FTG, A Restructured Grant Program, Provides Funding for Connecticut Farmers

In partnership with: Connecticut Department of Agriculture

Connecticut agriculture is a diverse spectrum of farms and farmers. The Farm Transition Grant (FTG) from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DoAg) is a reimbursement grant program to support the expansion and diversification of farms.

The FTG program was recently restructured to better support Connecticut’s ag producers throughout all stages of their businesses, including new farmer microgrants, infrastructure investments, research and development, and innovation and diversification grants.  

Farms across the state received these helpful funds, including Penfield Farm in Middlesex County, which has been open since the 1800s, and Hidden Gem Orchard, where owner Jim Wargo planted his first apple trees just six years ago.

Extending Heirloom Apples 

Wargo’s lifelong dream of owning a fruit farm was realized in 2017 when he planted over 4,000 apple trees, specializing in heirloom and uncommon apples. In his Cornell University graduate program in pomology (fruit science), Wargo took interest in his adviser’s heirloom apple orchard in New York’s Finger Lakes area. 

“It was a big success for him, and I thought something like that would go over well in Connecticut,” Wargo says. “No one here was growing some of these wonderful varieties that are long-forgotten but treasured aspects of American history.” 

For example, Wargo grows Esopus Spitzenburg, reputed to be Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple and grown at Monticello. 

Wargo sells his 31 different varieties to wholesale accounts and retail customers from a farm stand on-site in Southbury. He will use the grant to convert a garage on the property into a cold storage room since he currently rents cold storage space at a location 30 minutes from the farm. 

“The whole process of loading, driving there and unloading can take three additional hours a day,” Wargo says. “It’s extremely inefficient.” 

See more: How Connecticut Helps Beginning Farmers Grow Their Dreams

Having cold storage just steps from his farm stand, which is open every fall weekend, will also better serve customers, many of whom drive long distances to purchase Wargo’s unique varieties. 

Programs such as the FTG are important for producers wanting to improve their current infrastructure or start from scratch. 

“There is so much risk involved in farming that these types of programs really help make it feasible for a new and beginning farmer,” Wargo says. “Without grants like this, it would be a whole different narrative for me.”    

Centuries-Old Farm Invests in the Future 

Penfield Farm raises black Angus beef, Berkshire hogs, lamb and chickens, which are processed and sold for meat. But over the last few years, their animal inventory has changed since several rescue animals have found their way to Penfield Farm. 

“One of those rescues started our love of emus,” says Victoria Tchetchet, Penfield Farm’s farm manager. 

They found a male emu for their female rescue, hatched a chick and began working with an emu farm in Massachusetts. 

“When those farmers retired, they handed their amazing breeding stock to me,” Tchetchet says. 

Penfield Farm is now the largest emu farm in Connecticut, breeding birds for processing and selling emu meat and fat (along with meat from all their production animals) to local restaurants and at their farm stand. 

“Emu production is one of our more profitable proteins,” Tchetchet notes. 

They also sell emu chicks locally and ship eggs to customers across the country, even to Alaska.

With their FTG funds, Penfield Farm converted existing pasture and a hayfield to emu pasture, constructed sheds with runouts designed specifically for emus, and added water and electrical lines to the sheds. 

“Honing our breeding program would not have been possible without this grant,” Tchetchet says. “The year before it, I hatched 41 birds, but the year after, I hatched 102 birds. That has been the impact of the Farm Transition Grant on our farm. It allowed us to invest in the future rather than just invest in repairs and keeping things going at the status quo.”