About Westwood Farm of Alden
Chris attended Alfred State College in the 1980's for Landscape Design and Contracting. After college, he became the Foreman of a large condominium complex. He implemented an Organic lawn care program to help rescue a lawn that had become chemically dependent. He also implemented a successful IPM program for the trees and shrubs. In 1989, he established his Landscape company and never looked back. In the 1990's, he was accepted into the Master Gardener program through Cornell and became an active volunteer to support the mission. He was on the speaking circuit and gave many talks to garden clubs and the like which he still does.
In 2009, he purchased the 1838 farmhouse on Westwood Road. After Covid hit, it changed everything. He started concentrating on restoring the old farm. He obtained soil maps and sent a bunch of soil samples for testing. We discovered four distinct soil types throughout the 10-acres of land. Each one holding different promises for various crops. He started amending the soils and planted cover crops to build up the organic matter. Small test plots were put into place to see how they would perform for the larger scale he would later implement. After seeing the results, we could see the potential and made the commitment to establish the business where we currently run our Farm/CSA.