White Gate Farm occupies 100 acres of East Lyme, in Southeastern Connecticut.
The landscape is quintessential New England. Shaped by glaciers, it features small hills, outcroppings, ponds and a lake. Some of the once-cleared fields have grown back into wood lots. We have five fields that we keep open. For decades, several of these produced hay for area farms.
Glacial deposit resulted in a famous Connecticut crop: stones. White Gate Farm’s share of this bonanza forms approximately one mile of picturesque walls that have probably been in place since the 1700’s. In the 1940’s and ’50’s the site had a dairy operation called White Gate Farms.
In 1975, Ruth Lord purchased White Gate Farm from Bill Moseley. (Another previous owner was Elsie Ferguson, a star of silent films, who is buried in Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme.) In 1999 Ruth’s daughter and son-in-law, Pauline Lord and David Harlow, moved from California to create the farm business, which has been certified organic since 2000. Six of the farm’s acres are now used for growing organic produce, for pasturing organic turkeys, meat chickens and laying hens, and for raising organic flowers.
A former icehouse sits on Pattagansett Lake, where it once stored blocks of ice cut from the lake. The ice was delivered to ice boxes in homes in the area.
Our produce, poultry and prepared foods are available at our farm stand. We host cooking classes and farm to table dinners and welcome guests to stay in the farm house and converted ice house. Contact us to receive periodic email alerts about what’s new at the farm.