Re: a local Bay Area story
- To: M*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: a local Bay Area story
- From: R* F* D*
- Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 11:54:10 -0500 (EST)
At 12:11 PM 1/31/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>All:
>
> Maybe the Mediterranean Garden Society needs to
>"lease" this land from Mr. Ancinelli and begin an
>experimental and display "Mediterranean Farm, Orchard
>and Vineyard".
>
> With grants from large corporations, including
>agricultural organizations, and trusts, this could be
>quite a development.
>
> I can't imagine anyone NOT buying into this,
>including the current owner.
>
> What's everyone's thoughts?
>
>Joe Seals
>Santa Maria, California
>"the epitome of the Mediterranean climate"
>
Joe:
I have been the beneficiary of a plan in Massachusetts to buy the
development rights of farmland. My paternal grandfather starte the farm
around 1904 in Granby, then it was run by my father and his siblings until
1961. None of the third generation wanted to run it, and much of the
non-arable land was given to the town as a park. I and my four siblings got
to inherit a 17 acre lot, and this was rented out for farm crops and then
truck farming. The soil was a nice sandy loam that was stripped of humus by
the farmer that grew corn year after year. My brother-in-law in Hadley has
almost pure loam.
An area truck farmer took it over, then another made a bid for it. We
entered the property into the program, and the truck farmer bought it for
the farm value, and we children got the full value, the rest (the
development rights) bought by the state. I am extremely happy that we don't
have either a shopping center or a housing development there, since the lots
represent some of the best soil in New England.
The central Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts has this land by the result
of deposits from two huge glacial lakes. In hard times, what is left of
this land in Hatfield, Hadley, Amherst, and Granby will help feed a lot of
families.
And I raised some of the healthiest Salvias and Mediterranran plants I've
been able to grow in that soil.
Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, North Carolina 27406 USA
336-674-3105
World of Salvias web page:
http://www.eclectasy.com/gallery_of_salvias/index.htm
or
http://home.infinet.mindspring.com/~salvia/salvia.htm (to be phased out)
