Evans Farm
- Ginger Jenne
- 2 minutes ago
- 3 min read
by Nicole Zappone @TheChronicleCT
Tucked away in Lebanon is a family farm that has been in existence for over three decades.
What started as a high school romance for Mark and Angel Evans blossomed into a family farm with over 90 cows to care for. The pair started with a little farm in Colchester, and when they moved to Lebanon, they started on Trumbull Highway where they had their children. “Mark always loved farming, so we came and the kids wanted cows and pigs. We started small,” Angel Evans said. “Before you know it, we’re here with 100 cows, almost 43 years later.”
Mark Evans grew up taking care of pheasants and other poultry at his home in Glastonbury.
When the high school sweethearts decided to get married, they decided that their new home would be about building together and having cows. Over the course of three decades, the couple has added chickens to their animal stock.
The farm consists of over 150 acres of sustainable farm land that raises beef cattle – Fleckvieh Simmentals. These cattle are of German and Australian strain. “They’re the breed that seems to be good for beef and breed for us,” Angel Evans said. “We’ve probably had them for 30 years now.”
The farm has chicken, laying hens and meat birds. There are also about 8-12 pigs a year and everything is sold at the farm. There are about 45 laying hens, and they do about 600 meat birds four times a year. “We’ve been having fun with it, our neighborhood loves it,” Evans said. “We have such a great community and everybody comes to the farm stand.”
Every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the farm stand is open and is year-round. “I think it’s been going on for six years, and we only closed once due to a snowstorm,” Evans said. “People depend on it; they come and get their milk, their eggs, hamburgers for the week, their steak.”
A typical day on the farm for Evans, she gets the farm stand ready on Thursday and Friday. She then watches her grandchildren in the earlier part of the week. To get the farm stand ready, Evans goes out and gets local products such as yogurt, milk, honey and more. They make homemade muffins and cookies on Saturday mornings. Every day, the chickens get checked for eggs, and all the animals are fed.
For Mark Evans, he has to go to another lot to get hay to feed to the cows. “We have to feed the cows every day – every morning and night,” Evans said. The cows are then fed a diet of hay and grain.
The farm starts their calving in February for a total of 60 days each year. Calves are weaned from their mothers at 6 to 7 months of age and females are sold by either a private treaty or used for replacements to go into the farm’s breeding program. A few of the bulls on the farm are used for herd breeding bulls, and the rest are castrated and raised for beef for sale at the farm stand, restaurants, and sold by the half or whole to customers.
During the wintertime, the farm sells meat products such as beef, chicken and pork. Inside the farm stand, shoppers can find a variety of local products, such as eggs, milk, baked goods, coffee, maple syrup, pasta/soups, preserves, soap, soda, popcorn and more.
Specialty items such as wreaths and firewood are available for purchase.
When spring and summer return, a variety of products come back in full bloom, including cucumbers, hot peppers, radishes, sweet peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and blueberries.
For the meat processing, the process is through the USDA, the beef goes to Stafford, chickens and the pigs go to Rhode Island. Evans travels to deliver the animals and John Evans lives down the street from the farm. “Right now, most of our female cows are in his (John’s) barn, getting ready to calf out in March,” Angel Evans said.
The couple said there is nothing cuter than when calves are first born, especially when they are jumping around. “John’s first words out of his mouth was ‘moo,’” Evans said. “He loved the cows and didn’t talk early on. He would say moo all the time.” John Evans works full time at the farm and then full time at a dairy farm called Spielman’s Farm in Baltic.
Mark Evans said growing up, he had chickens and rabbits, a small farm. “There was a big farm across the street when I was a little kid,” he said. “I always liked the cows up there and always liked looking at them. I said, “One day I’m going to get a farm.”
Evans Farms is located at 157 Oliver Road in Lebanon.