Lamont tours greenhouses, brewery at Northford farm

NORTH BRANFORD — Gov. Ned Lamont and other state officials visited DeFrancesco Farm in Northford on Thursday to tour the farm’s greenhouses and learn about the steps the DeFrancesco family has taken to make their farm more environmentally friendly.

Lamont was joined by Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes and Department of Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hulburt on the tour led by the DeFrancesco family, comprised of current owner Joe DeFrancesco and his wife, Linda, and their sons Joe, Alex and Michael. Their other son Darren was working but popped by to welcome Lamont.

DeFrancesco Farm has been in operation since 1907 and has more than 120 acres of fields and an additional 10 acres of greenhouses where plants are grown for wholesale.

During the tour, Linda and her son Joe detailed how the greenhouses have been updated over the years to become more efficient. The efficiency saves water, energy and gas.

“Every roof has a weather station,” Linda said, adding that the roof will adjust itself based on the current weather.

But, if a sudden storm or even a tornado, which Linda said has happened, rolls in, a worker can override the system manually. Her son Joe explained that the management systems in the greenhouses were also updated over the last few years to be controlled by smart devices.

“Everything is completely automated,” Linda said.

The hanging baskets in the greenhouses are watered by a drip irrigation system which conserves water and reduces waste. Plants on tables in the greenhouse are watered using a trough system, where the plant soaks up the water it needs from the bottom, and water is recycled once it gets to the end of the trough.

While walking through the greenhouses, Lamont asked the family about the farm’s history, where they source their clippings and plants from, and what flowers were most popular. The answer — geraniums.

Plants from the greenhouse are packaged by some of the roughly one dozen workers, plus the family, and sold wholesale throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, the family said.

Linda told Lamont how fruits and vegetables used to be brought to New Haven by horse and buggy by their ancestors in the 20th century. The farmers would return to Northford with as much as $20 after a day of sales back then, she said.

“I love how far these farms go back,” Lamont said.

The farm and greenhouse both use beneficial insects instead of pesticide, which is handled by Michael and has been for 15 or 20 years he said.

“There is a clump of sawdust in each plant where the bugs make their home,” Michael said.

About a tablespoon of sawdust, with the insects are placed in each hanging basket of flowers.

“Good bugs to eat the bad bugs!” Michael’s brother Joe said.

About once a week, the farm gets a delivery of the insects. Michael estimates the business spends about $45,000 to $50,000 on mites annually, which has cut their chemical costs by about 50 percent to just over $100,000 a year.

The greenhouses are also heated using wood chips and a biomass furnace, which can get up to about 1,000 degrees.

The family receives wood chips from arborists that would normally take them to the dump. Instead, the wood chips get used and the farm is able to reduce its gas usage.

Lamont was also interested in what event or holiday brought in the most sales. The family said Mother’s Day, which made him laugh.

“What about Father’s Day?” Lamont laughed as he walked through the greenhouse.

After the tour of the greenhouses, the governor and other officials traveled slightly up the road to Alex DeFrancesco’s brewery, Stewards of the Land, which uses as many local and hyper-local ingredients as possible.

The brewery has a honey gold beer that uses local honey and had a maple beer back in February and March using local maple syrup.