From left: Helen Rymut & Joan Iovino.
Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.
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People raised on farms often develop admirable traits, like being responsible, possessing a strong work ethic, and having the ability to work selflessly as a member of a team. Additionally, they have incomparable love and respect for open land.
Frank and Aniela Rymut established their Halifax farm in 1935, raising animals and growing crops in beautiful rolling fields adjacent to an old one-lane road that connected Boston to the Cape. It was a family affair. Frank and his children Helen, Adele, and Benjamin routinely loaded the farm truck and parked it along the roadside to sell fruits and vegetables to summer travelers en route to Cape Cod.
“We had a bronze bell we would ring when we ran out of vegetables and my mother would come running down with more,” says 94-year-old Helen Rymut, with a smile and a twinkle in her eye.
Five generations of Rymuts were enriched by time spent at the family farm. But as is often the case, farm children grow up and pursue other interests. Transitioning a farm is a complex process, but the Rymut family had a plan. Helen, Adele, and Benjamin Rymut, with the assistance of their niece Joan Iovino, permanently protected their farm fields with the Wildlands Trust in 1997, in a clear gesture of love and reverence for land and family.
Purchase 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People today: wildlandstrust.org/shop50