Highlighting Agriculture

Author Archives: Lee Publications

Stoughton Farm – more bang for the buck

Posted in Eastern Edition

CE-MR-3-Stoughton Farm2by Al Dorantes

This time of year pumpkins are everywhere. If you are sick of seeing the orange globes there is a place for you. Stoughton Farm located in Newark Valley, NY, has a Pumpkin Blaster and you can launch pumpkins out of the howitzer-like compressed-air cannon until your heart is content.

Stoughton Farm is a greenhouse, roadside farm market, and corn maze owned by Tim and Deb Stoughton. The farm has been in the family since 1913 and is on its 4th generation. Stoughton Farm grows and sells 10 greenhouses of annuals and perennials. Farm grown produce includes fresh greens, peas, beans sweet corn, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, peppers, potatoes, Indian corn, winter squash, pumpkins and more. Stoughton Farm also has two large high tunnels that allow Fall Raspberry u-picking, rain or shine. In the fall Mums, asters, apples, cider, kettle corn and fudge are a few of the other fall favorites. Tim Stoughton said, “We grow what we can. Take care of it the best we know.” Continue reading→

Round three at the 2014 World Percheron Congress

Posted in Mid Atlantic

CM-MR-4-WorldPerch 1044by Laura Rodley

The coliseum shook as 11 mare six-horse hitch teams entered the ring on the final night of the 16th World Percheron Congress. Except for the elegance of the horses, their drivers and their carriages, it could have been a scene from the Wild West of yesteryear with the drivers wearing cowboy hats, working the reins hard. However, there was no scruffiness allowed here. The judges looked for not just how well the teams were matched, but also how well they worked together as they chose the World Champion Mare Six-Horse Hitch Team at the Eastern States Exposition Center in Springfield, MA on Saturday, Oct. 11. Continue reading→

Barefooting and beyond

Posted in New England Farm Weekly

CN-MR-3-Barefooting7432by Lorraine Strenkowski

Rodney Cone of Lebanon, CT started shoeing horses in 1989. The then 20-year-old apprentice spent three and a half years under the instruction of a mentor before he went off on his own.

It didn’t take long for Cone to become a desired farrier. With the freedom and willingness to take on the extraordinary clients, Cone found himself flying to an account on Block Island (off the coast of Rhode Island), and to an Olympic Champion in Florida at times of competition, along with a myriad of destinations in Connecticut and the East Coast. Continue reading→