Published May 19. 2021 3:30PM
By Hugh M. Ryan, Special to the Times
Healthy PlanEat, an online seller of locally and sustainably produced foodstuffs, is expanding its offerings.
This nascent enterprise, based in East Lyme, provides a website for farmers who use sustainable practices to sell directly to consumers throughout southeastern and central Connecticut. “Sustainable” refers to such practices as no-till planting and crop rotation to maintain soil fertility and stifle pests, as well as responsible irrigation that minimizes run-off, bans on synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, and humane treatment of animals raised for milk, eggs, and human consumption.
Founder and CEO Rosemary Ostfeld, recently selected by Connecticut magazine as one of 40 high achievers under 40, earned a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, followed by a Ph.D in land economy at the University of Cambridge in England. She is a visiting assistant professor of enviro
Published February 25. 2021 8:11AM
Hugh Ryan, Special to The Times
Stimulating customers’ creativity in an atmosphere where COVID-induced stress fades away is what drives and guides Emily Cross with her Clinton boutique, From Stem to Fern.
Creating such a store was her goal in February 2020, when she planned an April 1 grand opening. Weeks later, COVID-19 and the governor’s order shuttered her shop, she feared permanently. Fortunately, she overcame this obstacle and, COVID-certified, opened just two months behind her original schedule, on May 26.
Customers can now select from plants, pottery, wall hangings, jewelry, planters, and other decorative and utilitarian products and tchotchke, hand-made by Emily herself and 12 local artisans and craftspeople.
Small Business Success: Coping with COVID-19 through new policies, protocols, procedures and people
Cynthia Woodis West, MA, BCBA, LBA, founder and clinical director, FamilyWise Behavior Solutions, Mystic, Connecticut, makes reading for children with autism not only instructive but also joyful. (photo courtesy of Larry Bibri)
Published February 03. 2021 7:54AM
Hugh Ryan, Special to The Times
When COVID-19 upended operations at FamilyWise Behavior Solutions, the Mystic provider of in-home therapy to children with autism remade its business virtually overnight.
One staffer expressed the challenge as building an aircraft in flight.
The March COVID-19 outbreak last year disrupted FamilyWise’s operations providing in-home therapy to children with autism and in-school consultation just as schools were shutting. As a result, kids’ classes, special-needs programs, and FamilyWise’s individualized therapy all ceased simultaneously.