Coventry Farmers Market

One of the colorful produce displays
at the market

This may not be the oldest farmers market  in Connecticut, but it is certainly the liveliest. The Coventry Farmers Market runs from early June through October, and it is the largest and most diverse of the regional farmers markets in Connecticut,  boasting more than 50 vendors each week.  It is situated in the northeast part of the state, on the grounds of the Nathan Hale Homestead. Each week there is a special event or food sampling under the central tent located just as you enter the market area. You might be sampling seafood or marinated mushrooms, or whatever is the focus of the week to showcase some of the products available. Often, there is a special display to educate or entertain the public on such things as local mushrooms, pottery, or wool spinning. There is a good variety of vendors, selling locally grown produce, cheese, meat or fish. Each week there are a few vendors who attend the market on a one time only basis, to keep the market fresh and interesting. But it's the long-standing regulars that draw the crowds who come for the fresh produce, cheese, meat, fish and home-baked goods. The social time and the entertainment is just a bonus.

Right next door is the Nathan Hale Homestead, which offers tours of the house and periodically has re-enactments of the revolutionary war on the grounds.  The museum offers discounts to tour the house on market days, so if you are interested in going inside, this is a good time to do so.

What to Photograph

There is a lot of activity at this market and there is always something to photograph, whether it's the food, the vendors, the people or the dogs. It's a great place to capture the beautifully displayed fresh produce neatly displayed by the vendors. Strawberries, raspberries or blueberries might fill a tabletop, all lined up waiting to be photographed. All sorts of seasonal vegetables are artfully displayed, with signs to match. The vendors themselves are also good subjects, and many of them will pose with their wares if asked. And there are a number of vendors preparing samples or fast food to sell, and it's fun to catch them at their work. Check the website for a schedule of special days: the wool festival in September is a good one to go to. You'll see alpacas and sheep, and people spinning wool or just selling colorful handmade goods.

This is a dog friendly market, and people with dogs are generally happy to have a photo taken of their pet.  There is often a musician playing just inside the entrance to the market under the shade of a large tree who won't mind being photographed.

The Nathan Hale Homestead is another good subject. The red frame colonial home and outbuildings are clearly visible from the market area. A low stone wall surrounds the grounds, and is a good foreground for photographs. The revolutionary war re-enactments on the grounds of the museum, and market goers are free to watch from the stone wall. Soldiers may be performing on foot or on horseback, and their colorful costumes make good subject matter.

Alpacas love their photos taken

The work of a creative fiber artist

Fiber cupcakes at the Coventry Market

Tips and Techniques

This is a busy market so it might be advisable to leave your tripod in the car and hand-hold your camera. Set it on shutter priority, and set the shutter speed as high as you can to avoid motion blur. This will give you an opportunity to play with the shallow depth of field that comes with a large aperture. Or you might want to use a point-and-shoot camera that allows you to set the mode. Try setting it on action for shots of people or dogs that might be active, or put it on the flower or macro mode for close-ups of fruits and vegetables.

Tourist Tips

Brick oven pizza made by hand for your enjoyment

Save your appetite for the market where you can get your lunch at one of the food vendors if you are so inclined. In addition to the food samples given by many of  the vendors, you can get wood oven pizza, hot Indian food, tacos and burritos, and even hot dogs and ice cream.  Enjoy your lunch under the shade of the tall maple trees while watching the live entertainment in the market. What better way to enjoy a Sunday afternoon!

Address

Nathan Hale Homestead

2299 South Street

Coventry, CT

Phone: 860-742-1419

Email: marketmasters@coventryfarmersmarket.com

Website: www.CoventryFarmersMarket.com

GPS coordinates: Longitude: 41.763452; Latitude: -72.345773

Free parking is available in the parking lot adjacent to the Nathan Hale Homestead. Just down the road a short walk to the market, parking is available at the Strong-Porter Museum grounds.

Hours:  11 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. every Sunday, from June through the end of October. 

 Musicians play every week

Spinning wool demonstration

Pink poodles and other pets are plentiful at the market

Rosedale Farms and Vineyards, Simsbury

Seasonal Rating: Spring **     Summer ***     Fall ***     Winter *

Rosedale Farms and Vineyards operates a market garden farm as well as a winery. It is a fifth-generation farm and has been operating since 1920 in various renditions. It created a niche in the winery business when the owners planted a four acre vineyard and produced their first vintage in 2005. The farm is located near the Farmington River in the Weatogue section of Simsbury, and with its freshly painted barns, the vineyards, and lush fields of vegetables and cutting flowers, it provides a scenic setting for photographers.

What to Photograph

During the summer and fall, the vines, vegetables and cut flowers provide lots of opportunities to capture the feel of times gone by on the farm. After becoming a winery, the barn received a new look and now sports a coat of vivid red paint, adorned with oversized green grape leaves. There are various pieces of vintage farm equipment and trucks on the property that make for interesting subjects. Try composing your shot with a vintage plow or truck in the foreground when photographing the bright red barn to get a contrast between the old and new. Take a few close-ups of details of the trucks or cultivators that are strategically placed on the property.

Of course, in the late summer or fall before the grapes picked, you can get up close with the full bunches on the vines. Look for the different colors of grapes, from yellow-green to deep purple. Try shooting the rows of grapevines, using the lines to give your shot perspective, or to draw the viewers eye to another object, such as the barn or vintage truck.

Starting in late June or early July, the cutting flowers come into bloom. Follow the road past the grapevine barn to the fields of sunflowers and other cutting flowers. The field of sunflowers runs back to the stand of trees, which gives a good solid green backdrop for the tall sunflowers. They don't bloom until later in July, but once they start, blooms continue throughout the summer. An adjacent field is overflowing with colorful zinnias, snapdragons, asters and other annuals used to make the arrangements sold at their market stand.

Painted barn adorned with grapevines 

When to go

The warm summer months, from June through September, are the best time to visit Rosedale Farms. Early morning hours give a nice backlight on the vines and grapes, when you can look for dew drops and soft light to backlight the grapes and outline the leaves. The rising sun shines across the fields of flowers, as well, giving a pleasing glow. The sunflowers face the rising sun in the east, which makes it easy to get their faces when you are positioned on the farm road. Try to go by in the winter and spring if you want to photograph the buildings and capture the starkness of the vines against the land.

Tips and Techniques

Get down low to photograph the grapes, with the sun backlighting the grapes for a nice glowing effect. Use a reflector to fill the dark shadows, if you think it's necessary.

Directions

Rosedale Farms and Vineyards

25 East Weatogue Street

Simsbury, CT 06072

860-651-3926

www.rosedale1920.com

GPS coordinates: Latitude: 41.851339, Longitude: -72.798576

Store hours: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, in season. (Check the website)

Parking is available in the small lot by the farm stand.

Tourist Tips

Pinchot Sycamore

The historic Pinchot Sycamore tree is the largest and oldest sycamore of its type in Connecticut. It's worth a stop to see the tree, and perhaps photograph it. It suffered some damage in the late October snow storm of 2011, but it is still an amazing tree with branches that reach out like a giant's arms, as if to grab the cars driving by. There is a little parking area just north off Route 185 beside the Farmington River.

Route 185, enter across from Nod Road

Simsbury, CT

 Heublein Tower

Heublein Tower is a six story structure on the top of Talcott Mountain. It overlooks the town of Simsbury and off into the distance of the Litchfield Hills and is visible from Bloomfield to Canton and beyond. It is best to photograph in the late day when the sun is shining on it from the western sky. It almost glows when the light is right, and is a much photographed icon of Simsbury. There are many spots to photograph this tower from. Try driving along Hop Road, south from Route 185, or south on Hopmeadow Street, and stop when you find a parking lot or side street with a good view.

Talcott Mountain, overlooking Simsbury

The Garlic Farm, West Granby

Seasonal Rating:  Spring N/A      Summer ***     Fall***     Winter N/A

The Garlic Farm is a small market garden farm in the village of West Granby. They specialize in vegetables and fall crops, especially garlic, onions, and shallots. It is open for the season when the vegetables are ready for harvest, which means sometime in July. In addition to doing local farmers markets, they sell produce directly from the farm. The crops are grown in the fields surrounding barn, as well as in neighboring fields.

What to Photograph

Garlic by the yard laid out to dry

There are bins and bins of garden produce, both inside and out at the farm-stand, which is located in an old barn first used to dry tobacco. It is painted a nice bright red, which provides a good backdrop for the colorful sunflowers and other flowers that bloom in the cutting garden out back. The cutting garden is full of zinnias, extra-large black-eyed Susans and vivid orange Mexican sunflowers. Towering sunflowers are sometimes thrown into the mix, but have the honor of their own special garden to one side. If your passion is shooting the bright yellow flowers, you can go all out there. With a bright blue sky and the great red barn, it's fun to be creative with the big happy sunflowers.

The vegetables make for interesting photographs, too. They are all displayed in bins, which are stacked  outside the entry to the barn. There are several varieties of tomatoes, including many heirloom varieties. Heirlooms come in all kinds of interesting colors, including yellow, orange, striped yellow and rosy red. Even the familiar tomato-red varieties come in all shapes and sizes. There's also a big selection of peppers, all wonderful to photograph when they are grouped together on display. Other vegetables you might have fun experimenting with are eggplants, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, and of course garlic, which is displayed in bins, and hung from the rafters to dry. Later in the season, there are braided garlic ropes as well.

When to go

Zinnias bloom later in July until frost and stand out against
the red barn once used for drying tobacco

The selling season starts in June, when the farm opens on weekends only to sell the early season garlic scapes. Beginning in July, when the first tomatoes are harvested, the farm stand is open daily, except Mondays. The best time to go is July through October when there are lots of colorful vegetables and loads of garlic drying in bunches, and the cutting garden flowers are in bloom. In the fall, pumpkins, winter squash and fall mums provide lots of colorful opportunities for photographers to be creative.

Late afternoon is also a good time, when the sun is low in the sky and the rows of tomatoes behind the old tobacco barn are bathed in a nice golden glow.

Tips and Techniques

Peppers of all kinds are on display; use a diffuser if the light is bright
to avoid 'hot spots'

Early morning light is good, but it might be best to hope for a bright overcast day to get the best light for the vegetables. Since the bright light really adds a lot of highlights to the shiny vegetables, like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, it's best to find a shaded location where you can take your pictures. Also, remember to bring a reflector to balance the light, or try a make-shift one with poster board or foil. A diffuser is helpful also, if you are doing close-ups in a bright light.

Directions

76 Simsbury Rd 
West Granby, CT 06090
860-653-0291

www.garlicfarmct.com

GPS coordinates:  Latitude: 41.951305, Longitude: -72.837858

Limited parking is available right at the farm stand.

Hours:  10:00 am to 6:00 pm July through October. Closed Mondays. Check the website for opening day and special events.

Tourist Tips

There are a couple of breakfast places in Simsbury, which is the closest town to the farm. Harvest Cafe Bakery is a local favorite, and is always hopping for breakfast and lunch. It is somewhat hidden in a small strip mall.

Harvest Cafe Bakery

1390 Hopmeadow Street
Simsbury, CT 06070-1411
860-658-5000

Hours: Monday - Saturday: 6:00 am - 2:30 pm; Sunday: 7:30 am - 1:30 pm

www.harvestcafebakery.com

Peaburys Cafe

12 Hopmeadow Street

Simsbury, CT 06070

(860) 658-2930

Hours: Monday, Tuesday: 7:30 am-4:30 pm; Wed: 7:30 am-9 pm; Thurs-Fri: 7:30 am-8 pm; Sat: 8 am-10:00 pm; Sun: 8:30 am-4:30 pm 

 Holcomb Farm

Holcomb Farm CSA is located almost directly across the road from the Garlic Farm, and may provide another stop for photographers. There are several interesting buildings and barns, all painted red with white trim, which would make for interesting shots. They also plant a field of sunflowers, sometimes close enough to the road, to be able to photograph. 

111 Simsbury Rd

West Granby, CT 06090

Hours: Does not open for sales to the public.

www.holcombfarmcsa.org