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.
;-)
What JDB said..........
Sorry :(
If Tupperware parties are OK to have, he should have a corn and pumpkin party on his farm.
A young man selling corn he grew off of a picnic table at the end of his driveway?
We should have obeyed the King of England as well, right?
You're a commie :<)
Very similar to what they told Sisyphus...
Give him credit, he's still trying.
BINGO!!!!!
I have family in CT. They started hauling milk for the areas dairy farms back in 1929. Their place, where the trucks were also garaged, was in a rural area. Then came the NYers, slowly turning it into a bedroom community of mini-estates. With the loss of all but a handfull of the dairy farms, they started hauling gravel as well as milk. Didn’t take long before they were being harrassed about the noise and “danger” of the trucks (all of them always empty) travelling the road to and from their place. For some reason I just can’t remember, the fact that they still hauled milk was what saved them.
He could load it on a truck and drive it down to NYC and get five times per dozen what he’s getting at the end of his driveway.
New England.
Whew. I’m just glad Connecticut authorities have already shut down all crack dealers and heroin dealers first — but then again, they never use illegal signs to advertise their products.
Gabz, you do not want me to rant on this one.
When I lived near farmers, if possible I always bought direct.
What is wrong with buying ‘FRESH’ food?
What disease can you offer me, worse than the mexican tomato/pepper diseases we are getting by the thousand?
I am in agreement with your feelings.
It is amazing how they shut us down, one law at a time.
There are several small towns outside of Austin and not one has any problem with the farmers’ markets. Austin itself has so many ordinances that affect the places you can or cannot sell stuff.
Garage sales, yard sales, etc. are OK, but don’t dare try to sell or even give away pets in any parking lot. There was a couple giving away kittens in a KMART parking lot and the police gave them a ticket, even though the store was no longer in business.
“If Tupperware parties are OK to have, he should have a corn and pumpkin party on his farm.
Brilliant!
However, any sell-from-home organization, Tupperware, Mary Kay, Avon, etc. gets you for sales tax and income tax in the end. The Government HATES competition! :(
The marketing behind those companies is brilliant, though. When you’re at the top of the pyramid, you get a percentage of the sales, however your “employees” are “independent contractors” and can’t take you down with them if they screw up.
I wonder how much he is receiving in Federal subsidies
When my bumper crop of plums this year resulted in my making lots of plum syrup and plum preserves I looked into what is involved in selling stuff to stores. If you sell anywhere “wholesale” you are buried in USDA regulations. I wondered how do the local farmers have stands to sell fruit and vegs? Then I found out if you sell food at point of production, you only have to meet local health dept regs. Now I know my kitchen wouldn’t meet that for my canned stuff but I could sell the fruit.
I’m a bit surprised that town essentially requires a farmer to open what amounts to a “store” to sell produce at point of production.
Useless, insane regs are going to kill us all. Don’t reward the kid for getting out there and working, and he’ll be punished again when he gets ready to go to college. It’s kind of like when an old person needs medical assistance beyond what they can afford, like a nursing home. If they have anything—no help until they sell off all their possessions, everything they’ve worked their whole life for. If you have nothing—all the help you need.
Heavy sarcasm here, but it makes you wonder why you’re working your ass off in the first place.
For years beyond count, the local hs football team sold hotdogs at each home game. Booth was staffed by volunteers, profits went to football team. No one ever got sick, no one ever complained. Health dept shut them down, and they had to get a permanent building, stainless steel everything, you name it. There’s no way they’ll ever make enough selling hotdogs to cover the expense. Not that i’m complaining about health regs in general.
Most of this has come about because of the influx of dyankees. They move down here because they’ve ruined their homes and then proceed to instruct us—like we’re a bunch of retarded two year olds—on how to do everything the way they did it “back home”.
Thanks for the ping, and sorry for the rant. Di is right—it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
“Take your corn and pumpkins to a flea market of farmers market sale. You’ll sell a boat load!” Great idea. There are always lots of people there. And he also needs to find out if there are permits to be had or fees to be paid.
FYI, grew up in a small town in central Connecticut. Loved those roadside stands. They were everywhere and you could get great produce at reasonable prices.
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