The way we farm

Allyn Brown, owner of Maple Lane Farms in Preston, lifts a pallet of hydroponic Bibb lettuce that he grows year-round on his 325-acre farm, producing over 250,000 heads a year, May 12, 2023. Brown also grows Christmas trees and has a barn that he rents for weddings and events. 

By Tom Condon
Photos: Cloe Poisson, CT Mirror
©2025 CT Mirror

On an early fall day in 2014, more than 300 guests convened at the University of Connecticut to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the UConn Extension, the program that brings agricultural research, education and other services to the state’s farmers and gardeners. 

The festivities included a dinner in which all the food — vegetables, herbs, seafood, poultry, wine, cheese, fruit, and even a special “Centennial Crunch” ice cream — was grown and produced in Connecticut.

Two or three decades earlier, such a locally sourced spread would not have been possible; many of those things either weren’t grown in quantity or weren’t grown at all here. 

But agriculture has been changing in Connecticut, a quiet revolution that’s not just about legal marijuana. As the UConn banquet demonstrated, there are changes in what is grown. Along with traditional dairy, orchard fruits, tobacco and ornamentals, growers are now producing everything from kohlrabi to kelp, choi to chard, and many others.

There also is much more direct-to-consumer marketing and sales. There are new business models, such as co-ops, and new farm industries and technologies, such as anaerobic digesters. Urban agriculture — small growing centers in cities — is on the upswing.

The thing that hasn’t much changed is who farms…