Yesterday
The beginning of our greenhouse operation, on the former site of our apple orchard, taken in 1965.  The glass greenhouse in the foreground was built following WWII.  The first plastic-
covered greenhouse on the right in the back row was built in 1959 of wood cut locally and milled at a Milford sawmill.  Note the field of lettuce and the old Chrysler.
 
Today
This is an aerial photo of the farm taken in spring 1998.  There are presently 35 greenhouses.  A new 3-bay greenhouse was recently completed adjacent to the houses at the bottom of the photo.  The top left group of houses stands on the site of the original five wooden houses shown in the top photo.

Meanwhile, during the 80’s and 90’s, we continued expanding our greenhouse operation, and now grow some 300 varieties of annuals, vegetables plants, ground covers, poinsettias, mums and Easter flowers in a 35-greenhouse, 150,000  square foot facility, serving both the wholesale and retail markets.

The Astriab family founded Glendale Farms in 1917.   Through the 1950’s it was a typical New England “truck farm.”  We raised vegetables, maintained a small apple orchard, and cared for a milking herd of about twenty Holstein cows, a dozen or so hogs, a few dozen chickens and a handful of mules and horses.  By the end of the 50’s, virtually all the livestock was sold.

During the 60’s, the second generation of the family began expanding our greenhouse operation, growing flowers and vegetables for wholesale and some retail, and taking care of our own need for vegetable plants to put out in the fields. We also expanded our vegetable growing operation on leased land in Milford and Orange.  Beans, our principal crop, were harvested with one of Connecticut’s first mechanical bean harvesters, making us one of the state’s largest producers at the time.  We also grew tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, peppers, squash, cucumbers, eggplant and pumpkins.  With the arrival of the 80’s however, most of the land was lost to development, and vegetable farming was no longer viable.