Farming for fun and to keep the viewshed beautiful

NORTH CANAAN — The most iconic farms aren’t always the largest farms. Take the backyard farm of Lou Brodeur. Everyone who has ever driven north into North Canaan has seen it, and the little roadside farm stand in a mini model of a covered wagon. The sign advertises Grandpa Lou’s corn, flowers, butternut squash. The neatly plowed fields stretch back from Route 7 into the distance —a distance that actually increases every summer (yes, that’s not an optical illusion; the farm does get bigger every year).

Lou Brodeur retired as a dairy farmer about 15 years ago. He’d been living and working in Ashley Falls, Mass., and realized that it was time to quit. He came south to live with his daughter and son-in-law, Kathleen and Tom Hoskinson, at their property in North Canaan. 

There was a giant field separating the house from the road. Shortly after Brodeur moved in, that field became a hay field. Shortly after that, a small patch (about a half acre) was dedicated to the growing of produce and flowers. 

Now that farm patch has grown to about 3 acres and Brodeur (with the help of his family) grows gladiolus, dahlias, tomatoes, corn, lettuce, asparagus, potatoes, pumpkins, butternut squash, beets and garlic. 

Not all of them are for sale; some items, such as the asparagus and beets, are just for consumption by the extended family, which includes Brodeur’s daughter and son-in-law, their two children and two great-grandchildren. 

“They’re the joy of my life,” Brodeur said of the younger generations. “They’re the reason I get up in the morning.”

One granddaughter, Kaitlyn, is married to dairy farmer Tim Kinsella and she is one of a pioneering generation of young women dairy farmers in the Northwest Corner. 

“The family is tied together by 4-H,” Brodeur said. “They’ve all known each other since they were kids from 4-H.”

On April 16, it was still a little too early to put seeds and bulbs in the ground but Brodeur and his son-in-law were out preparing the soil. Hoskinson at one point was standing at the edge of the field with a tape measure. He was trying to re-orient the rows that would soon be filled with flowers and produce so that the lines would look more straight and even from the road. 

The one thing that was already in the ground were the strawberries.

“We have about a thousand strawberry plants,” Brodeur said. Straw is neatly tucked around the plants already. They should be ready in June — at which point, they’ll start flying out of the covered wagon farm stand.

“My wife, Judy, can’t pick them fast enough,” Brodeur said.

As anyone knows who’s grown them, strawberries are very labor intensive and require a great deal of weeding. Even with the help of the younger generations, they’re getting to be a lot for Brodeur to manage.

“I had to hire someone last year to help me with the weeding, for the first time,” he said. A young woman from the area had stopped by and offered to help. Anyone else who’s interested should come on down. 

The prices aren’t cheap for Grandpa Lou’s produce, with strawberries at $7 a quart, but they’re also pretty reasonable considering that they’re fresh, local and grown by a master farmer. That giant homegrown farm field also creates a wonderful view for drivers heading in and out of North Canaan. 

Brodeur is certainly not in it for the money. 

“Farming is fun and that’s the only reason to do it,” he said. “And it’s also good because it keeps me out of everyone’s hair.”

He’s not sure what the growing season will be like, but he’s pretty sure there will be strawberries in June. There will be tomatoes in late July and the sweet corn should be ripe shortly after the tomatoes.