Beckett Farms

About Beckett Farms Our family farm grows a variety of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs....

About Beckett Farms Our family farm grows a variety of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs. We proudly run Glastonbury’s oldest operating CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, operate a seasonal farm stand, attend farmers markets, and supply local restaurants, grocery stores, and schools with wholesale produce. We humanely raise sheep for wool, milk, and meat. The Farm’s History The Beckett family started farming in Glastonbury, Connecticut, in 1973, when Chip’s father bought the Old Cider Mill to keep it from being developed into condominiums. Chip worked during off times in college and vet school until 1982, and returned to Glastonbury in 1983 to start his own practice and help out with the family farm. In 1985, he bought the farm next door to build the veterinary clinic, Beckett and Associates, and add the acreage to the Cider Mill property. Originally, we sold most things to the Cider Mill, along with wholesalers in Hartford. We have gradually sold to more stands, farmers’ markets, and now are happy to host Glastonbury’s longest continually operating CSA program. Our farm practices Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This means that we occasionally spray, but only in defensive situations and not as our first reaction. The main chemicals we use are herbicides to control weed growth in the crops, and fungicides to control the mold of our high humidity that causes the crops to rot even before harvesting. Fruit has many more problems than the vegetables do. Greens are not typically sprayed, however fruit typically is. The sprays we do use are safe, some being organic certified, meaning most are less toxic than table salt in our house. In keeping with organic practices and evolving scientific information, our farm uses many sustainable farming practices: We keep bee hives on the farm, We minimally till and use no-till practices as of 2017, We have pollinator gardens near the brook to help build biodiversity (more good bugs!) to help watch over the farm, We extensively mulch with wood chips and leaves between the rows to keep down weeds and preserve soil moisture. This adds organic matter, sequesters carbon, and provides nutrients to the soil, We use biodegradable “plastic” mulch, which prevents leeching and runoff of fertilizer, while also warming the rows to protect crops from early frost, We use raised beds to prevent stagnant water to improve crop health, We plant with the contours of the lands to prevent erosion, We use drip irrigation to use less water pumped out of our deep well, and We use cover crops to prevent erosion, improve soil quality, and increase biodiversity.