NEW MILFORD – As The Village Farm approaches its 10th anniversary in Gaylordsville, its new owners Patti and Glenn Skok plan to follow the blueprint of the farm stand’s original owners while adding their “own twists and turns.”
“I think we’re going to follow pretty much everything they’ve been doing,” Patti Skok said of the previous owners, Lise Goedewaagen and Brian O’Leary. “The first year will be a learning curve. … We’re going to do the best we can.”
Goedewaagen opened the The Village Farm as a garden products variety shop in 2015. The site at 684 Kent Road in the Gaylordsville district of New Milford previously housed an antiques shop.
The Village Farm participates in local farmer markets and offers a seasonal farm stand and a community-supported agriculture program. The large indoor farm stand has three greenhouses and a seed house and offers “absolutely anything you could possibly be growing,” according to Skok.
Originally from Danbury, Patti and Glenn Skok, owners of the pet care business Patti’s Paws, acquired The Village Farm from Goedewaagen and O’Leary in November.
“They were very helpful in doing the transition and showing us there’s a lot of work out here,” Patti Skok said. “They left us a lot of plans… They’re absolutely fabulous and I think they were absolutely happy about someone buying the place and continue what they were doing.”
Neither Goedewaagen nor O'Leary could not be reached for comment.
Skok said they brought their flock of chickens to add to join those already living at The Village Farm and plan to add baby goats from Goatboy Soaps in New Milford. They also plan to offer a Community Supported Agriculture program, or CSA, selling their seasonally grown items directly to consumers.
Among their future goals, she said they hope to host homeschool pods at the farm, where children and their parents can learn and interact.
“I really fell onto a gem because the last owners really set everything up amazingly – beyond what I could dream,” Skok said. “I wanted to have this kind of setup, but it takes a year to do this, so I’m walking on someone else’s work.”
Over the past decade, Patti and Glenn Skok built connections within the Danbury area, first as the owners of the Danbury gym Leanbody Boot Camp and then as owners of Patti’s Paws. Patti Skok said they closed Leanbody Boot Camp during the COVID-19 pandemic and focused on dog walking, pet sitting and other pet care services through Patti’s Paws for the last seven years.
However, following her melanoma diagnosis in 2015, Skok, whose cancer has since metastasized and spread, said she has been trying to be “a little more holistic” in her approach to healthy living and “trying all the avenues.”
“I’m currently Stage 3 melanoma,” she said, “so I try to eat a little more healthier, trying to grow for myself. … Because we were in the gym, we were a bit more health conscious. … Now it’s really come back with a vengeance. Last year is when the tables turned on this whole thing and we said, 'We’re going to hone in on how we’re eating and support more local farms'.”
After more than 30 years in Danbury, Patti Skok said she and her husband wanted more land to do gardening and farming. After spending last year searching for available properties, they came across The Village Farm online and “jumped all over it,” she said.
“We’re just super excited to get everything going and to meet everybody and just start a new chapter in life and share this with everybody,” Patti Skok said. “And for the people who don’t know what’s up there, we can head them up this way.”