Fairfield Fields
Field
The “fair fields” that inspired Fairfield’s name produced a bounty of vegetables and grains, and helped sustain livestock since the town’s founding. Both Native peoples and European settlers in Fairfield cleared and planted fields; in fact, it was probably the cultivated and cleared fields of Native farmers that first attracted Roger Ludlow after the end of the Pequot War in 1638. The English who followed transplanted their crops and farming techniques, importing seeds and animals that in turn altered the landscape we know today.
As time went by, these “fair fields” produced less and less of the food supply. Today there are only a few farms operating in our region, where the land is more valuable as real estate, and most of our food is grown elsewhere. New England, as a whole, produces about half the dairy products consumed in the region, less than half of the vegetables, and only a fraction of the other foods.
Livestock
Raising animals for meat and milk was an important part of the farmer’s ecosystem from the beginning of English occupation in the Fairfield area. In the early years, pigs were especially valuable since they roamed freely to find their food. However, this caused problems for Native farmers, who repeatedly complained that the animals damaged their fields and asked that they be fenced in. Cattle required more care, but could be fed on salt marsh and meadow grasses or on English hay; they produced milk, butter, and cheese as well as meat.
The town’s attention to livestock in the early records reflects how important these animals were for survival, property, and wealth. Fence viewers were appointed to keep up and repair the required fences; the keeper of “brand book” supervised the branding of horses and cattle and the earmarking of hogs; and the sheep master hired shepherds to watch the town’s flock of sheep, sold the dung it produced, and decided where the sheep were to be pastured.
Over time, Fairfield’s fields produced more livestock than its residents needed, and cows, pigs, and horses were sent for sale on ships headed to New York, Boston, and the West Indies. Feeding the livestock on board these ships required hundreds of pounds of hay and oats.
Corn & Grain
Native people in this area were growing corn before the English arrived, and corn remained the easiest and most productive crop in New England for two hundred years. Women were the primary farmers among the Paugussetts, growing corn, beans, and squash to complement the fish and game caught by the men.
English colonists learned from the nearby Native people to cook corn with beans and fish to make succotash, which William Wood described as “broth, made thicke with Fishes, Fowles, and Beasts boyled all together” - similar to the one-pot meals of meat and vegetable stew common among English farmers. Colonists also ground corn kernels into meal and made “hasty pudding” or “Indian pudding” and johnnycakes, as well as using it in chowders and stews. English settlers even paid taxes in Indian corn.
Apples
Apples – grown from seeds brought over from England – could be baked, made into applesauce, or baked in a pie to be eaten later. Over time, farmers used their orchards as laboratories to splice, modify, and develop specific tasteful apples, including varieties like the Roxbury Russet and the Rhode Island Greenling.
Much of the apple crop went into making cider. Throughout much of the 18th and early 19th centuries, apple cider was the most common beverage in New England – and Connecticut cider was well-known for its quality. Cheap and easy to produce from local seedling apples, the fermented, sometimes fizzy, juice was more popular than ale, kept longer than milk, and was often considered safer to drink than water.
When the temperance movement took hold in the mid-19th century, some farmers chopped down their orchards in support. More vanished in the 1880s and 1890s, when a pest ruined the apple industry, destroying 90% of the orchards.