Brown’s Harvest

The Brown family has opened their farm up to the community every autumn since 1978 for all the hallmarks of the season, from chowing down on apple cider donuts to exploring a corn maze to hitching a hay ride—and of course, picking the perfect pumpkin. It’s a place where memories are made.

The farm stands out as a beloved and iconic legacy of Windsor, Connecticut’s deep agricultural heritage. In 2019, The Trust for Public Land worked with federal, state, and local agencies to ensure that the Brown’s family farm is forever protected from development by an agricultural conservation easement. Places like Brown’s Harvest are hard to come by in the greater Hartford area. Fields that once grew fruits, vegetables, or shade tobacco are now home to commercial and industrial complexes. These flat, productive bottomlands that are so ideal for agriculture are also ideal for development. The same story has played out in once-vital farming communities across the country in the past half-century. Today, experts estimate that we lose three acres of agricultural land in America every minute.

Protecting Brown’s Harvest not only protects the heart of the farm, it also preserves a stretch of the wild and scenic Farmington River. A hotspot for canoeing, boating, and fishing, the river provides habitat for fish and migratory birds, and is a source of drinking water for nearly half a million people.