Laura Pallandre

Former Montessori teacher on 2.4 acres, 1 acre in production in-ground raised beds.  Flock of 30 chickens, 2 guard geese, one rabbit rotationally grazed.  Obtained NRCS grants for windbreak, hedgerow and high tunnel.  No-till methods, no chemicals either.  Lots of woodchips!  This is my second year farming full time.  I sell at (and manage) the Bloomfield Farmers Market and have a small CSA drop off at Seabury Retirement Community.  I obtained a grant to make the farmers market a pay what you can thing where we hand out coupons to customers (many retirees on fixed incomes) so they can afford more of their groceries from local farms that grow using regenerative/organic practices.  I also run a food scrap collection program where people from Bloomfield and West Hartford can drop off buckets that I compost using black soldier flies in the summer, bokashi and worms in the winter, and this complements the feed for birds.   

Projects for this winter are to build high tunnel, as well as a geodesic dome and a cattle panel coop to protect birds from the cold.  

I am working on starting a one-room schoolhouse as farming full time and renting out rooms in my home has not been sufficient to pay bills.  I would like to find a farming partner to share farming aspect of the business with.