About Laurel Ridge Grass Fed Beef
In early 2004 I applied for and received a grant from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the US Department of Agriculture. The grant was under the Environmental Quality Improvement Program (EQIP), and it helped pay our cost of converting fields into fenced pastures with drinking water. We bought fifteen more cows the following Spring, and before we knew it, we were full fledged cattle barons. We slaughtered our first cows in 2005, sampled our own product and sold some to local buyers. In the Spring of 2006, I applied for and received a farm viability grant from the State of Connecticut's Ag department that enabled me to start up a retail operation from a windmill that my father built back in the early 1970's. We opened for business on Labor Day weekend of 2006 and have been overwhelmed by the response from customers ever since. Our herd has grown to 80 Black Angus and BlackAngus/Devon, and we have over 200 acres of fields and pastures where we graze the cows and produce our own hay. Along with my business partner Jim Abbott and a motivated squad of farmhands, I run the daily operations of the farm.
Our cattle subsist entirely on grass and, during the winter, hay. We also feed them kelp as a mineral supplement. We don't inject them with hormones or antibiotics. We do not massage them, feed them beer, or house them in climate-controlled stalls. Our cows live exactly as they evolved to live: outdoors, roaming free, eating grass.
John Morosani NY Times Review LAUREL RIDGE -- Nice beef taste, juicy, slightly chewy. Four of the steaks ... Laurel Ridge Grass Fed Beef ... brought back memories of the beefy flavor meat had before cattle were stuffed with grain in feedlots. |
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RED BEE HONEY Red Bee ® a small bee farm located in Weston, Ct that produces the purest artisanal honey, bee pollen and pure, natural, sustainable skin care products. Our products are handmade in small batches using only plant based ingredients to insure the finest quality. We absolutely do not use pesticides, alcohol, paraffin waxes or preservatives in any of our products. We also plant organic vegetable and herb gardens. You can be sure that Red Bee products are natures best! Click here for YOU TUBE video
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~ Farm History ~
Waldingfield Farm was purchased by our great-grandfather, Mr. C.B Smith, at the beginning of the last century and was for many years a working dairy farm. The onset of World War II, and the declining dairy industry in New England put an end to the farm's milking operation. For the next fifty years the land was worked by neighboring farmers.
In 1990 Daniel Horan, great-grandson of C.B. Smith, began the process of reclaiming Waldingfield as a working farm - except with a difference. Waldingfield was to farm organic vegetables. Armed with a degree in History and a voracious reading appetite, Dan began his quest. He started on a small, half acre plot and recruited his younger brother Quincy to help with the daily work. The following summer Patrick, Quincy's twin brother, came aboard, and since then Waldingfield has been a family affair.
As the new century begins Waldingfield Farm is one of the largest certified organic operations (Baystate Organic Certifiers.) in Connecticut. We currently cultivate on over 20 acres and have an active CSA program (community supported agriculture), which we believe is the wave of the future for small vegetable farms like ours. We have numerous restaurant clients, participate in three farmer's markets, have a wholesale distribition, and a thriving roadside stand!
Quincy now manages the daily workings of the farm while Patrick and Daniel assist him on weekends. All of us at the farm thank our supporters for believing in the goals of organic farming. It remains our passion and we will work as hard as we can to bring the highest quality produce to our customers. See you in the fields!
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Lamothe's Sugar House
89 Stone Road
Burlington, Connecticut 06013
860-675-5043
We started making maple syrup a number of years ago, with a modest beginning of 7 taps. It was Leonard, Rob's
brother who decided to give tapping our maple trees a try. We made maple syrup for our own use at first, but soon had requests for purchases of maple syrup. We soon found demand was greater than our supply and a number of
times expanded our number of taps, and size of operation.
Along the way we had many request for pure maple candy and cream, and have had quite a demand for our
confections. We have since expanded our confections to include several kinds of maple candies. We have maple
hard candies, and maple walnut caramels that melt in your mouth. We also make granulated maple sugar. It is very similar to brown sugar, but is dryer.
We have come a long way since the first 7 taps, expanding to more than 4000 taps, and into our present sugar house,
and a much larger evaporator.
Pure Connecticut Maple Syrup
made from the sugar maple tree
Grade A Medium Amber 
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The Bloomfield Schools Farm-to-School Program, a collaboration between the three departments of Agriscience, Culinary Arts and Foodservice is cutting edge education. Environmental Science Teacher Joe Rodrigues, Chef Paul Waszkelewicz & Chef Timothy Cipriano are the administrators of the program, while the students are hands on. The Agriscience Students start the vegetable seedlings in their on-site greenhouses, when ready to be moved outside the students plant the seedlings in one of the twenty raised beds at the Harris Agriscience Center. When school starts in September the Chefs from the Food Service Department (School Lunch) harvest the vegetables to be used as part of the school lunch program. In addition the Culinary Arts Students also harvest the vegetables to be used in their classes. Teaming the Agriscience students and the Culinary Arts students teaches each other the real cycle of life. Bloomfield Public Schools Foodservice Department managed by Chef Tim aka Local Food Dude also participates in the Connecticut Farm to School Program. This program educates students on the benefits of eating locally procured products including fresh fruits and vegetables. Nutritional Education handouts are available in the cafeteria to students indicating the farms where the produce came from and a short history of the farm.
The Bloomfield Schools Farm-to-School Program has been featured in a number or newspaper and magazine articles including the Bloomfield Journal, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Hartford Courant, The New York Times and Food Management Magazine. 
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