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.
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