Posted on 08/02/2008 3:28:39 PM PDT by Graybeard58
KENT -- Jon Hoose's first crop of sweet corn he'd ever grown started to come in this summer about as well as the 17-year-old could have hoped.
He'd gotten his own rumbling John Deere tractor as a high school graduation gift. His dad, a former dairy farmer, helped him secure about 20 acres of leased land, and loaned him the cash to plant corn and pumpkins.
In early July, he stacked harvested corn on a picnic table at the end of his driveway on Davis Road, scrawled two cardboard signs advertising sweet corn and put them out on Route 341. He stationed his 13-year-old brother, Tom, to man the operation. When Tom wasn't there, they left a jar for customers to pay their $6 a dozen.
It was an operation they assumed was as harmless as a lemonade stand, but only about 10 days and $300 later, they received a letter from the town. They were running an unauthorized business, the letter said, and the signs on the road were prohibited by town ordinance. They had to stop selling corn by July 23.
"What are we going to do with it? We've got all this corn now," said Horse, who spent his four years at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in the National FFA Organization. Their plan was to sell about 25 percent of it from the picnic table. The rest they already made an arrangement to sell wholesale. Horse is saving his profits, partly to go to college.
On top of that, Hoose and his father, Tim Hoose, had purposely planned for their corn to come in later than most corn crops. They hoped to be the only game in town later this summer and early this fall, when most farmers may have run out. Over the next two months, most of their corn will reach it's peak.
"We'll sell wholesale what we can, and maybe give some away," Hoose said. "We can't let it go bad."
To operate a roadside stand, Kent residents must apply for a permit from the Planning and Zoning Commission. There has to be a free-standing structure to house the stand, adequate parking, and approval of the plan during a hearing. The process can take as little as a week, or as many as three months, said Jennifer Lemansky, land use administrator.
By that time, corn season could be over for this year.
The Connecticut Farm Bureau routinely hears questions from farmers who are told by their towns they're violating rules and ordinances, said Joan Nichols, government relations specialist with the bureau. "Unfortunately because we're a home-rule state, sometimes common sense doesn't always come into play," she said.
She said most towns have ordinances about agriculture but rules vary wildly from towns that are accommodating to farmers and others that are "not so agriculturally friendly."
"I didn't think it was a big deal to sell corn at the end of your driveway. Farmers don't have time to screw around with small-town, stupid politics," Tim Hoose said. "He's doing something practical with his life ... and he's doing something important."
As he drove his pickup truck past the pumpkins growing steadily next to the corn on Friday evening, Jon Hoose, for one, was hoping something gets straightened out before his next harvest is ready just as they planned it, in time for Halloween.
Or whine when he gets caught. (flame suit on)
Take your corn and pumpkins to a flea market of farmers market sale. You’ll sell a boat load! I see it all the time here in SW Pennsylvania.
Nobody does. Buts you still hasta do whats the man says.
Are your undies flame retardant?? See, that was not so bad.
Hoose from Hooseatonic or Horse from Horseatonic?
Zoning and Planning Commissions? Don't get me started.
yeah! 5-10 in the state prison ought to teach this guy to respect the law.
The government nannies would have left the kid alone if he’d scrawled “organic” on his “corn for sale” sign.
You forgot the sarcasm tag on the end of your post. Some people might take you seriously.
Uh move outside of town limits and deduct the fuel expenses from your bottomline.
Life kid, stop bitching get used to it.
“zoning and planning commission”
Uh. That one could be a 100 thread starter. As they say, Rights, including property rights are not unlimited.
He could just post signs up around town like everyone else does that say:
“Garage Sale”
“Horse is saving his profits, partly to go to college.”
What happened to proof readers!?!
At least this error was funny.
Indeed it could...these draconian little cabals that rule over towns like petty fiefdoms are some of the worst usurpers of liberty. Anyone who has had a run in with them understands what a nightmare it can be to deal with their inflexible little rules...truly, as the saying goes, “you can’t fight city hall.”
Donate it to a homeless shelter and get a tax credit?
I laughed at that too.
I live in a small town and the pompous Lordship titles they act like they have is ridiculous.
You know you live in a small town when a rally is held at the Feed and Seed store to oust the local government.
Yeah, next year he’ll go off to college and be taught he should stand in line with his hand out to the government for his food. Like a good little commie, I mean American.
/Sarcasm taggy thing
I don't try to sell my world renowned salsa at the end of my driveway, I sell it online. Have you tried my salsa? It's free, I even pay the postage.
How do I make any money that way?
Volume my friend volume.
He just forgot to take the first 4 or 5 dozen ears to the zoning commission.If it works in Chicagolike that, I’m sure it would work there.
Do you have a Grand Poobah?
Gardening Ping?
Opinions here folks.
Because I live in an unicorporated area of my county and I grow or make the stuff I’m selling myself the County does not require anything from me and I am free to put up a stand, signs, whatever.
But that is not always true in some of the incorporated towns in the County.
***He could just post signs up around town like everyone else does that say:
“Garage Sale”***
Which reminds me, I passed a house yesterday on a suburban street and the lawn had a bunch of cluttered tables, and a sign which said, “Divorce Sale.”
I wonder if that’s the newest sign of the times.
They are called "garage sales" or "Yard sales" in my area and I detest them, so I don't patronize them.
I’m actually in the same state as you, but I’m from Connecticut. I have no idea why anybody would “detest” tag/yard/garage sales.
They ended up selling their home and property.
Planning commissions are just a notch below Law Enforcement Oversight committees on my list of socialist organizations...
the letter said, and the signs on the road were prohibited by town ordinance. They had to stop selling corn by July 23.
+++++++++++++++++++
Give free corn to the town’s leaders. Get it on tape as they accept your gift. When the town comes after you make a claim that the town’s leaders were extorting you by demanding more corn and when you refused they wrote their letter demanding you stop selling. You can now document bribery and the extortion charge would probably stick in a farming community. They’d probably come around if you work it correctly.
I did say I detest them, perhaps "detest" was too strong a word. The reason I dislike them, is that they look junky. Realize too, I did not reccommend outlawing them nor did I suggest anyone but me, not patronize them.
My wife goes to them and she takes our little 9 year old grand daughter along, who is nuts about them. They are just not for me.
UnAmerican maybe......but I detest chicken too.
If the gubmint and its poll-it-icians don’t get their cut, you can’t do it. It’s about money. Everything is always about money.
Not UnAmerican..........just weird :)
How bout this. It’s his life, his effort, and his land.
He’s perfectly free to offer the products of those things to other individuals without some third party stepping in and forcing him to jump through hoops and get permission from bureaucrats.
The worst part is that the simple idea I just wrote would be considered by most to be “extreme” or “idealistic”, because we’ve come to accept interference in every facet of our lives as acceptable. By what right does any mooching politician inject himself into this young man’s life as he offers some cobs of corn to his neighbors?
Not illegal.
Kid has every lawful right to sell his corn.
A “business” is an ongoing concern. This is a seasonal harvest. Big difference. If he had gone to some other farm and bought a bunch of corn, then set up a stand to sell it, he would be engaged in buying and selling.
But he’s not.
No, but I did have truck one time with no floor board and I joked that we had to start it by running down the road and hopping into the seat once we got rolling.
AMEN. You are sooo right.
Hard to sell corn online. Hmm, FREE salsa? I might be interested.
Nah, I thought of that about 25 years ago or so when I sold stuff out of my house after our divorce. I was going to advertise it as a post-divorce sale.
What property rights? If you think you own property, just miss a tax payment and you will see who owns what.
You rent your house from the County or City on a year to year basis.
He was selling the corn from his driveway, fer crissakes!
What kind of socialist paradise is he living in???
This should be moved to News Activism. More worthy of discussion of Liberty and Freedom than the zot threads.
That stand was the model for almost every other one in that valley for 50 years. I believe my grandfather and his timber camp friends would have run any city councilor right out of the state for being shi**y enough to shut a kid down for selling corn by the side of the road.
Legal hairsplitting or not, it was a petty thing to do to the kid. Calling them on their pettyness is not whining.
Welcome to Amerika, land of the formerly free.
Kent is in Litchfield County. The beautiful people from New York have taken over most of the small towns. The old time townies have lost all power and have been reduced to servants to them.
Has that ever happened? (I mean other than something that happened in California, of course)
You have mail.
Looks like the commies are trying to crush American ingenuity again.
Don’t be cursing us farmers with your mouth full, Greybeard. ;)
In many, many places it’s easier to plead ignorance and ask forgiveness than jump through the fired-up hoops needed to meet the SOCIALIST agendas that are alive and thriving in many corners of our country.
Anyone that’s smart barters underground amongst friends and family for their needs. The minute you go public, Mother Government and her leftist minions will be on you like a chicken on a June Bug. ;)
Our Underground Rconomy is thriving and it bugs the hell out of the commies who want every d@mn DIME of your hard-earned money handed over to them so they can redistribute the wealth.
You’re a very smart guy. I’m surprised at your opinion on this one?
I say screw ‘em! (Sorry. I’m feeling quite Libertarian today...but without all the pot smokin’, LOL!)
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