News at the Farm

April 2019

Lachat Town Farm, a community farm in Weston, CT, is delighted to announce that we have met our fundraising goal of $10,000 and a new Goat Barn will be raised at the Farm this Summer.

We would like to give thanks to our generous "Goat Fund Me" donors; Cindy and Bill Sherlock, and the Weston Progress Fund. The barn will be the new home of our goats as well as a flock of chickens. Those of you who attended our October Hoe Down celebration, may well recall the bidding frenzy surrounding the naming of the animals. The new furry and feathered family members, and their names will be revealed soon!

The barn was designed by Ed Parker, Commission member and partner in Alisberg Parker Architects based in Old Greenwich CT.

May 2019

The Weston Garden Club, Sustainable Weston, and Lachat Town Farm, are pleased to announce that First Selectman, Chris Spaulding, will announce 2019 as the Year of the Weston Pollinator. The announcement, which will take place Sunday, May 5th at 1pm at Lachat Town Farm, coincides with the launch of the Pollinator Pathway in Weston. The goal of the pollinator pathway is to encourage residents to:

• PLANT NATIVE - Supplement your existing beds, or add new native beds.
• MOW HIGH AND LIE - Keep your grass at a minimum of 3" and leave clippings in place.
• REDUCE YOUR LAWN - Consider adding native plants and shrubs at the edge of your lawn - to create a buffer between lawn and woods.
• ELIMINATE HARMFUL PESTICIDES AND HERBICIDES AND AVOID ALL NEONICOTINOIDS

There are already many pollinator friendly, native plantings in town; Lachat Town Farm Community Gardens, Lachat Town Farm pollinator meadow, Weston Middle School, Hurlbutt Elementary School, The Senior Center, Town Hall, Post Office and the Library. These plantings are supported by various organizations in town including Town Beautification, the PTO, Weston Garden Club and our scout troops.

The Town of Weston does not currently use pesticides or herbicides on any town owned land. In addition, if residents do not want the Department of Public Works (DPW) to mow native wildflowers adjacent to your property, please place a "Do Not Mow" sign. The DPW will observe these signs as long as sight lines / road safety, is not in jeopardy.

Following the proclamation, Sustainable Weston, Weston Garden Club, and Lachat Town Farm have sponsored an informative discussion with environmental leaders regarding safer alternatives for lawn and yard care.

Visit the Pollinators Pathway Website

Download Press Release

Yeehaw! Community fun for all who attended to support the farm!

October 2019

The barn was filled with lots of foot stompin', toe tappin', and square dancin' at Lachat Town Farm on Saturday, October 5th. The second annual barn dance and barbecue fundraiser was attended by more than two hundred twenty five adults and kids. Two sets of dancing were led by renowned square dance caller Eric Hollman and accompanied by The Flying Fingers Jug Band. And The Chicken Dance included a surprise guest!

Guests were greeted with welcome cocktails sponsored and created by Rone Baldwin. Rone served up Roney's Negronis and Aperol Spritzers. There was also an Oyster Bar sponsored by Copps Island Oysters and Precious Oysters, as well as a Beer Bar sponsored by East Rock Brewery of New Haven and a Wine Bar sponsored by Georgetown Package Store.

Odeen's of Ridgefield catered the event and served up their famous mouth-watering barbecue. Guests enjoyed one another while dining community style. Children and their parents participated in a variety of activities including pumpkin decorating, horseshoes, corn hole and more. The evening was complete with everyone gathering around the farm's signature bonfire, thanks to Andrew!

Thank you to our guests, volunteers, vendors, and sponsors for all of the support and hard work that made this a successful event! Please consider doing business with our wonderful sponsors and vendors.

January 2020

Featured in Vogue - the wedding of model and DJ Alexandra Richards and film director Jacques Naud. They chose Lachat Town Farm as the venue for their wedding reception.

An excerpt from the Vogue article: Just down the street from the Richards' property is the Lachat Town Farm, which was quickly identified as the place to hold the reception. "Jacques and I love the outdoors and nature, so that's where the inspiration came from," Alexandra says. "It's a beautiful community garden, and this was the first wedding they've hosted there. Our celebrating on the farm was also a beautiful way for us to bring some attention to what they have created for the community."

View the full article and fabulous Vogue photos.

The Lachat Town Farm Commission is very proud of the volunteer work carried out by two of our fellow commissioners, and we are thrilled to announce them as LTF Volunteers of the Year for 2020!

December 2020

In March of 2020, as the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic became a reality for those of us in the tri-state region, many of us responded by asking, "how can I protect my family?" In times of uncertainty, most people turn inward, focusing attention on preserving and protecting those within our own family and immediate circle. But while most of us were caught up in the news reports of hoarding and shortages of staples in the supermarkets, two Weston women were asking, "What can we do to protect and assist those in our community who are already or soon will be facing food insecurity?"

With lightning speed, Christina Morin Koether and Terry Cho took it upon themselves to find a way to get healthy, fresh, organic produce to Weston families reliant upon the Weston Food Pantry through the creation of the "Weston Giving Garden."

In what in hindsight is almost an unimaginable feat, Christina and Terry sought to design, fund, construct, sow, and maintain the "Giving Garden" extension of Lachat's community garden. This entailed clearing, installing fencing, building raised beds and installing an irrigation system for over 2000 square feet of garden. Drawing on their work as volunteers with Lachat and leadership in the Weston Garden Club, Terry and Christina rallied volunteers and donors to take this idea to reality. In only a matter of weeks, they raised $10,000 in community donations, which was then doubled by a Sustainable CT matching grant, to meet their target goal of $20,000.

Each week, Terry and Christina organized local volunteers, including some of our teens, to help plant, weed, and harvest. In doing so they gave Weston residents an opportunity to actively provide assistance to neighbors in need at a time of social isolation and community disruption. Within weeks they were providing spring greens and peas directly to the Food Pantry. As summer progressed, they were able to increase the volume and variety of vegetables harvested directly from the Giving Garden, while simultaneously supplementing with additional crops and eggs from Weston farms, purchased at a discount through donated funds. These financial contributions provided an additional opportunity for those with limited interest in gardening to become involved while also supporting the small farms of Weston.

As additional challenges arose, Terry and Christina have risen to the occasion to find solutions. For example, they were committed to providing fresh eggs to Weston families, but the food pantry's limited space made the logistics of keeping them at a safe temperature quite difficult.

Undeterred, they reached out to YETI to secure a partnership and the donation of two large, high-quality coolers, ensuring the ability to provide eggs on an ongoing basis. This year, Giving Garden at Lachat Town Farm, has provided the Weston Food Pantry with 22 weeks of beautiful organic produce and eggs, benefitting 30-40 Weston families weekly. The Giving Garden, in partnership with The Connecticut Food Bank, is positioned to become a permanent resource to counter food insecurity in Weston and beyond.

Thank you, Terry and Christina. You are not only providing healthy fresh food to our neighbors in need, you are also creating a host of community volunteer opportunities and learning experiences at the Farm. The Giving Garden is certainly living up to its name.

Visit our Giving Garden Facebook Page.

July 2020

Lachat Town Farm and Friends of Lachat would like to express our profound gratitude for the continuing generous support of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and The 1772 Foundation, which the CT Trust administers.

The CT Trust was there right at the very infancy of our grassroots effort in 2011 to save the Lachat Homestead and create a new vision for the Farm as a community gathering place. Back in 2011 the CT Trust Circuit Riders gave us emergency guidance on how to prevent the imminent demolition of the farmhouse. Next the CT Trust awarded us a Technical Assistance Grant in 2012 that allowed us to hire an architect, engineer, and landscape architect to make a plan for the homestead's preservation. Then in 2013, a grant from The 1772 Foundation helped pay for a new cedar roof on the farmhouse in 2013. Yet again in 2016 the Trust came to our rescue with a grant that helped us cover the costs to restore, rather than replace, the old windows on the farmhouse. This year they helped us again with a generous grant to replace the roof on the circa 1840 Carriage Barn.

CT Trust and The 1772 Foundation: WE LOVE YOU! You have been absolutely instrumental in making Lachat Town Farm the heart and soul of our community!

October 2020

If all the world is a stage, in Weston this year the stage became Lachat Town Farm, creating events that are safe and fun for the entire family. The year didn't go exactly as planned. "We had the calendar year all planned out," said Anita Dinwoodie, Lachat's events manager. "And then we had to revisit everything and figure out ways to incorporate safe, socially-distanced events that still brought the community together.

The capstone may have been the Haunted Farm event, a joint effort with WestonArts and the town's Commission for the Arts. The aim was an event that would make up for an essentially-canceled Halloween, reaching older children and families. The result was a successful three-night sold out experience, brought to you by a village of artists, creatives, and generally community-loving people.

Read More at Weston Today

January 2021

We made the News! Watch here!

Many thanks to co-creators of the event, Jennifer Martin Bernheim and Keisha Fink who helped to pull this entire Day of Service together in 2 weeks. Due to an outpouring from the community, we are able to contribute close to 400 kindness bags to local charity, Filling in the Blanks.

We would like to especially thank our sponsors for this MLK Day of Service:

• Weston Education Foundation
• Weston Progress Fund
• TEAM Weston
• Connoisseur Media Connecticut
• Onpurposefamily

Our sponsors helped to purchase 200 copies of the book "A Ride to Remember", which allowed us to distribute the books to our lower Weston schools and our volunteers.

If you would like to watch the video reading and discussion of the Civil Rights book, "A ride to remember", we will post it on our website for the entire month of February, in honor of Black History Month. You can view the video here.

April 2021

In celebration of Earth Day 2021, we would like to introduce our new 1 Mile Nature Walk. The trail begins at the community gardens and will take you past the new Bee Yard, and through the lower meadows, before introducing you to our newest trail, which follows behind the greenhouse and takes you past the vernal pond and upper meadow, before heading down past the Goat Yard. We hope that you enjoy Lachat’s meadows, animals, woods and pond, as much as we do.

Proposed Daniel E. Offutt III Education Center

June, 2021

The Friends of Lachat have received a pledge of $2 million with matching funds of another $1 million from the Daniel E. Offutt estate to build a new educational center at the Farm. The building, with a demonstration kitchen, art studio space, indoor classroom area, and an open design to permit fireside concerts and lectures from October to May, would help to address Town demand for cooking classes, canning lessons, instruction on composting and bee raising, and other topics related to the Farm's mission to engage with the community to provide education about farming, gardening, and sustainability.

READ MORE....

September 2021

The Lachat community is proud to see our giving garden featured on News 12! The Giving Garden initiative has been spearheaded by our dear Commission Members, Terry Cho and Christina Koether who lead volunteers and collaborate with Weston’s food pantry and other local organizations to address food insecurity in Fairfield County.

Click here to watch!

Lachat Town Farm provides household necessities for 3rd annual MLK Day of Service

January 2022

Despite the coastal storm that passed through Monday morning, residents in Weston and neighboring towns made sure they gave back to their community with an act of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The Lachat Town Farm in Weston hosted its 3rd annual MLK Day of Service, a collaborative effort with Person to Person, which is a charity in lower Fairfield county.

Volunteers formed an assembly line and filled laundry bags with household necessities like laundry detergent, sponges, dish soap, toothpaste, soap, among others. Once each laundry bag was filled, the finishing touch was a tag with a quote from Dr. King.

The event also featured a children's book walk, where a story unfolded along a series of stations on the farm's grounds.

View the News 12 clip here.

See article in Weston Today here.

May 22, 2022

Friends of Lachat broke ground on Sunday for the farm’s new Daniel E. Offutt Education Center. Friends president Carol Baldwin, assisted by First Selectwoman Samantha Nestor and flanked by Lachat stalwart Ellen McCormick and architect Rob Sanders, put the first shovel in the ground after a large excavator made the ceremonial opening dig.

See full article and video in Weston Today

November 23, 2022

Friends of Lachat and fans of the farm celebrated a milestone in construction of a new facility with a barn raising event on November 23.

A post and beam barn structure was hoisted into place for the main gathering space at the farm’s new education center. The framework of other parts of the facility are already largely in place, with much progress having been made in just the past few weeks. Several more months of construction are ahead.

View article on Weston Today

Carol Baldwin and Ellen McCormick Honored

June 11, 2024

A very hearty congratulations to our very own Carol Baldwin and Ellen McCormick, who were awarded this year’s Citizens of the Year by the Weston Police Commission. The ceremony took place Tuesday, June 11 at the newly minted Daniel E Offutt Education Center here at Lachat Town Farm.

Carol and Ellen had a dream of creating a vibrant, inclusive space where neighbors could come together, and friendships could be forged. It is through their unwavering commitment to the farm that Lachat became a reality. Their legacy will continue to inspire and benefit our community for generations to come and we thank them both for all that they have done to make Weston a happier place.

September 1, 2024

The joy of nature and community was on full display at Lachat Town Farm on Sunday, September 1. Following our second annual pancake breakfast, we gathered to unveil Seth's Wilderness Playground. This newest addition to our farm was made possible by the skilled craftsmanship of builder David Guglielmo and the generous donation of the Gaynes Family. The playground stands as a living memorial to their son, Seth, whose delight in nature continues to inspire

Seth's Wilderness Playground embodies the essence of natural playgrounds, utilizing our existing landscape and natural materials to create an open-ended space for exploration and discovery. Kids have a natural affinity toward nature, and it was just a matter of seconds before the kids took to the tree stumps, logs, rocks, slides, and swings with delight. Nature-based play helps create lasting connections between nature, children, and families. And these connections are often what fuels on-going conservation.

Mrs. Gaynes addressed the group on behalf of her family, highlighting the importance and impact of multigenerational stewardship of our community, and the concept was symbolically reinforced by the beautiful release of monarch butterflies that were raised by Alice Ely and released by Carol Baldwin. Ever the naturalist, Carol explained that the butterflies had just recently come out of their chrysalis, and had gently been flapping its wings to carefully dry them for flight. With a newly emerged monarch perched on her finger, Carol shared the incredible story of their migration:

Monarchs carry out one of the most incredible cross-continental journeys in the animal kingdom, traveling upwards of 3,000 miles from Canada and the northern United States to the oyamel fir forests in the mountains of Mexico in early November. These locations provide cool temperatures, water, and adequate shelter to protect them from predators and allow them to conserve enough energy to survive winter. In March, this generation begins the journey north into Texas and southern states, laying eggs and nectaring as they migrate and breed. The first generation offspring from this overwintering population will then pick up where the previous generation left off, continuing the journey from the southern U.S. to recolonize the eastern breeding grounds – including our very own Weston, CT.

This magical day at Lachat Town Farm was a vivid expression of our community's essence – rooted in nature, nurtured by shared experiences, and always evolving. As we look forward to welcoming the monarch's offspring next spring, we also anticipate the countless memories and discoveries that will unfold in our new wilderness playground.

The Wilderness Playground is open to the public daily, sunrise to sunset, with some restrictions during large and ticketed events on the farm. To access, please park in our main lot by following the ENTER sign on Godfrey Rd West. Walk along the hillside meadow and follow the tractor path behind the greenhouse. At the top of the hill, look to your left and try to spot the play area nestled in a clearing in the woods!

Please note that natural aspects of the playground come with the risks inherent in outdoor exploration. Children MUST be supervised by a parent or caregiver at all times. The playground was designed with children ages 2-10 in mind, though children and adults of all ages will certainly enjoy exploring!