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Frank Muzio: Returning to His Roots

Though farming has always been a part of his life, 10 years ago, Frank P. Muzio, Jr., converted his farm on Hartford Turnpike to an organic operation and has since been finding natural solutions for all of a farmers problems.

“I watched my grandparents birthing a cow, raise chicks by the bushel, I’ve been doing it all my life,” Frank says.

When he was in school, Frank would get up early to feed the chickens and collect the eggs.

He says that he started plowing at age 8 and has been involved with the industry ever since. Frankie was a service technician for Chloride Systems until medical problems caused him to retire at 42.

That’s when he went back to work for his father’s farm, taking over the things his dad wasn’t able to do anymore and selling overload produce at a flea market in Westbrook.

Frank did so well at the flea market that he eventually moved his operation to a standalone store in Clinton.

When his dad needed more help around the farm in North Haven, Frankie closed down the store in Clinton and came back to focus on it full time.

“I enjoy the farm. My father had gotten older, I could see where he was having a problem. I was young enough and I just blended right in. I started plowing again like I did when I was a kid.”

Before he took over the farm from his father, Frank read The Encyclopedia of Organic Farming. It taught him how to run the farm without chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

“Everything that we raised here as a normal farm, you look up here it’ll tell you how to grow it organically,” Frank says. “I’m a farmer, I could grow anything.”

He started making the farm organic around the year 2000, but he says that it can take 7 to 12 years for the soil to work the old chemicals out of its system. After a soil sample, his place was officially registered organic with the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA).

“I wanted to get the poison out of my food,” Frank says.

Beyond using organic compounds and fertilizers for his farm, Frank also employs the help of insects and animals to deal with pests.

He keeps dachshunds to root out the vermin that could otherwise bother his plants.

“They were bred for badger hunting, originally by the Germans,” he says. “They’re good on moles, mice, rats, anything a farm is being burdened with, except for now we have bears.”

Though the bears have been known to go after his beehives, his policy is to leave them alone. His answer to the smaller but equally vexing parasite aphids—and just about every other insect—is the praying mantis.

“I read in this book that they eat everything and they ain’t kidding,” Frank says. “They eat any bug in sight.”

In the winter, he collects the praying mantis egg cases to protect them from birds and keep them on the farm.

He’s found that the mantises eat everything from aphids to hornets. He’s even noticed less mosquitos in the area since he’s started using the mantises.

Keeping up the organic farm on his own is hard work, but he puts in hours whenever he can.

“I put 16 hours a day in here from May 16th all the way through to September,” Frank says. “Small farms are hard to hold onto nowadays.”

If it’s warm enough in February, Frank might start putting down peas, which will lie dormant until they’re ready to sprout.

Growing organically sometimes means his crops come up earlier than other farms. His stand at Frankie’s Fruits and Vegetables 1940 Hartford Turnpike usually opens in May, with its operating hours steadily increasing as more produce becomes available.

Frank says he raises 137 different products for sale at his farm stand, offering everything “from soup to nut.”

He tries to sell some more unique items as well. For instance, of the five different kinds of onions he sells, one of his favorites is the cipollini onion, seeds of which he imports from Washington state.

Sometimes, selling people on new vegetables means offering free samples, knowing that they will return for more.

“Having the people try the stuff, that’s the important thing,” he says.

When he’s selling his produce, Frankie tries to vary the colors to draw people in. It’s a trick he learned from his flea market days in Westbrook.

“I’m an oddball. If there are two different colors, I’ll do both colors. You gotta spice it up. Farming gets boring after a while,” Frank says.

To nominate a Person of the Week, email Nathan Hughart at n.hughart@Zip06.com.