One look at the property at 330 Al Harvey Road in Stonington and it’s evident that it was meant for farming. The long, steep rocky driveway leads past an old refurbished farmhouse to reveal acres of fertile fields divided by typical New England stone walls.
The working educational farm that is Terra Firma Farms today was once a plot of overgrown brush and weeds just a few years ago. The directors of Terra Firma Farms, Brianne Casadei and her husband, Stonington native Ethan Grimes, still marvel at how different the farm looks now than the first day they arrived.
“When we first got here this was all just weeds and briars and brush, just completely overgrown,” Grimes said. “All that you could really see was the farmhouse and a small little yard, the rest was just absolutely covered. Once we started clearing it we found all the old stone walls and some of the other outbuildings.”
A graduate of the University of Vermont, Casadei had worked extensively with Shelburne Farms, a working farm and environmental education center in Vermont while she was in school—an experience she thoroughly enjoyed. When she found herself out of work years later due to an injury, she began to ponder what kind of work she really wanted to do.
“Bri [Casadei] had a lot of time to think [after the injury],” Grimes said, “and this was really all her idea. She told me she wanted to start a working farm and educational center for kids…and I had actually done some substitute teaching before. She did a lot of research, and she really convinced me it would be a great thing to do.”
So the couple began researching how to go about starting their farm, and as luck would have it, they learned of a property available in Grimes’ hometown.
A farm for more than 250 years, the property of Terra Firma Farms had last been owned by a woman named Virginia Berry, who in the 1980s turned ownership of the property over to Connecticut Landmarks, a heritage organization focused on preserving historic Connecticut homes. With the original farmhouse, built in 1753, still intact and around 21 acres of fertile farmland, Berry turned over the property with the expressed intent that it be used by its next inhabitants as an educational farm. By July 2004, Casadei and Grimes had moved into their new home and began clearing the land.
“It was definitely a project,” Casadei said. “When we first came here, there were no fences, no barn, and it was completely overgrown; there was nothing except for the house really. So we had to clear the land and build the barn and the fences before we could even begin to turn this back into a farm.”
Now fully operational, Terra Firma Farms has become a full-time job for both Casadei and Grimes. With about 15 acres currently in use, the farm operates as a CSA, producing more than 30 different types of crops including everything from spinach and sugar snap peas in the spring to eggplants and hot peppers in late summer.
“CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture,” Casadei said. “So basically what happens is someone will buy a share of the produce ahead of time, and when we harvest the crops they come and pick up their share.”
In addition to the crops, the dozens of animals at Terra Firma keep Casadei and Grimes plenty busy.
“We have Dexter cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, laying hens and roosters and broiler chickens, turkeys, guinea hens, ducks, and pigs,” Grimes said. “I think that’s it, I hope I didn’t forget anyone.”
And while the produce and livestock are impressive, what makes Terra Firma special are its many junior farmers, as Casadei and Grimes offer a plethora of year-round educational programs, including summer camps, Saturday programs, and their popular after-school program, which sees around 15 children arrive by bus every day.
“We give kids the chance to get outside and have fun,” Casadei explained. “These days kids are all about computers and video games, and it’s almost like they don’t know how to just go outside and be kids and play. But when they come here, you can tell how much they enjoy being outside and at the same time they’re learning and getting an understanding of where their food really comes from.”
Eight-year-old Adam Gibbs, a student at Deans Mill School who has been part of the after-school program for three straight years, said he never gets tired of working with the farm animals, proving Casadei’s point that kids really will trade in some of their Playstation time for some good old-fashioned farm work.
“My favorite thing is to catch the chickens and find the eggs,” Gibbs said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
A friend of Gibbs’ family who sometimes picks him up from Terra Firma, Libby Koponen is a local children’s author who first heard about Terra Firma from Gibbs, and has come to truly appreciate the work Casadei and Grimes are doing.
“I think what makes them so successful is their passion for the animals, the land, the children, and organic farming,” Koponen said. “They are clearly people who are not afraid of hard work. They really understand the kids, they let them be kids and run around and explore and discover things for themselves as long as they’re being safe…and the kids all just worship them. Adam is always talking about the farm and what he did that day.”
Like Gibbs, most of the students who take part in programs at Terra Firma usually return. With interest in the farm growing all the time, Casadei and Grimes feel they have begun to make an impact on the community.
“It sounds silly, but when I was a kid my parents used to read The Lorax to me,” Casadei explained, “and I guess it really stuck with me, the idea that if everyone just did their part, then our planet would be much healthier. And in many ways that’s the bottom line of what we want the farm to stand for.”
For more information of Terra Firma Farms, visit www.terrafirmafarm.org.