If anyone had told Fred Monahan back in 1989 that 20 years later he would spend $30,000 for vegetable seeds, he would have laughed.  That’s because Fred had no intention of farming vegetables, except for personal consumption.  The ‘89 graduate of State University of New York, with a degree in animal husbandry, was intent on raising cattle for beef and dairy – a dream he had nurtured since the age of 12 – when he had started working at the Shelton Dairy Farm.

“I loved everything about it,” he recalled.  “And Rudy Hudak taught me all there was to know about the business.”

Fred literally grew up on the dairy farm.  He did everything, from feeding and milking the cows to pasteurizing the milk and delivering it to area residences and businesses.

He continued to work at the farm on weekends while attending college and full time during vacations.  Unlike many of his college friends, he knew exactly what he was going to do for a living, and he had a job.

Not far from the dairy farm, Fred heard about a 6 acre plot of land with a house and a few outbuildings that was for sale.  He started clearing the land shortly after he bought it in 1991 and put up a few greenhouses.

“I only grew the vegetables and flowers back then to fill up the greenhouses,” he said, recalling those early years.

He was still Rudy Hudak’s ‘right-hand man’ at Shelton Dairy Farm, and wasn’t looking to make a living from his crops – which he wholesaled.

But life had a few turns Fred didn’t expect.  The first came in 1995 when Rudy decided ‘to stop milking cows.’

“I was forced to change my business plan,” Fred said shaking his head.  “Rudy has 165 acres of land; and now that he wasn’t going to use all of it to graze the cows, I arranged to lease some of it to grow vegetables.

The second turn in the road happened in 1997, when Valley View Farm in Orange lost its barn to a fire, and brought their cows to Shelton Dairy Farm.  That’s when Fred was introduced to Stacia, Valley View’s operation’s manager.

Stacia’s education was in agriculture; and like Fred, she had spent much of her youth at her grandparents’ small farm growing vegetables.

“The farm really started to grow after we got married, and soon we needed to lease more land,” said Fred. “I also began breeding beef cows with Rudy.”

The first beef cow came from the Shelton Dairy milking herd – a Holstein heifer born from a Hereford bull the dairy farm used to breed with the young Holstein heifers.

In those early years, Fred and Stacia planted all of the vegetables by hand. The name of their farm – Stone Gardens – is a result of trying to dig holes for the larger tomato varieties Stacia wanted to grow. “Larger tomatoes grow on larger plants, which required us to dig bigger holes.  Every time I put the shovel in the ground, I hit a stone.  It was as if we had a garden of stones.”

Over the years, the farm continued to grow – as did their clientele and list of vegetables they cultivated.  “If you want to know the variety of crops we grow, just go to a seed catalogue.  It’s all there from A to Z,” Fred said matter-of-factly.

But last year, the Monahans came upon the biggest turn in that proverbial ‘road,’ a turn that would make Stone Gardens unique among the farms in the area. – And it was a direct result of customer demand.  Loyal customers from Greenwich, Westport, Norwalk, Fairfield, Middlebury, Branford, West Haven, Milford, Beacon Falls and Shelton, who wanted to be a part of the Stone Gardens Farm experience, encouraged them to move in the direction of a community farm.

No, area people don’t come to the farm and stake out a space to plant their own small gardens in the Monahans’ fields.  Rather, they purchase an annual share of the farm’s harvest.

“Not much has changed since we began the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program,  we still grow vegetables and flowers – but in larger quantities, raise chickens for their eggs and meat and breed and raise a decent herd of beef cows,” said Fred.

The big difference is that the majority of crops are already sold.  Last year, Stone Gardens Farm sold 88 shares; but due to popular demand, 188 shares were sold for the 2009 harvest.  And all the shares sold out by the first week in May.

The harvest program is 22 weeks in length, beginning the first week in June and ending around the last week of October.  Each full share can be purchased for $600, or a half share for $300.  The holders of full shares receive a weekly box of freshly harvested, farm fresh produce, worth a minimum of $27.50.  Occasionally, freshly laid eggs are included in the box.

“The harvest is distributed to the owners of shares first,” Stacia emphasized.  “Whatever is left is then sold at our farm stand, with the remainder going to the four producer-grown farmers’ markets we participate at.”

Early crops include lettuce, scallions, spinach, escarole, broccoli rabe, peas, beets, radishes, and more.  Waiting for the sun to warm the fields, greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers ripen next, as does the squash, cabbage, beans and cauliflower.

By mid-July (this year, late), field tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, sweet corn and onions are ripe for the picking.  And throughout the summer months into fall, peach, plum and apple trees, heavy with fruit, will also be added to the weekly boxes of produce.

The growth of Stone Gardens Farm has some advantages.  No longer do Fred and Stacia do all the planting and harvesting themselves.  At the height of the season, there are a total of 10 employees – from farm hands to crop washers and baggers.  And the profits have been reinvested in the farm with the purchase of machinery, including one that digs the holes for the vegetables that are planted in the field.

“I guess you can say we’re semi-automated,” said Fred laughing.

Stone Gardens Farm also works closely with scientist Jude Brucher and the UCONN cooperative extension services.  He comes to the farm once a week and walks the fields with Fred scouting for bugs (good and bad), pests and diseases as part of an integrated pest management program.

Fred and Stacia have an ‘open door’ policy, and welcome the public to tour their fields (by appointment) and visit their farm stand.  Meat chickens and turkeys (for the holidays) are available by order, as is beef (born and raised on the farm) by the side (1/4, 1/6 or more).

For the Monahans of Stone Gardens Farm, there isn’t much time off after the final harvest.  Seed catalogs are already being perused; and soon ordered for next season.  When the thousands of seeds arrive, Fred and a full-time farm hand will plant them by hand into seed pots and keep them nourished in the greenhouse until it’s warm enough to plant them in the fields.   A planting schedule will be mapped in the spring and the staggered planting of most of the vegetables will enable the farm to harvest continuously throughout the summer. This method guarantees each shareholder a box filled with the farm’s bounty for a minimum of 22 weeks.

So the cycle continues, as in years past.  And according to Fred and Stacia, it will continue for years to come.

Stone Gardens Farm is located at 83 Sawmill City Road, Shelton.  For additional information Farm CSA program, call (203) 929-2003 or www.stonegardensfarm.com.