About Bear Pond Farm
Bear Pond Farm grows certified organic herbs. We started as a family farm in Connecticut that served the New York City Green Market with heirloom organic vegetables and herbs. Partner Craig Colvin served with the Northeast Organic Farmers Association advisory committee that submitted standards recommendations to the U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration when “organic certification” was born. Bear Pond Farm co-owner Kathleen Lenane trained at the Cordon Bleu London.
Food
For
Good
Growing and cooking your own food in health ways is an empowering act. When folks come together to plant, to prepare and to share good food, we take up stakes as smallholders in a community. We believe that food banks, community and urban farms, grocery co-ops, community kitchens and neighborhood and natural markets are a force for good and can help heal the isolation and social divides of our post-industrial world. This is our pesto manifesto!
-Kat Lenane and Craig Colvin
In support of those bringing social and food justice to their communities, Bear Pond Farm has donated products or cash contributions to the following organizations in 2020 and 2021:
Wind Hill Community Farm – Connecticut
In support of those bringing social and food justice to their communities, Bear Pond Farm has donated products or cash contributions to the following organizations in 2020 and 2021:
Our Story
It’s been 20 years since we built our first off-grid greenhouse on a remote corner of Craig’s family property in Washington Depot, CT—built it out of found timber and some plastic sheeting and kept it warm by throwing blankets over it at night. On really cold nights, Craig slept there in a sleeping bag, by flashlight, with his beloved Bernese Mountain Dog Babe. Their body heat kept the plants from freezing.
Craig supplied farmer’s markets in Connecticut and New York City with organically grown vegetables in our early days. His passion for finding the world’s best heirloom seeds and starts (he worked for Renee’s Garden Seeds for a year) translated into a field of tomatoes, zucchinis, oreganos, basils and sorrels, cultivars hard to find elsewhere. He experimented with fish emulsions and other natural fertilizers; he leaned on a natural chrysanthemum derivative to keep pests from his plants—and for good measure scouted the rows at night for insects by flashlight (again!), plucking them from his precious produce.
This was before organic certification was born. Craig soon served on the Northeast Organic Farmers Association advisory committee to the U.S. USDA as the agency wrote the country’s first certified organic standards.
Over the years, Craig and partner Kat Lenane built a 100-foot greenhouse (with real heat), and logged hundreds of thousands of miles delivering to and sampling pesto sauces at stores. Expanding sales prompted us to find a co-packer to produce at volume and to support other organic growers with our ingredient purchases.
In 2020, Bear Pond Farm donated 7,500 organic herb starts to certified organic Cold Spring Farm in Colchester, CT, and funded the farm’s greenhouse drying and processing room. The farm’s commitment to organic growing and community outreach returns us to our roots, as it finds an audience with a next generation of farmers and foodies.