Fresh and Fancy Farms Opens at the Former Klinger's Farm Location

They told Kerry Low it wouldn’t work. Sunflowers just can’t and won’t grow on a busy, main road.

She, her husband Don, and the rest of the Low family, had just purchased the almost 100-year-old Klinger’s Farms location in New Milford, renamed it Fresh and Fancy Farms, and she wanted to plant sunflowers seeds along the railing and bridge on River Road.

She climbed over the railing and, in her words, “poked holes in the ground with my fingers and placed the seeds in.”

Drive or walk by now, and you are greeted by a 5’ tall burst of yellow in front of the one acre farm.

“This is like a Goldilocks farm,” says daughter Meg. “Not too big, not too small; not too hot, not too cold. I like that theory.”

“It’s perfect,” adds her mom with a smile.

Well, okay, nothing is perfect, but if you’re searching for something leaning towards “perfect” – maybe like just a little bit of happiness in nature and friendliness in people – this is the spot.

“We’re very welcoming,” claims Meg Low. “And many families who have visited have returned.”

Don Low, who has owned his own commercial landscaping business for 37 years, in addition to the family owned Town & Country, a business that specializes in party and equipment rentals, always wanted his own nursery. Shaaron Klinger, who owned and ran Klinger’s Farm and grew flowers with her husband Bill until his passing in 2010, found it difficult to maintain the farm on her own, was looking for someone to turn to.

She didn’t have to look far. Oradell was the spot, the Lows came calling, Fresh and Fancy Farms opened on Mother’s Day 2011, and now Kerry Low pedals her bike to her farming chores often.

“She has knowledge, enthusiasm, excitement,” says Kerry of Shaaron Klinger.

And the Lows bring happiness to their “hidden gem,” and those latter words are realistic. Fresh and Fancy Farms is located on a sharp River Road corner, the entrance to the driveway right at the bend. Sneeze and you’ll pass it.

Don’t. You need and will love this refuge.

Fresh and Fancy Farms sells farming goods, plants, bushes, smaller trees and more, and the Lows have also recently started growing vegetables on the farm. It has been tiring work for the seven – the Low family of six and Mrs. Klinger, who still lives in the front house in the property that her own parents lived in when they farmed the property beginning in 1913 – but Kerry Low, whose dad asked her upon purchase, “Did you buy yourself a job?” calls it “exhausting, but fun exhausting.”

“Shaaron Klinger is enjoying the Low family as much as the Low family enjoys Shaaron Klinger.”

Yes, there’s teamwork here, but also a respect for the charm of the former Klinger’s Farm, and nowhere is that more evident than in the oldest building on the property, the red, aged farmhouse at the bottom of the driveway. Time and weather have worn the structure, but it and the exuberance and fresh blood of the Lows are a perfect complement to each other.

And the stream that runs through the center of the property? “The stream is charming,” says Meg Low. “I like the movement of it. It’s never the same creek more than once.” She continues about her family’s farm. “Part of me is the ‘fresh and fancy free’ feeling. You open yourselves up to a gem like this.”

There are two worlds, she says: a world of hustle and bustle, and the serenity of the one acre at the corner of Stockton Street and River. “This,” she says of the beauty surrounding her, “is a beautiful concept.”

Kerry Low encourages scout troops, or anyone interested in collaborating on farming classes, to contact the farm. For details on the farm and updates, especially regarding its First Annual Fall Festival on Saturday, October 8, visit the Fresh and Fancy Farms website.

Fresy and Fancy Farms, 575 River Road, New Milford, (201) 483-9494, www.freshandfancyfarms.com