To get to Exeter’s Little River Farm you take the lovely country lane, William Reynolds Road. About a quarter mile past The Queen River, you turn up a long dirt driveway that runs through the woods. When you pass through the gates of the farm you’re treated to over three acres of greenhouses and fields. It’s an all-season, idyllic view. However, in late summer and early autumn, it is particularly lush and verdant. Buckwheat, aka Bucky, shows up barking to greet you. He’s in the running for the world’s friendliest dog. These days, he spends a lot of time close to the fenced-in area where the farm’s sow is nursing her six piglets. I get the sense he feels strongly that someone should keep an eye on them.
Bob Payne started Little River Farm in the Fall of 2013, and his first growing season was in 2014. Early on, he ran it with a partner, Camille Abdel-Nabi, but she has moved on to operate Long Lane Farm in Warren. Payne markets his organic produce through local farmer’s markets and wholesale distributors, like Market Mobile and Hillandale Food Hub, and is a member of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). With the CSA or crop sharing model, people can pre-purchase a share of what Payne grows and stop by the farm weekly, from late spring to fall, and pick up whatever vegetables have been harvested that week. Payne wants to increase the size of his CSA mainly because he enjoys the ongoing, direct contact with his customers. The better he knows who is eating his food, the easier it is to give them what they want. For example, he is currently working hard to greatly increase his strawberry production, and next summer, his CSA members will have a few weeks when they can pick their own strawberries at the farm.
Payne is an organic farmer because it is a job where he can have a direct positive impact on the environment. Every day, he gets his hands – and the rest of himself – dirty by improving the soil and promoting biodiversity. He has a sophisticated knowledge of what he is doing. “There are only three or four basic families of the vegetables you grow on a farm,” he explains, “They draw the same nutrients out of soil and if you plant them repeatedly, you deplete your soil. We use a lot of cover crops and rotate them so that there is a great diversity of what is growing here.” The fields are always growing something. Even in the winter, they don’t go dormant but are alive and producing. Payne puts in rye, oats, clover, buckwheat, and sunflowers that break up weed and disease cycles that can occur with less diverse planting.
Autumn on the farm, according to Payne, falls into three parts. Early autumn (September) is a fantastic time! Usually, it’s not too hot or too cold for working in the fields. There is a lot to harvest, and the eating is good. In mid-autumn (October), things are winding down. You are basically putting everything to bed. During late autumn (November) you can step back from the farm a bit, collect chestnuts in the woods, go to a conference, and plan a vacation! Little River Farm is part of a community of first-generation farms in Rhode Island. Others include Brandon Family Farm, Lucky Foot Ranch, Greenview Farm, and Wild Harmony Farm. Payne has tight connections of friendship and cooperation with these other operations. He says, “We have some grant money that allows us to share tools, and I can always call on them to lend a hand if I’m building a new greenhouse. They know I’ll do the same for them.” Every Labor Day weekend, Little River Farm hosts a pig roast for the community of farmers, vendors from the farmer’s markets, workers, and anyone else Payne invites along the way. He says, “It’s two of America’s best culinary traditions, barbecue and potluck. We butcher a pig and smoke it for twenty-four hours on cherry wood. It comes out pretty good!”
Johnny cakes are also likely to be on the menu. Payne is passionate about Johnny cakes. “Seven years ago, I bought Rhode Island white flint corn seeds from a neighbor. It is a very old variety of corn for grinding. It probably goes back to early Native Americans. It is an amazing plant perfectly adapted to Rhode Island soil and climate. It grows 12 or 13 feet high with low fertilization and no pesticides. I use it to make Johnny cakes and it’s really tasty. As far as I know, I’m the youngest farmer in Rhode Island growing it. It’s a goal of mine to get more people to grow it!” Hearing Payne expound on the virtues of Rhode Island white flint corn provides the best explanation of why he is a farmer. It also explains why he is such a good one. •
Photo: Back row, L-R: Bob Payne, Annalee Ambler, Abby Snoeren-Place, Cristina Cuevas Delgado. Front row: Buckwheat, aka Bucky
