more than a century is closing, at least for the near-future.

Rose's Berry Farm's current matriarch, Sandi Rose, posted on social media that the farm would be closing because of "retirement."

The farm on Matson Hill had been a popular pick-your-own venue in South Glastonbury that opened in 1908. It was considered one of the largest blueberry farms in Connecticut with more than 20 acres of blueberry plants.

The farm also had featured seasonal favorites like strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, and pumpkins.

It hosted the popular "Breakfast-With-A-View" events on Sunday mornings throughout the picking season. The farm was also a wedding and event venue that was open from mid-May to mid-October.

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The farm stand at 1200 Hebron Ave. could continue if another farmer takes over, Sandi Rose said.

Sandi Rose sent out a heartfelt message on social media:

Dear Friends of Rose’s Berry Farm and Family:

It is with both a heavy and happy heart, that I am announcing my retirement from the Farm life.

Along with my late husband Henry (2008), and more recently my partner, Mark, I have enjoyed working on the farm, and appreciate all the help over the years from all our employees, the Jam Ladies, The Men – Winnie, Agustin, Elpidio, Ramiro, Carlos and more…(our Mexican help) – who I could not have done this without, all of our Seasonal help, Farmers’ Market Workers and especially Michael Draghi and Pedro Aviles.

Rose’s Berry Farm (RBF) is a magical place, where families and friends made memories, PYO Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries choosing a Christmas Tree, enjoying Fall Festivals, Hayrides, pumpkins, Apple Season, School Tours and Sunday Breakfast with a View (thank you to all my Sunday Staff!).

Thank you to my many tenants who rented the several homes on the Farm. Thanks for looking out for us when we are not here!

Over the past 10 years we have also enjoyed hosting weddings, bridal and baby showers and parties. We have also welcomed hundreds of RV’ers who stay here with the Harvest Host organization. In 2021-22 we also started an Airbnb which has introduced new people to the farm and area.

Thank you to all our vendors and suppliers and repairmen who supported us.

Our Stand at 1200 Hebron Avenue, which is rented from the Catholic Cemetery, may continue in 2023, depending on whether they find another farmer. Thank you to all our loyal customers who made that location a great success and to Winnie/Pedro and Staff.

I have been fortunate to grow up and live my life in South Glastonbury. After college and some business experience, I left the corporate world to work side-by-side with Henry as we expanded the vision and offerings at Rose’s Berry Farm. This beautiful enclave in the hills of South Glastonbury, holds so many family’s pasts and futures. This area was settled in the early 20th century by immigrants from Northern Italy who came to cut railroad ties and stone. RBF started in about 1908. Their ancestors have done a great job keeping all these farms going.

But all things much change, and I am grateful to both the Town of Glastonbury, and private buyers who have allowed me to step-aside and know that our legacy will continue and be kept beautiful.

We will be living primarily in North Carolina, where we have a home on beautiful Lake Norman, just north of Charlotte, near family. Part of us will always remain here, with our friends, families, and memories of all that we shared.

Thank you for all the love, friendship, and support over the past 40 years!

Love to all,Sandi Rose

There is a movement afoot fr the town to purchase part of Rose's Berry Farm. See the details here.

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After losing 35 of 92 acres in this spring’s flooding, Chris Bassette is glad the state is seeking federal relief for her south Glastonbury farm.

“We’re still waiting for the USDA to turn around and let us know if we can harrow stuff,” Bassette, an owner of Killam & Bassette Farmstead, said Monday.

“And, really, we’re trying to get into the field just to harrow so we can have good agricultural practices and the disease and the bugs don’t get into the good crops we got left,” she said. “Because the USDA doesn’t know what they’re doing in Connecticut. They have no inspectors, which we found out on Friday.”

On Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont visited Killam & Bassette to announce he had submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, seeking a federal disaster declaration for all eight counties because of the heavy rainfall this spring.

The declaration would make farms eligible for federal disaster-assistance programs, including emergency loans, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Loans wouldn’t satisfy Bassette, however. “I hope it’s not only done in low-interest loans or no interest, because we still have loans that we’re paying off from 2011 and 2017,” when there were severe weather events, she said. “So if there’s funding that could help us, that would be phenomenal. You want just even to recoup what we lost, not looking to make a profit, just to be able to get going again next year.”

“Some of these farmers are at a point … that they’re almost going to throw in the towel,” Bassette said. “I know I talked to one who has quite a few acres over 300, and he said if he didn’t owe so much money for all those low-interest loans he would be out of it already, but he’s got too much that he’s got to pay back. This is from 2011 and 2017 and 2008.”

According to the state Agriculture Department, 27 farms are estimating losses of 1,500 acres and nearly $21 million in sales, according to the statement. There also were severe frosts in February and May, in which 1,077 acres suffered $8.4 million in losses.

In his letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, Lamont said Connecticut has received 10.74 inches of rain in July, 423% of the normal rainfall for the month.

“My administration has been in regular contact with farmers from across Connecticut who are experiencing an incredible amount of losses due to the severe and abnormal weather we have experienced just in these first several months of 2023 that is having a major impact on their ability to operate,” Lamont said in the statement.

“Farms are small businesses that provide the food we rely on and also employ a significant number of workers,” he said. “The approval of this declaration will help these farmers continue supporting their businesses.”

Lamont previously said the state would help farmers with money from an $8.8 million fund devoted to climate change impacts and the $150 million Boost Fund to help small businesses through low-interest loans.

Bassette said her business is struggling because most of her crops are uninsurable under the regular USDA program, forcing her to take out insurance from the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, known as NAP, which she called “horrible insurance for crops that are uninsurable.”

“Corn and tomatoes and tobacco, those are all insurable,” Bassette said. “And when you get into all the things that people like, like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, peppers — every kind of pepper — kohlrabi, bok choy, Swiss chard, lettuces, beets, radishes, those are all uninsurable. Nobody insures them. The USDA in their wisdom came up with this NAP coverage.”

NAP “is so cumbersome and hard for us as farmers to get coverage to get paid out on,” she said. “The governor being there and sending the awareness, let me tell you, it’s been awesome.”

Bassette said she hopes farmers can get funds “to supplement the 50% of the average over the last three years, which is NAP, which we don’t know if we’re going to be getting … It’s so cumbersome, it’s not even funny. We needed everything yesterday, and I know (Lamont is) doing what he can to facilitate it. And hopefully we get this disaster declaration.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., visited Killam & Bassette Monday to promote the disaster declaration and a reform of crop insurance programs because of the problems Bassette addressed.

“I’ve seen firsthand the absolute devastation to farms, businesses, homes, roads, bridges, literally all around the state where I’ve visited over the past 10 days,” Blumenthal said.

“This catastrophic impact really is the result of a perfect storm, combining huge amounts of water, a real deluge, but also the geographic extent of it, going to Vermont and New Hampshire and causing additional swells to rivers coming down to Connecticut, and also the time of year when farms were about to harvest crops,” he said.

“We’re going to fight tooth and nail for as broad a disaster declaration as possible, with expanded aid — not just loans but also cash in hand — so that the businesses and farms can get back on their feet,” he said.

Blumenthal said his call for insurance reform would address the issue of uninsurable crops.

“Essentially, the problem is that the federal crop insurance program is designed to help Midwestern farms, not New England ones,” he said.

“They are for farms of thousands of acres, big farms that grow a single crop, whether it’s wheat or barley, and the lion’s share of the crop insurance goes to these mega-farms owned by huge corporations, not the New England farmers, who may have anywhere from 70 to a few hundred acres or more, but they grow multiple crops.”

Small farmers are shut out, he said, because insurance agents sell to the biggest farms with the highest premiums and the amount of insurance is limited.

“It’s an important reform, and we have a good coalition in support of it,” Blumenthal said. “I’m hoping all of the Northeastern senators will join it because it really is Northeastern farms that are affected most heavily.”

Ed Stannard can be reached at [email protected].

GLASTONBURY, CT — A Glastonbury resident was one of two men sentenced Thursday in federal court in Boston for a multi-year fraud scheme that caused more than $6 million in losses to investors, according to the FBI.

Thomas D. Renison, 69, of South Glastonbury, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr. to four years in prison and three years of supervised release, FBI officials said. Renison was also ordered to pay forfeiture of $526,120 and restitution of $6,240,983. In October 2020, Renison pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of filing false tax returns.

Timothy J. Allcott, 65, of Peabody, MA, was sentenced by Judge O’Toole to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Allcott was also ordered to pay forfeiture of $5,052,661 and restitution in the amount of $6,098,173. In July 2020, Allcott pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

In January 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Allcott and Renison with fraudulently misleading investors in connection with the same conduct.

According to case records, Renison was the former owner of ARO Equity LLC, a privately-held investment company that purportedly pooled money from investors and then invested it in various New England-based businesses. Between 2015 and 2018, Renison and Allcott fraudulently raised and solicited funds for ARO Equity LLC by misrepresenting to victims how their money would be invested, ARO’s investment track record and the safety of the investments, according to case records.

Allcott and Renison also concealed Renison's ownership interest and affiliation with ARO because the SEC and regulators in Maine had previously barred Renison from working in the securities industry, according to case records.

Over the course of the scheme, ARO took in more than $6 million from investors, but only invested half of that amount, according to case records. Of the investments that ARO actually made, the substantial majority yielded "significant losses," case records indicate.

Despite these losses, Allcott and Renison failed to inform the victims of the poor performance of prior investments, prosecutors said. Instead, they told the victims on many occasions that the investments were doing well and remained safe, they added..

ARO paid required monthly payments to earlier investors using funds raised from later investors, according to prosecutors.

The defendants generally told victims that ARO would use their investments to fund one of three different businesses, but Renison and Allcott paid themselves exorbitant commission fees, satisfied monthly interest obligations to other investors and invested in different undisclosed businesses, according to case records.

As part of the scheme, Allcott and Renison disguised commissions paid to Renison as loans to Renison's wife, which allowed them to continue to conceal Renison’s ownership stake in the company, according to prosecutors. In addition, Renison failed to declare more than a half-million dollars of commission income and failed to pay more than $150,000 in taxes, prosecutors said.

For returning military veterans, the transition back to civilian life can be challenging. In addition to coping with physical injuries, military veterans are often dealing with mental health issues, including symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“That transition can be really tough,” said Justin Walters, a U.S. Navy veteran who recently moved from Glastonbury to Colorado. “The biggest thing you lose is camaraderie and that sense of teamwork. You don’t really get that in the civilian world.”

Walters first heard of the local veteran nonprofit organization Open Doors Outdoors while taking part in a pull-up challenge organized by the owner of Mission Fitness, Matthew Mund, to raise money for the group.

The Glastonbury-based nonprofit serves veterans, their families and young people by taking them into the outdoors for a shared sense of connection, healthy activity and healing, according to their website.

“When I first heard about the organization, I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it,” Walters said. “Once I met the team, we immediately clicked. From there, I started hiking with them and I really got back that sense of camaraderie I had lost.”

Open Doors Outdoors was founded by Glastonbury resident Davey Edwards, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and mortgage banker. Edwards, an ultra-runner who ran across Connecticut in 2019 and 2022 (both times in 41 hours), started the organization on a journey of personal healing.

“I was in a bad place,” Edwards said. “About seven years ago, I was going through a divorce and landed on a rough patch financially. I had a 5-year-old son then and we would go hiking together. I realized it was the form of connection and therapy I needed at that point in my life.”

After taking several hikes across the state, Edwards got the idea for the organization after realizing some of his fellow veterans were also going through similar challenges.

“It really just made sense,” Edwards said, “so I started to organize hikes all across New England and eventually more veterans joined just through word of mouth. We’ve done a lot of hiking since.”

In 2021, Open Doors Outdoors completed 36 outings and had 122,124 feet of elevation gain, which is equivalent to hiking from the base camp on Mount Everest to its summit almost 10 times, according to their website.

“I found a community in this organization,” said Martin Sheridan, a U.S. Army veteran who joined the organization earlier this year. “When you are hiking, there’s a lot of similarities to the military. On the hike, you’ve got veterans from all branches of service working together. You get that shared sense of purpose by coming together and accomplishing a tough hike or overcoming a physical challenge. That’s what makes it so rewarding.”

Edwards said that a lot of the new veterans who join the organization and aren’t that accustomed to hiking will sometimes not realize how challenging some of the elevation and terrain can be. Edwards ensures that each hike is tailored to how experienced each veteran is, holding several hikes throughout the year with varying degrees of difficulty.

“You’ll see a lot of times some newer members struggle with some of the hikes,” Edwards said, “but we encourage everybody and work together as a team. The focus is to cheer each other on. Our veteran hikes are designed to take small groups of veterans out on the trail together. The veteran hiking program is designed to have hikes which increase in difficulty as the individual becomes comfortable on the trail and sometimes includes hikes out of state.”

In addition to hiking, the group just received a $25,000 grant from the Sestero family of Glastonbury and The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to purchase a 2021 Polaris General XP 4 1000 Utility Terrain Vehicle. This UTV will be used to take veterans, families and children into the outdoors around a dedicated tract of farmland in South Glastonbury. The group, which started the UTV program in 2021, has already seen it explode in popularity.

Walters, who has two children on the autism spectrum, said seeing them ride on the UTV was a very positive experience.

“They loved it,” Walter said. “They could just go be themselves, relax and let their guard down a bit. There’s no rush or line or anything to overwhelm them. It’s a shared experience where parents don’t have to worry about watching their kids and can sit back and enjoy it as well.”

Any resident of Glastonbury with children can apply to ride on the UTV through an application on the organization’s website.

“Our UTV program has truly blossomed,” said Edwards. “Their response was simply amazing. It was clear this could help many more children. This Sestero grant will not only benefit more kids on the autism spectrum but also families who can participate in these activities together.”

Stephen Underwood can be reached at [email protected]