Protected by: Connecticut Farmland Trust
Year Protected: 2018
Acres: 64.5
Leone Farm is the the first farm protected in 2018.
In partnership with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Town of Lebanon, CFT has protected the Leone Farm in Lebanon from development.
The 64.5-acre farm contains prime and unique farmland soils. The current landowners, Robert A. Leone, John J. Leone, Marie T. Goodman, and Anthony J. Leone, inherited the property from their father, Anthony, in 2009. The father ran a dairy operation on the farm that started in the 1960s.
“We had a family meeting around the table fifty years ago, while my father was alive, and he made it clear that he wanted to preserve the farm. Since my father has passed, a lot of developers offered to buy the land, but they would just put up apartments. My father would be happy right now and I feel good about that,” said Bob Leone of making his father’s wish into a tangible legacy.
Currently, the Leone siblings lease three corn fields to Shawn McGillicuddy, owner of Square A Farm, a dairy, in Lebanon. For now, the Leones want to continue to rent the fields while they also improve the fields for additional crop use. In the long term, they want to sell the farm to the “right” farmer.
Farmers Robert and John Leone are standing on either side of the map.