"There's a farm on Nott Street?" exclaimed one woman, pointing to the map in surprise.
"Yes, it has one of the only silos left in Wethersfield," replied Woodworth. "And it has cows."
As the van drove off and headed along Nott, the passengers peered at the suburban houses, trying to spot signs of agriculture. Then the van pulled in a driveway, and there was the silo, tucked behind all the houses.
"I never knew this was here," said the same woman. "And I've lived in town all my life."
Woodworth is a member of the Great Meadows Conservation Trust, a non-profit group which owns land along the Connecticut River in Wethersfield, Rocky Hill and Glastonbury. He organized the recent tour of Wethersfield's remaining farmland as a follow-up to his Adult Education slide lecture on the history of agriculture in town. It's all part of the town's 375th anniversary celebration.
The first stop was Nowak Farm, on residential Nott Street. Tom Nowak has 10 to 15 acres here, explained Woodworth. It was a dairy farm, but milking cows isn't profitable unless you have a huge operation, so now Nowak raises about 30 heifers, for other dairy farms or for slaughter, he added.
"He also owns some really prime lots in the Great Meadows," said Woodworth. "One of the noteworthy things in Wethersfield is you have the Meadows, which is really fertile and no longer threatened by development."
Throughout the town's long agricultural history, farmers would have land down there by the river but also on the uplands beyond the reach of spring floods, he commented.
The van stopped outside Wilkus Farm on Willow Street, although the tour didn't go on the land because Woodworth hadn't gotten permission in advance. The town is moving to buy the parcel on Willow to preserve it, although the sale is still waiting on some cleanup to be done.
Across the street was the old Leonard Farm, Woodworth said. "There are houses there now. One of the new streets is called Leonard Farms Way. You know a farm is gone when they have a street named after it."
Nearby on Thornbush Street is another Wilkus Farm parcel, where black and white cows graze in a peaceful meadow. They belong to members of the Hayes family, Woodworth said. "If you go down Hayes Road in Rocky Hill you'll see the other half of the herd."
The Thornbush meadow slopes down to town-owned open space, he said. "You can paddle a kayak from the town launch point on the reservoir past this."
"Fifty to 75 years ago the Wilkus family also raised hogs. If you can just imagine 400 hogs down in that meadow then. They would collect slop from Hartford, open up the gate and dump the slop. They used to slaughter them right out there too."
Next stop was Winding Brook Turf Farm, on Griswold Road. The former dairy farm nowadays doesn't just grow turf, but also strawberries. "So next spring take advantage and get out here and pick your own," said Woodworth.
There used be farms everywhere in town, he said. "Where the Silas Deane Highway is was pasture until the highway was built in 1928."
Then the tour went over to Broad Street, where Anderson Farm grows a variety of produce, including tomatoes, zucchini, squash, beets, green beans, lettuce, and spinach. Woodworth picked up a nobby, green, softball-sized fruit from the ground under a tree. "I used to walk to school through here. The kids used to throw these at each other. I have no idea what it is."
One of the tour members identified it as an Osage orange, an unusual tree in this part of the country. "This is the only one I know of around here," said Woodworth.
Next the van headed along Elm Street, under Interstate 91, into the meadows. The highway cut off a lot of farms from their lands, he told the passengers. "On the right, my grandfather had a farm down here, by the Comstock, Ferre land. Now it's under the highway."
As the van followed along the public roads of the meadows, Woodworth pointed out the various crops. The Andersons grow corn, the Collins family grows beans and Winding Brook grows turf here. Comstock, Ferre used to grow the plants for their seeds here, he said. "If you buy corn today it comes from here."
The Great Meadows Trust has some of this land now and so does the Wethersfield Game Club. Woodworth pointed out little details to the tour group, like the nesting box put up by the Trust to attract kestrels, the model airplane enthusiasts flying their models on Trust land, a green navigational beacon for boats on the river.
The largest archeological dig in the state was here, digging up evidence of Native American farming here as early as 1100 AD, he noted.
The river flooding keeps the land fertile, he said. "The highest, best use here is farmland. Or recreation."
As the tour prepared to return to the high school, passengers could see Tom Nowak on a tractor in a nearby field, cutting corn for his cows. He has a full load now so he'll be heading back to Nott Street to load it in the silo, said Woodworth. "If you see him driving through town, that's where he's headed."


Photos by
Susan Corica