Echo Farm
Description
Hobby farm located in Harwinton, CT. Echo Farm was originally established by Dan's great grandfather in Bristol in the early 1900's. His grandfather, Douglas Mahannah, purchased it and turned it into a working dairy which provided milk to many Bristol residents for decades. Eventually, the herd was sold off to Guida's where Doug worked as a dairyman for the duration of his life. Dan and Elyse re-established Echo Farm in 2009 in Harwinton, CT. Today, it serves as a hobby farm and produces: maple syrup, honey, hay, eggs, and veggies in the summer. It has many residents including: 2 horses, 10 goats, 1 rabbit, a flock of laying hens, and 1 dog.
In 2012, Echo Farm added the addition of Aspen, a naturally polled black Nigerian Dwarf doe and CrossDrive Galena (Lena), a black Nigerian Dwarf doeling closely related to Jester, to its herd. These two girls join CrossDrive Miss Layla (Layla) and EchoFarm I'm So Bravo (Bravo) in, what we hope to be, our milking herd. Echo Farm also welcomed 15 white broad breasted turkeys in July that were raised on our farm, and processed by us, for Thanksgiving. Our most exciting news however, is that we became members and are a recognized herd by the American Goat Society.
In 2013, Echo Farm produced maple syrup for the first time entirely on it's property. Prior to this, we were collecting sap from the farm and boiling it all at Dan's parents' house. 2013 proved to be the highest yielding year we have seen yet. In addition, we produced our first, ever, goats milk soap made entirely from the milk our Nigerian Dwarfs produced. We tested scents such as: sweet orange, lemon, lavender, spearmint, honey oat, and tea tree. Aspen and Layla gave birth to a combined, 7 kids, and we were surprised to see that Nitro carries the buckskin gene. Echo Farm retained one doe, rightfully named Echo Farm's Trifecta, and she will be bred in the fall of 2014 alone with Bravo, Lena, and Aspen.
In 2014, Echo Farm's Nigerian Dwarf herd produced 3 bucklings out of Aspen. However, it's most exciting addition was the birth of Dan & Elyse's daughter Lillyan on April 29. In addition, the farm produced over 2000 bales of high quality first and second hay for its animals and Echo Farms' clients animals. While maple season ran a bit short, the farm was able to produce 42 gallons on syrup and took a stab at candy for the first time ever.
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RECENT FACEBOOK POSTS
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Happy 4th of July!!!! We may have been quiet on social media, but we have not been relaxing! There are well over 400 tomatoes planted that are starting to set fruit! In addition, we are super close to harvesting our first crop of garlic. This requires daily maintenance (including holidays). Dan and Farmer Lilly were out cultivating prior to planting pumpkins earlier. We anticipate the mobile barn stand to be set up in about 2 weeks full of home grown produce! Thank k you for your support and be safe today!
Farmer Lilly's predictions are in! We asked her how many babies each goat was going to have. The results are as follows: Bravo: 4 Aspen: 3 Lena: 6 😮 Layla: 7 😳
A few things!!! First, we have moved the Movile Barn Stand so it won't be damaged by road salt, or snow coming off of the plow trucks. Honey, maple syrup, and eggs are back in the little white shed. Second, it's VERY cold. The eggs are freezing outside. So, if you need them- feel free to come to the house and one of us will go get you some! Lastly, we want to wish all of our customers Happy Holidays. We hope they are safe and enjoyable!!
Timeline Photos
Chynna, Lilly, and Dan enjoying the pasta dinner at the firehouse. Proud to be a part of this wonderful community!
Kern and DePaolo Benefit Dinner
Come out and help 2 Harwinton families after such a heartbreaking accident.
Timeline Photos
For our first year growing pumpkins, we're pretty excited with what we got! We still have: fresh eggs, honey, maple syrup, Marilyn Mae Farm candles, Guardians Farm soap, winter squash, gourds, and pumpkins for sale!!
Timeline Photos
Lillyan sitting on her late great grandfathers 1953 John Deere 40. She entered it in the 160th Harwinton Fair and won first place in the antique tractor show.
Farm Babe
This is a powerful image. Dan's family has been growing food (dairy, produce, corn harvested for grain, etc) for over a century. Farmers carry a heavy load. They know they are responsible for providing food and nutrition to millions of people, often with limited resources and at the mercy of the weather. I always suggest, when faced with criticism, that people who disagree with practices, grow their own food. That's often a game changer.
Timeline Photos
Look what arrived!!! Our friends at Marilyn Mae Farm shipped us our order of fall scented candles. Available for sale: Pumpkin Crunch Cake Spiced Apple Cider Caramel Kettle Corn Maple Nut Fudge
Timeline Photos
This is the first year we have grown pumpkins (and boy are there going to be a bunch)!!! We will have traditional carvers, munchkins, gourds, and goose gourds available. In addition, we will have straw bales, cornstalks, and fall scented candles and soaps for sale!! We started picking a few cabbages tonight, and will hopefully have some winter squash soon as well!
She is our best experience yet. Today, Farmer Lilly got to visit Jillybean's Farmstand's corn field (where we get all of our corn) where she learned to pick with her Daddy. Lilly is a 5th generation farmer and is really proud of that.
Timeline Photos
It's been a rough year for us for second cut so far. The drought has affected our yield, as we knew it would. However, we are still doing everything we can to meet our friends' and family's needs. We've got 150 bales loaded and are off on this beautiful day.
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