Chestnut Ridge Farm/Scottish Highlanders/Lab's & Littlepop's Popcorn!!

The Chestnut Story

Well to begin my story, we’ll have to go back to 1999 when I planted a chestnut orchard in the northeast section of my town in Ellington, Connecticut. I had come up with the idea from earlier memories of my father working with some trees in our backyard in the late 60’s. I found out land was available and I was planning on building a house as well. I cleared around 8 acres and planted approximately 800 trees! The planting went well and the trees were looking beautiful. Unfortunately, when the following spring came, because of the combination of too much water in the soil and the variety of chestnut trees I had planted, almost all but a few didn’t make it. I didn’t give up and I cleared some more land that was on higher ground and today almost 25 years later, at the time of this writing, I have approximately 150 trees. Not all are producing because some are still too young. In 2022 I had a record crop and I sold about 1,400 lbs. into the market. Last year, 2023, I didn’t do as well they only produced about half as much as in 2022. That’s farming!

Scottish Highland Cattle

I then decided to fence off the 8 acres and buy some cattle. I decided to go with the Scottish Highlander breed. The Highlander breed from Scotland are very friendly and safe to work with because they are very docile. I currently have a bull heifer and I just sold my 5-month-old bull calf, Tucker because I didn't want 2 bulls. I’ve had several more cattle and decided to sell them because hay is too expensive and I had to buy quite a bit for the winter months.

My Hiking Buddies Brookie & Minnow

My son David picked up a black labrador. I wasn’t too keen on having a dog but my daughter Ashley worked on me and I allowed the puppy into our home. We named her Brooke but I always called her Brookie. It wasn’t too long after I decided to breed her and she had a litter of eight puppies! I then decided to keep one of her puppies and named her Minnow. My son David left to be on his own. He’s doing well and has three boys. My daughter, Ashley, has three children; two girls and a boy. My wife and I have much to be thankful for!!

LittlePops Popcorn

"The beginning of the Littlepops story"

It all started in 1985 early on before I was married, I was visiting one of our churches in Oakville, Iowa. I was invited to a singing at someone's home. That evening they served this delicious smaller kernel popcorn. It was an heirloom early American variety. It was maybe a year or two later when I was married I remembered how much I liked that popcorn so I called the people out in Iowa and was able to find the source. I then ordered some for the next 15 years because we enjoyed it so much.

During those 15 years I started a business and sold it to my younger brother because of an injury i had.

At that point in time I wasn't sure what I was going to do, and came up with an idea maybe I can try and market some of this variety of popcorn up here in the Northeast. I then came up with the name Littlepop’s because of it's smaller kernels". I then ordered a large amount and was successful getting some accounts in my Northeast area. It was a year or two later when I decided to grow it myself and I found a slightly different popcorn, still small, but white instead of the original yellow. This new variety I've been told dates back to the early 1900's from Wisconsin. I found a farmer with a combine and a planter that helped me grow and harvest my popcorn!! I then worked out an agreement with a farmer and put up a 100 ton grain bin to dry the popcorn down to 13/14% and then bring it to Pennsylvania to get cleaned and put into 50 lb bags. I then had the capacity to sell to a much larger market. One of my biggest customers was Big Y Supermarkets, and Whole Foods Northeast and North Atlantic region's. They were both excellent to work with and very good to me. They purchased a lot over the years. I also sold to local grocery stores in my area, and now because of the higher cost's I've scaled down and mostly selling on my website. www.littlepops.com

Thanks for reading about a small chapter of a journey that we all have to tell!

Bruce & Karen