Lower Connecticut River Valley Region Farms
Featured Farmer | Rachel Berg, Elise Cusano, Aaron Taylor & Caitlin Taylor | Four Root Farm
How do four first-generation farmers with few resources and no access to family land become established Certified Organic vegetable and cut flower growers in south-central Connecticut? The process was unusual; the pathway was steady, considered and well-paced. Rachel, Elise, Aaron and Caitlin founded Four Root Farm in 2015 with little but their commitment to each other and a vision for what they wanted to build.
What this group did have was a strong partnership with varied skills among them and a desire to engage mind and body in a new way. Among the four there was a knack for growing high quality produce, strong social conscience, tolerance for navigating bureaucracy, the necessary analytical, operational and commercial skills, and a love of food.
This was overlaid with a passion to engage in a food business of a different type, a sustainable small-farm alternative. Unlike corporate, large scale agriculture, the Four Root Farmers do not look only at gross profit per acre. While working to build a profitable business, they also view themselves undertaking a larger social mission to further a small-scale local alternative to industrial agriculture and its harms. The bonus is that there is always room in small-scale diversification to dream that the next thing is just around the corner. The scope for excitement and meaning in what they do are immeasurable.
Inter-personal relationships with others in the farming community are integral to the vision. Since the founding of Four Root, two of the partners, Aaron and Caitlin, have both founded other businesses that expand this work beyond the boundary of their productive acres. In 2019, Aaron co-founded CT Greenhouse, a company that manufactures high tunnel and greenhouse frames in central Connecticut and ships them to other small-scale farmers around the country. Meanwhile, Caitlin is the founding principal of Midcourse Design & Development, an architectural design and real-estate development studio dedicated to rebuilding regional-scale food infrastructure.
These enterprises are run in keeping with the founding ethos at Four Root that small scale agriculture is different: it maximizes relationships at the same time that it minimizes chemical and mechanical shortcuts. Sharing knowledge, skills, and resources de-emphasizes competitive economics, and that has great appeal to the partners.
While the four founders of FRF continue to own and manage the business cooperatively, Rachel now acts as the head vegetable grower and Elise continues to develop and refine the specialty cut flower side of the business. They currently have nine additional employees, plus the devoted volunteer assistance of Rachel’s parents. Their 6 cultivated acres and 10 high tunnels form part of the 12-acre plot on a wooded hilltop, typical of East Haddam, described in 1819:
The face of the country presents the usual granitic features of this region, being rough, and of a mountainous character; but the soil, which is a primitive gravelly loam, is generally strong and fertile. …The principal part of the township is best adapted to grazing, and is too rough and stony for tillage.
The farmers at FRF work their land organically, much as previous generations would have done in 1819. Practices like crop-rotation, cover-cropping and composting with leaf mulch are basic. There is no hydroponic cultivation, no confinement of animals. The old orchard is being planted with native pawpaws, persimmons, Asian pears and hardy native kiwis, bringing both new varietals to the land and repopulating some of the traditional food sources of this place which have fallen out of favor since the advent of industrial agriculture.
The farm’s specialties reflect winters spent pouring over catalogues to make design and produce decisions for the coming year. It’s mainly about variety— 9 varieties of eggplant including “fairy tale”— that shoppers won’t find anywhere else. Celtuce is a Chinese lettuce, grown for pale-green stalks to be cooked or eaten raw. Hot and not-so-hot peppers are favorites with buyers, as are their huge tomatoes. Okra tastes much better if you cook it without water. FRF is happy to give you recipes.
While they began as just a vegetable farm, flowers now account for about half of the farm’s income. FRF was one of the founding members the Connecticut Flower Collective, now located in Middletown. Started in 2019, the Collective is a place where cut-flower farmers across the state (and one in MA) work together to promote CT-grown cut flowers for any event. Weddings in particular have been transformed, no longer dependent on imports. Local flowers and wreaths are longer-lasting, more fragrant, undamaged in transport, and supportive of a small-scale farm economy. Spring tulips, ranunculus, anemones and 100 varieties of fall dahlias are specialties. Markets are held weekly on Wednesdays, 8am-noon (wholesale members only), Thursdays & Fridays, 8am-noon (wholesale & public welcome), and select Saturdays, open to all, throughout the season.
Climate, geography, budget and weather dictate basic growing options. While climate may be more of a constant, the rate of change in the weather is new. The hedge against crop failures includes diversification, insurance against losing it all. Their peas took a hit in 2025 due to an early heat wave and left the markets a week or two earlier then hoped, but flexibility is built into the system. Pests and pollinators can be next-level determinates. Deer dictated an expensive investment in fencing at FRF a few years ago. There is no lack of pollinators, but Aaron noticed in May 2025 that rhododendrons on the property had no bees buzzing around them. Blueberries get attacked by fruit flies, so their 75 blueberry bushes feed the birds and the people on the farm. None go to market, netting is not the solution.
Four Root Farm sells its harvests in various ways. Their principal vegetable markets are Madison and New Haven Farmers’ Markets. Madison’s is on Fridays from 3-6 pm and New Haven’s is Saturdays 9-1pm. There is a small CSA program where 10-20 people pick up at the farm weekly on a seasonal subscription basis. A few lucky restaurants make up the remainder of buyers.
When individuals recalibrate to do things differently-- in alternative ways and along interactive pathways-- it inevitably brings about social change. First-generation farmers are initiating a movement running counter to the fall in the number of farms, the increasing age of farmers, and losses of farm income and acreage. Middlesex County’s farms have recently shown increased profits while average gross income itself has declined. Efficiencies in practices and additional revenue streams are part of this trend.
Young first-time farmers tend to farm emotionally. They keep their daily work connected ideologically and spiritually to the larger project of food system change. They are fundamentally altering existing models, showing what’s possible and demonstrating new and re-discovered values.
This blueprint shows promise for young people as diverse as architects, musicians, and athletes. Record-keeping and number-crunching by technology-smart new-comers increases efficiency. Like 19th century farmers, success still requires the requisite know-how, acknowledged and gained through very hard work. What drives the new, young farmers are vision, mutability, humility and divine guidance, as well as a super-human tolerance for chaos.
Best of all for FRF is that East Haddam (pop. around 9,000) is a farm-friendly town with a good permitting process. There is much support for agriculture as a means of maintaining the area’s historic fabric while encouraging new revenue. The Agriculture and Economic Development Commissions were established to promote dialogue between all interested parties and the local growers. Farmers subscribe to the Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA) Farmer’s Pledge, separate and distinct from USDA’s Certified Organic.
Rachel, Elise, Caitlin and Aaron found the property that suited them, including a house built in 1693, in 2014. That moment marked a meeting point of people, place and time. It was the creation of a new kind of “family farm”. Innovative, independent and deeply idealistic, the four founders lived together as family from the beginning. There are three houses now, a compound, and the partners are no less honorary sisters and brother, eleven years later (plus the addition of 4th-grader Ellis). This family found its reason for being in the opportunity to express their progressive values and take on the challenge of changing society’s perceptions. They typify a new generation that is rebuilding regional-scale food infrastructure and re-centering our food system with curiosity and radical hope. May they find joy for themselves-- and for us-- well into the future.
By Sandra Childress | August 2025
About the Author:
Visiting small farms has been the highlight of Sandra's travels in places as diverse as Normandy, France and central Vermont. It's not the battlefields and beaches, cathedrals and history in northern France. It's not the ski slopes, church spires and fall colors that linger in her memories of Vermont. It's the working landscapes and getting to know hardworking farmers that linger most. These are invariably visionary people, yet hands on in the eternal interplay of their labor, environment and the cycles of life.
Small organized groups make it possible to find farmers who will offer a glimpse of their philosophy and commitment to the land with travelers who appreciate it. Then there are the sights and smells, the fun of new life, the connection to seasons. But our Lower Connecticut Valley offers much the same experience closer to home. As a bonus, there's often a farm shop, offering the option to take home products straight from the farm. There couldn't be a nicer way to spend an hour or two in our own fertile valley and reconnect with a timeless-- if changing-- way of life.