Adelma Simmons - Caprilands Herb Farm

Caprilands Herb Farm

Though sometimes said to have been founded by Simmons in 1929, records show the family was still living in Massachusetts at that time. Caprilands was to be the name of the 50-acre (200,000 m2) plot of land in Coventry, CT bought by the Grenier family around 1930. The large 18th-century farmhouse and outbuildings sat upon the grounds of a failed dairy farm. The land had been neglected and was of poor farming quality due to the large number of glacial boulders and wetlands.

Simmons is said to have made her first attempt growing vegetables while running a goat farm on the property, finding that goats thrived on the rocky terrain; hence the name, Caprilands, capri being the Latin root for goat. Though interesting, goat farming was not very lucrative. In the 1940s, after a devastating vegetable season resulting in the death of her crop, Simmons turned her attention toward growing herbs. Herbs, similar to weeds, thrived on the land.

After several decades of determination and effort, Simmons herb farm flourished.