Frank Himmelstein, PhD, is a fourth-generation farmer. His greatgrandparents, Frank and Libby Himmelstein, emigrated from Russia in the 1890s with their six children. The family began farming in Lebanon, Connecticut in 1903. Frank’s grandparents, Dora and Louis, purchased their own farm in Lebanon in 1913 and raised four children there. The Himmelstein Farm started with one cow and a flock of chickens. Eventually, it grew to 100 head of dairy cattle and young stock.

Frank’s father, two uncles, and aunt played an integral role on the farm. Frank’s father Meyer, uncle Benjamin, and aunt Zelda who was a local schoolteacher, lived on the farm all their lives. They raised dairy cattle, grew corn, and made hay. This family effort enabled the farm to operate for over 110 years, through present-day. Frank became involved with the farm at a young age. “Even though I had a lot of chores, I never really considered it doing work. My experience with vegetables began as I watched my grandmother Dora working in the family garden. I started working in the garden when I was five years old, and at nine years old I took the whole garden over because she couldn’t do it anymore,” Frank Himmelstein reminisces.

Frank enjoyed farming, agriculture, and academia. He did well in school and enrolled at UConn in 1976 in the College of Agriculture’s Plant and Soil Science Department. He knew he wanted to work with field crops because they had always interested him, and because agriculture covered many topics including biology, soil, air, ecosystems, and climate. His major advisor asked if he would like to work with him over the summer, and Frank became his graduate student.

Throughout his career, Frank focused on reducing pesticide use in forage crops and field corn. Following his Master’s degree at UConn, he completed a PhD in plant and soil sciences at the University of Massachusetts. He worked for many years as the Associate Extension Educator for Integrated Crop Management at UConn, helping farmers reduce their pesticide use all around Connecticut.

While working full-time at UConn, Frank helped his father Meyer at the family farm steadily over the years. Himmelstein Homestead Farm remained a dairy farm until 2004, and in 2008, Frank started growing vegetables full-time. “I started growing on a small scale, and kept growing, and growing,” Frank shares. He currently grows around five acres of vegetables.

Frank grows all his vegetables using environmentally sustainable growing methods, and does not spray any synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or insecticides. He uses compost to create a rich soil that enables his vegetables to thrive. He also has a local beekeeper keep bees on his land which provide great pollination for his vegetables. Frank grows cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, a variety of potatoes, summer squash, and zucchini. His specialty is winter squash. “My primary focus is the winter squashes because then I can have a business that runs 10-11 months out of the year,” Frank states. His top seller is butternut, followed by spaghetti squash. He also grows acorn, carnival acorn, delicata, autumn frost, kabocha, and pie pumpkins.

“The main labor on the farm is me, myself, and I,” Frank laughs. Remarkably, Frank grows and harvests around 20,000 pounds of winter squash each year. Frank’s fantastic squash can be found at the Willimantic Food Coop, Fiddleheads Food Coop, Trigo Wood Fired Pizza in Willimantic, Willimantic Brewing Company, The Pantry in Fairfield, CLiCK Willimantic, and Healthy PlanEat online farmers market.

Over the past few years, Frank has been selling more of his winter squash to local schools through Healthy PlanEat. He has done Meet the Farmer events at LEARN Regional Educational Service Center which has public magnet schools in New London County, and CREC Regional Educational Service Center which has public magnet schools in the Greater Hartford Area.

At LEARN’s Marine Science Magnet High School in Groton, Frank’s stripetti squash – a combination of delicata and spaghetti squash – was topped with a homemade marinara sauce and served to the students. At CREC’s Academy of Aerospace and Engineering in Windsor, the cafeteria team prepared a delicious butternut squash macaroni and cheese, butternut squash chili, and diced butternut squash. The children loved the food and had the chance to meet Frank and learn about what it is like to be a farmer.

“Farm to school is important to me for a variety of reasons. It makes sense that the local farmers should be supported, and to provide healthy, nutritious vegetables to students. In some cases, it might be their only exposure to vegetables. There is a health crisis in the country, and children have to develop a healthy diet from the start. From an economic standpoint, it should be a win-win for everybody,” Frank emphasizes.

Himmelstein Homestead Farm is listed on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places and will be preserved in perpetuity. Frank worked to have the family farm permanently preserved through the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Farmland Preservation Program. It was important to Frank’s father, and it is important to Frank that the land be used for farming forever.

To purchase Frank Himmelstein’s wonderful winter squash, you can contact him at [email protected], or shop online at www.healthyplaneat.com