Besides Heirloom and Heritage fruits and vegetables, we also have at various times fingerling potatoes, Red Norlands, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus, and horse radish. Other produce is always being added. Since 1996 we have been clearing land, planting orchards, and many varieties of berries and vegetables at 18th Century Purity Farm, 701 Squaw Rock Road in Moosup, CT.
We are re-establishing the old orchards at Hall Homestead. The Hall Homestead Farm located at 156 Plainfield Pike Road, Plainfield, has been in the Hall family since 1830. Ancient Rhode Island Greening apple trees planted by Jo-Ann's Great-Great-Grandfather William F. Hall are still producing fruit. His granddaughter Henrietta Catherine Hall married Ernest F. Buell in 1918 and grew apples, livestock, swine, chickens, sheep, dairy cows and horses. Ernest sold apples out of his cellar and peddled milk, eggs and apples in the town of Plainfield. Pre-1918 the Hall Homestead Farm was called Purity Farm, which later became Westview Orchards in 1918 when Ernest and Henrietta decided to grow apples on a large scale.
Paul Desrochers has degrees in Soil Science and Ecology from the University of Connecticut and Virginia Tech. He has been growing many fruits and vegetables since 1970 for a commercial grower. Jo-Ann Desrochers has a degree in Foods and Nutrition from U-Conn, also an Associate in Animal and Meat Science. She is a self-employed Dietitian and now also spends many hours planting, picking and selling the fruits and vegetables from the farm. |