OPENING THIS SUMMER

THE GOOD EARTH FARM STAND

Hello friends of the Earth and of The Good Earth

Happy spring to all you beautiful people. This year we celebrate our 15th year and we owe all of you a very heartfelt thank you. John and I started this journey in March of 1995 on a small plot of land on Seven Mile Rd. in Scituate, R.I. After a few years there and a warm welcome from the neighbors we longed to find a place of our own but somewhere nearby as we grew to love the town of Hope.
In 1999 we found that little piece of paradise in the Hope section of Cranston.
Thanks to the daughters of Lester and Chester Knight and many of you who hoped, prayed, consulted the stars and held our hands through it all we bought the Knight Farm.

The Knight family had owned the beautiful land for many generations and Lester and Chester-two young dairy farmers who were displaced by the Scituate reservoir project-walked their cows from their condemed land in Scituate to move in with their grandparents and set up their farm at this location. They worked hard and won awards for the high quality of their milk. They were even paid a premium price for their milk it was so good.

The Knight brothers had four daughters between them and at that time it was not considered appropriate for women to farm, though the girls sure did plenty of work around the farm.
So when the brothers retired there was no one to run the farm and it had not been actively in use for many years by the time we came along. We were very fortunate to find and purchase this property and have as one of our neighbors the granddaughter and great granddaughter of Chester Knight, who are very knowledgeable about the history of the farm.

Not far from this farm on a farm in Johnston R.I. John also was born into a life in agriculture. In the early 1900's the Holscher family moved from Holland to a farm on Hartford Ave. and began to grow cut flowers for the area florists. Johns' grandfather Herman Rudolf Holscher had grown up as the son of a caretaker on an estate in the Netherlands and after a apprenticeship at Kew Gardens in England came to America and began Holscher's Greenhouses.
John's father John took over the business in the fifties and along with John's mother Kay, switched from cut flowers (which were now being imported from South America) to growing bedding plants specializing in Geraniums. John worked for both his grandfather, who grew almost exclusively organically, and his dad who embraced the new modern chemical ways. This was to influence John in his adult years to move back to organic methods which he realized was the most sensible way to grow plants and tread lightly on the earth.

Joyce also grew up not far away from here and although she came to things horticultural a bit later in life, she has without question made a real connection with the world of plants. Prior to opening The Good Earth Joyce had her own bakery "Toute de Suite" in East Greenwich where she made Beautiful Breads, Perfect Pastries and Lucious Lunches. Many of you already know of her culinary talents from the tasty treats she sometimes bakes for our visitors here. As a vegetarian and fabulous cook she has always been interested in plants as food and how to combine them deliciously. Her talents in the kitchen carry over perfectly in combining colors and textures in gardens as well as in container planters, a fact recognized by all who visit us at The Good Earth.

With that little bit of history it's time to move into the present and talk about what's happening this season at The Good Earth.