Featured Farms

John and Gloria Wraight knew that it was time for a change. Wraight Farm, a 37-acre piece of property in Ellington that had been in John’s family, needed new blood. Wraight Farm once raised Hereford cattle and produced 8,000 to 10,000 pheasants every year, but since the 1970’s had scaled back to a hay field operation.

Development pressure and a conservation solution

During that time, John saw the world changing around him and his farm. What were once dirt roads were now paved and busy with cars and school buses. John wanted to make sure that his farm was never turned into a subdivision and remained as agricultural land. The Wraight’s contacted Connecticut Farmland Trust (CFT) in 2019 and within a year, had donated an easement on the property. Preserved as farmland, they could now begin phase II of their plan: sell the land to another farmer.

A new set of farmers

After searching for land on CT FarmLink, a website designed to match farmers with available farmland, Tina and Dan Greenwood found and purchased Wraight Farm in 2022. Because of the easement, the development rights had been removed from the land, making it much more affordable for farmers searching for property.

Now Greenwood Holistic Farm owners Tina and Dan focus on raising livestock humanely and without chemicals. They have Belted-Galloway cows, Berkshire and Duroc hogs, and a variety of both layer and meat chickens.