Protected by: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), CT Department of Agriculture, Town of Easton, and Connecticut Farmland Trust
Year Protected: 2021
Acres: 37.29
Lakeview Orchards is located in a mosaic of woods and rural residential development in Easton. It is less than half a mile from the Easton Reservoir and is bounded to the east by watershed land. Joan and David Barney, brother and sister, are the third generation of farm owners and David continues to cultivate the orchards.
Joan and David’s grandparents emigrated to the town of Fairfield from Hungary where they rented an apartment and gradually saved enough money to buy some land in Easton. Joan’s grandfather was a carpenter and built one of the houses on the property. Joan’s grandmother raised chickens for eggs for the family, a couple cows for home milk consumption, and turkeys for sale.
Joan and David’s father taught himself enough to cultivate apple and peach trees and invented a lot of the farm equipment he used.
The 37-acre farm was named Lakeview Orchards because it had a great view back in the 1940s or so of the Easton Reservoir, prior to the trees growing up around it. The reservoir has changed hands a couple of times and the State of CT now owns it, part of its Centennial Park.