A small Connecticut farm on a busy thoroughfare is tucked into a hillside, featuring a barn store surrounded by flowering plants of every description, and a meadow behind it filled with grazing animals.
By mid-morning this spring, Northern Farm & Flowers’ 400 laying hens were in various states of activity: digging, chasing, scurrying and sitting in their coops and a grassy area behind the store.
Further along behind the store, a group of cows sat in the sunshine or grazed. One curious black heifer poked her head out of her shady spot to see who had arrived.
“She’s kind of a shy one,” said Richard Weigold, owner of Northern, which he operates with store manager Brooke Best, his wife, Cara, son Alden and full-time gardening staff.
As the heifer continued to stare, Weigold’s son’s dog sent a warning bark, sending her and several other heifers back into the field.
Northern Farm & Flowers offers pick-your-own beds of flowers, potted plants and herbs, and fresh bouquets. Calla lilies, a special crop at Northern, can be purchased by the bulb to grow your own, potted and ready to plant, or freshly cut for a bouquet.
“People love the calla lilies,” Weigold said, “I like how they last a long time, as a cut flower. We use a lot of them in bouquets.”
Outside, flowering plants including lupines and pink spirea bloomed, near pots of impatiens and fragrant rosemary. Customers walked around the gardens, choosing pots and baskets of flowers to take home.
“I love the flowers and the eggs,” a customer said, as she headed inside to pay for a hanging basket bursting with hot pink geraniums. “It’s a beautiful place.”
The store, a former dairy barn on the property, offers a variety of meats, eggs, groceries and gifts, as well as flowers. Northern sells beef, chicken, pork, duck, rabbit and goat meat, eggs and produce, all locally raised and fed. The meat is sold out of a row of tall, labeled freezers in the store.
Along with bright blossoms and plenty of homemade dinner choices, Weigold has stocked the store with local soaps, candles, spices and pastas, sauces and gifts.
Best is the store’s soap and candle maker, evidenced by a fragrant, colorful display of products by the front door of the store. “We sell a lot of it,” she said.
“We also do wholesale with seven stores up in this area,” Weigold said. “Our meats are sold at March Farms in Bethlehem, DeSantis Farm in Watertown, The Smithy Market in New Preston, Freunds Farm in Canaan, the Kent IGA and LaBonne’s in Sharon.”
Arethusa, Bantam’s ice cream and cheese maker, is featured in the dairy case, where their ice cream and other milk products are available. Makers and purveyors hail from Litchfield County as well as New York State.
Torrington roots
Weigold, a resident of Cornwall, has deep roots in Torrington. His great-grandfather, Arthur Weigold, operated the Torrington Creamery on Riverside Avenue. By the front door of Northern’s store, a vintage “Torrington Creamery” sign salutes the family’s dairy connection.
According to connecticutmills.org, one bleeder valve accidentally was left open after the creamery’s sterilization process, and when plant workers ran milk through the pipes, the milk was heated and the cream did not separate, he said. That happened in 1919, making the Torrington Creamery the first creamery in the United States to homogenize milk for commercial sale.
The family has also been part of the business community in Torrington. According to Weigold, his maternal grandfather and two great-uncles previously owned Wolcott House on East Main Street, a furniture, bedding and flooring store. That business was sold in 1991, and in 1997, Weigold and his father opened Weigold Floor Covering. After his dad retired, Weigold continued the business on East Albert Street, closing in 2021 to fully pursue Northern Farm and Flowers.
At Northern Farm and Flowers, Weigold and his family are marking the fifth year in business, and things are moving forward, with a faithful stream of customers who like the idea of a farm store so close to home or further.
The central location of the farm, on Route 63 near the Route 4 rotary, is easily accessible and is a place to wander and choose flowers and food, or a quick stop for dinner on the way home from work.
But for Weigold, it’s the mood of the place that keeps him coming to work every day. On this particular morning, a light breeze fanned across the flower beds. Chickens clucked and murmured in their pen, and an occasional “moo” rang out from the meadow.
“What I like about it out here is it’s quiet and peaceful,” Weigold said, pointing to another fenced area near the cows, where a large group of chickens grazed and poked at the ground, ranging freely. “They’re free to move around, they’ve got lots of room.
When he saw the Route 63 property for sale in 2020, he saw the opportunity and developed a vision for the place. “I didn’t want it to be developed,” he said.
Five years out, Weigold is happy with the direction the farm is heading.
“We’ve built a trust with our customers,” he said. “People like what we sell because it’s clean; the food’s clean. We’re a pesticide free establishment; we don’t spray our plants. And the animals graze good grass all day long.
“Farming’s not easy, especially in Connecticut,” Weigold said. “Between the rising costs and insurance, it’s expensive. So it has to be diverse, and it has to be efficient. People demand that from us, and they like what we have here.”
To reach Northern Farm & Flowers, go to northernctfarm.com/, find them on Facebook and Instagram, or call 860-307-0965. The farm is located at 59 Old Middle St./Route 63, Goshen Conn.