Keeping farms alive in Connecticut: Star Light Gardens finds new owners

DURHAM — David Zemelsky sowed the first seeds at Star Light Gardens nearly a quarter century ago, and he was determined his organic vegetable farm in Durham would not only survive but thrive after he was no longer able to keep up with the rigorous cycle of planting, harvesting and selling.

Star Light now has new owners, Joel Smith and Jen Hill — decades younger and with the levels of energy that go along with it. But the couple also has something unusual in an industry in which “next generation” planning is difficult: ties to the farm going back a decade, so much so that they got married in one of the greenhouses, all decked out for the occasion, in late 2020.

“My big thing is that I want this farm to live,” Zemelsky, 74, said. “I started this place 23 years ago, so I’ve got a lot of my soul wrapped up in what is going on. You don’t want to see your idea die out just because someone ages out. So Jen and Joel and I crafted something that would work for all of us. And it doesn’t always work that way. It doesn’t. There’s a lot of dead farms in this state.”

The transition from one generation to the next, like the one achieved at Star Light, is relatively rare in Connecticut, said Will O’Meara, Connecticut field agent for Land for Good, a New England-wide nonprofit that helps would-be younger farmers connect with farmers who may want to retire but have no next generation plan.

In New England, according to Land for Good, 30% of farmers are at or past retirement age and most don’t have a “next generation” plan for who will take over, whether that’s a family member or an employee.

For an industry where the sale of family farms for development into housing subdivisions grabs a lot of the attention, O’Meara said there is strong interest in younger demographic groups for getting into farming. Finding the land is the biggest challenge, said O’Meara, who owns the Hungry Reaper Farm, an organic vegetable farm in Morris.

O’Meara points to the Connecticut FarmLink web site that now has over 400 “farm seekers” registered but just 80 land options listed.

“A story like Star Light Gardens is amazing because they were able to pretty seamlessly continue operation, pass it along to the next generation, and the older generation is involved in some capacity, but that is not always the case,” O’Meara said.

Star Light carved an early niche in four-season farming in Connecticut, despite the harsh winters. The idea is to sow crops in the ground in September that can survive in the cold — kale, spinach, beets and carrots. Those crops are sheltered in greenhouse “hoop houses,” structures are made of plastic stretched over metal arch supports.

In a recent tour of the farm, Zemelsky steps into one of the hoop houses as visitors navigate late winter mud. Each of the houses are named after one of his grandchildren, this one takes the name Sven. Zemelsky points to a row of claytonia, which was tagged with the common name “miner’s lettuce,” because it was eaten during the California Gold Rush to prevent scurvy.

Zemelsky stoops down and plucks off a few leaves and hand them to a visitor to taste.

“It’s a native of California,” Smith said. “It’s a good source of vitamin C.”

The name “gardens” is perhaps a more precise description than farm because just a fraction of Star Light’s three acres is tilled, almost all the crop cultivation done by hand or with hand tools. The smaller-scale approach is favored by the younger generation of farmers, Smith and Hill said.

Smith and Hill say there are ready to take the next step with Star Light, planning to combine the business that Zemelsky started with another nearby 7-acre farm in Middlefield that they purchased in late 2021. In total, about three acres between the two locations are now being cultivated, they say.

The decision also comes amid growing consumer awareness about how and where their food is produced that heightened in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our hope is to get more toward food access and food equality, and just making sure that it is accessible to everyone,” Hill, 30, said. “That’s part of the reason we want to grow year-round and wanting to expand, just to keep up with the demand and get as much organic Connecticut grown food out on the market. That’s definitely our hope.”

‘Come work for me’

Smith, now 39, knew for years that he wanted to get into farming.

“I knew from the gardening that I was doing, and I had some friends who were getting into farming, and my own interest in health and all that type of stuff,” Smith said.

Smith, a Wallingford native, also was dissatisfied with his job as an accountant. He later quit and first met Zemelsky while working at the CitySeed farmers market in New Haven, dividing his time with another part-time job at New Haven pizza shop. In 2012, Smith was talking to Zemelsky about the programs he was researching about getting into farming.

“And he said, ‘I don’t see why you just can’t come work for me,’ ” Smith recalled.

Smith came into a business that was started from scratch in 1999 by Zemelsky and his wife,Ty, who died in 2018. Zemelsky had strong ties to the area, his father having opened the Powder Ridge ski area in the early 1960s. The Zemelskys had purchased a home with three acres on Fowler Avenue but initially didn’t expect to start a farm. And neither had much experience beyond tending a backyard garden.

Their inspiration came from a visit to the Maine farm of Eliot Coleman, a proponent of organic and year-round gardening, and the author of “The New Organic Grower.”

The Zemelskys first sold salad greens to restaurants such as the Max Hospitality, which operates Max Downtown and Trumbull Kitchen, in downtown Hartford. They later expanded their offerings, particularly to heirloom tomatoes, and sold directly to consumers at farmers markets, such as Cityseed.

Smith moved from part-time to full-time at Star Light, and as Ty Zemelsky became sick and later died, Smith — and now Hill, who had been working on another farm — took greater management responsibilities of Star Light. Hill, a native of Clinton, brought a farming background, including working in community gardens when she lived in Denver.

‘The sun is a star’

As 2020 opened, Star Light fully intended to sell both to restaurants and consumers, but the pandemic upended those plans. Restaurants closed abruptly and sales at farmers market and at Star Light’s roadside farm stand surged, with year-over-year sales doubling

“We were a little worried about it being a boom-and-bust type of situation,” Hill said.

But since then, annual sales have shown a 20% year-over-year increase, Hill said. As a result of the pandemic, Star Light now is selling almost exclusively direct to consumers, which typically garners a better price for vegetables than what can be earned selling wholesale to restaurants and grocery stores, Hill said.

The popularity of Star Light’s revamped community supported agriculture program, or CSA, also has soared, from a handful of members to about 80.

The new program features a market card that can be loaded with a specific amount that can be used year-round for purchases at farmers markets or the farm stand. Unlike traditional CSAs, the cardholder can make purchases year-round tailored to their specific needs, rather than the farm making those decisions, Hill said.

Smith and Hill purchased the Star Light farm and business for $106,000 earlier this year, but not Zemelsky’s house, choosing to subdivide the property. Zemelsky will still be visible at farmers markets and may do some volunteer work on the farm in nice weather, Hill said.

The combined farms will take the Star Light name, its logo rendered by Tye Zemelsky, who was a painter.

“My wife came up with the name,” Zemelsky said. “The sun is a star. People think of stars as a nighttime things so, it’s kind of curious.”

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.