This quiet Farmstand in Lebanon is something unexpected and welcoming as you drive down Trumbull Highway.
If you’re a fan of Bluebirds at all, you know these small thrush birds with beautiful blue and burnt orange plumage, are subtle in their display. When you see a bluebird, it’s almost as if you have to look twice to catch the color. When you do take the moment to observe it, the colors grow richer and it’s subtle beauty endears itself to you. Perhaps that’s why Richard Pogmore, founder of Bluebird Farm, named the business after this frequenter of his fields.
Though Richard isn’t as active in the farm anymore (now in its 36th season), C.J., his grandson, continues to cultivate the land and business. Just like its namesake, it’s a subtle farm stand on the side of Trumbull Highway in Lebanon, but if you stop and take a look inside, you see displays of family history, antique signs, and loads of produce that you can fill your brown paper bag with.
C.J. himself is like the farm- quietly humming away at tasks until a customer comes in and brightens him with a smile. He cheerfully makes conversation, ensuring individuals feels at ease and welcome in the small farm stand filled with the season’s apples, winter squash, and other fall crops.
And the surprise you get at the varieties. Though they specialize in sweet corn during the summer months, you can find strawberries in late spring, huge watermelons in the summer and a butternut squash variety the length of your arm! What really shines in the fall however are their apple varieties; ranging from customer favorites like Honeycrisp to not as well known apples like Mutsu and Liberty. They line the rows in the stand with descriptions alongside each type, helping the novice apple buyer know which is best for each apple-y task.
As these apples are cleaned and sorted by C.J. he talks about why he farms. It was always
something that was a second job for his dad and his grandfather, but he has leapt into the business full time to sustain his family and the community with local food. “You know you’ve put in a full day’s work when you’re farming, in way that you can’t get from sitting at a computer, “ he says. He feels the satisfaction of feeling that he has worked his body caring for the land at the end of the day. He knows what he has accomplished, which can be harder to come by in other occupations. So as long as he can keep lifting crates of apples, picking bags of corn, and bending down to the rich earth to collect strawberries, Bluebird Hill Farm will keep providing the community with the welcome site of it’s farmstand on Trumbull Highway, inviting folks in to see all that it can offer.