“Our goal is to grow healthy plants without harming any beneficial insects, the soil, or ourselves,” said Stacia Monahan of their growing practices.

“We love being able to grow real food for real people. We raise our family in these fields, and we want you to feel comfortable doing the same.”

For Fred and Stacia Monahan, growing real food for real people is not just a business, but a true passion.

“I don’t really feel like this is work, I play for a living,” said Fred Monahan of the work involved in maintaining the business he shares with his wife Stacia, operating Stone Gardens Farm, located at 83 Saw Mill City Road in Shelton, Connecticut. The Monahans grow 50 acres of vegetables annually and raise poultry, pork, and beef.

Fred and Stacia Monahan founded Stone Gardens Farm in 1998, after expanding from a roadside vegetable stand where they sold vegetables and flowers at Shelton’s Dairy on Birdseye Road in Shelton. The couple steadily grew their business, planting more varieties of vegetables on mostly leased land. They have grown quite a bit since 1998 and have so much more to offer now than when they first started out. Stone Gardens farm is a family run business which also employs many friends, friends of friends, friends of friends family members, etc. - with just about everyone that is working there having some connection to someone in some way.

The Monahan’s farm stand consists of a USDA butchery, a country kitchen, and the stand that carries a wide variety of fresh seasonal produce that they grow, their fresh farm-raised meats, and also all sorts of interesting (and even local) specialty products. Their son Tommy is a USDA certified butcher that cuts all their meats right here at the farm. There is a USDA approved cutting room on their farm as well. Tommy is a big part of the business, in many aspects, on this multi-generational farm. The farm raises grass-fed beef, pork, and poultry on the farm, which are processed and sold directly to customers. You can stop in any time during business hours and get some of these fresh farm-raised meats that are stocked in their coolers. Or if you don’t feel like cooking, there are plenty of prepared foods that are made fresh on the farm daily in their country kitchen.

Stone Gardens Farm beef, pork, and poultry are all Antibiotic and Growth Hormone Free, and also raised right on the farm in Shelton!

While not an organic farm, Stone Gardens practices Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which means that Fred and Stacia, along with their employees, only spray crops when absolutely necessary, and after all other measures to save the crop have been implemented. If it is deemed necessary to spray, the Monahans try to use the most environmentally-friendly pesticide or fungicide possible, and rotate crops yearly, adding compost and manure to the fields every fall as well as planting cover crops to minimize the affect of any type of pesticide used.

Customers may purchase vegetables, meats, eggs, and more from Stone Gardens at their farm market, located at 40 Huntington Street, which operates daily year-round.  Pre-Orders for poultry may be placed by e-mailing Fred or Stacia Monahan at sgfarmmarket@mail.com.

How It All Began...

Stone Gardens Farm was started by Fred and Stacia Monahan. They met in June of 1996. Stacia was working at Fieldview Farm at the time when their dairy barn burnt down. Fred was working at Shelton’s Dairy for Rudy Hudak at the time, to where all the dairy cows from Fieldvew Farm were moved due to the fire. They got married in 1998 and started their own vegetable farm on a couple of acres of land and came to an agreement that not milking cows for a living is where they were headed. They decided to raise beef cattle and grow veggies. They have 3 children which all grew up on the farm and all of them are a big part of their business these days. Their oldest son Tommy is 23 yrs old and is the butcher and manager at the farm stand. He recently got USDA certified in meat cutting, which was a huge accomplishment. And one that is also extremely beneficial to the farm. Their middle son Billy is 20 yrs old and is a welder at Sorge Industries in Shelton. He helps fix all the farm equipemnt both at Stone Gardens as well as on neighboring farms. Their daughter Sophie is 14 yrs old. She grows and sells flowers and plants, feeds the animals and helps out with planting and picking vegetables. She'll be going into the Trumbull Agriscience program next year. As a family run farm, they have come a lomg way since 1998. Another thing that is so special about the farm, is that every employee that works at Stone Gardens is in some way connected, either by family or friends.

Shelton’s Dairy & Stone Gardens Farm…

Shelton’s Dairy has a long history with Stone Gardens Farm, the Hudak/ McGuire farmland is a huge part of their farming heritage. Fred worked for Rudy Hudak at Shelton’s Dairy milking cows, delivering milk, bailing hay, etc. since he was in high school. Though not related, they have come to become family over the years.

The dairy stopped delivering milk in 1994, and not long after, is when Fred and Stacia met - when she came to work at Hudak’s farm after Fieldview Farm hada fire and had to relocate their cows for a while. A few years later Fred and Stacia got married and decided to start their own farm, growing vegetable and raising beef cows. Thus, Stone Gardens Farm was born. They started out with a small farm stand on Hudak’s farm where they sold their fresh vegetables and flowers. After a few years, they moved their growing farm stand to Saw Mill Road, to where they are currently located.

They started raising beef cows, chickens, and pigs along with growing vegetables. As their farm grew, they felt they needed to expand their cute little stand and move into a bigger stand. So they built the building that is now their current farm stand. This farm stand now consists of so much more. There is a country kitchen, where they make all sorts of delicious, seasonal dishes. They have a USDA meat cutting room where their son Tommy, does all the butchery work. And then of course they have the retail section of the stand where all the seasonal produce is, along with their prepared foods, meats, specialty items, and more.

The Monahans still have ties with the Hudak/McGuire family, as they lease a large amount of their land to plant their crops and raise their herd. The McGuire’s son and daughter, Bobby & Jenna currently work part time at the farm stand helping out the Monahans.