61. Flamig Educational Farm

You Know What Really Gets My Goat?
West Simsbury (Google Maps Location)
June 22, 2008

Note: An incredible amount of search engine traffic comes here looking for “Flaming Farm.” This farm is not on fire.

At some point along this crazy CTMQ journey I decided to incorporate things like “petting zoos” and “educational farms.” For one, they are very much like museums in a way and two, pictures of Damian drives readership. And readership drives… Um… Readership drives really nothing other than people correcting my grammar and spelling. But there’s nothing like using my son, huh? Pictures of Damian with cute piglets and goatlets? I better alert my server host!

Living in the center of the state, we have the good fortune of being able to quickly decide that we want to go somewhere and then going. This time, I threw out the idea of Flamig Farm out in West Simsbury. This is the part of Simsbury that no one would ever believe is actually Simsbury, as it’s sort of west of Avon and Canton and really feels downright New Hartford-y. Granbyesque, if you will. And just a little bit funny – we passed Nimrod and Tootin Hill Roads. Those two roads both connect to John Peel Road. John Peel? The BBC Radio guy? Who knew he was a Nimrod with a flatulence problem.

What makes Flamig different from any other little farm place with animals to gawk at? A funny name? Yes – and I inquired via email and… “Flamig is a family name, although since the Flamigs only had girls, it has died out. but at least we have the farm name still!” But what else? Their website explains, Flamig Farm is “an educational resource farm serving the picturesque Farmington Valley Area since 1907.” Ooh, an “educational resource farm!” Cool. But how? I mean, what is your goal, Flamig Farm?

“Our goal is to provide a place where kids and adults alike can go to relax, play, and learn about the world we live in. We strive to better educate children and their parents in ways to live more harmoniously with the environment.” Impressive. So what did I (and Damian) think about the place?

Besides, that is, how cool it is to sit on an old tree stump?

Without the benefit of any of their educational programs, Flamig Farm is simply just a fun little place to check out some animals. Not that we were looking for anything more than that. All the usual suspects were there:

Wait, what? Yes, I found this goat to be my favorite animal at the farm. Apparently he had a little mountain goat in him, as he leapt from the edge of his straw pen to the roof of his little barn repeatedly, never missing a step. Check it out – here he is on top of the barn in front of an astonished Hoang and Damian:

Fortunately, my kid is as cautious as they come, so he didn’t get any ideas. He almost got some bad ideas when he trotted up to the goose pen:

He didn’t stick his fingers in and all was well. There’s more to Flamig Farm then just some dirty cooped up animals. There are some really big things going on there. Like, here we are in front of a really big horse:

And here we are, in front of a really, really big hog:

Not such a big hog, you say? Ahem:

My word. Anyway, Flamig Farm has a farm store and a large pavilion for parties and has an annual summer event called EggStock. This is a “day of music and fun in the fields. The music powered by a bio diesel generator.” Hmm, they could use some help in the marketing department. And I just noticed on their website that the large chicken barn has solar panels all over it, which is pretty cool.

But, it’s not really called EggStock because Flamig Farm spells the word “eggs” backwards. Everywhere. Like here, on a cart:

Now you’re thinking, “I see, so when I’m driving and look in my rearview mirror, it says EGGS.” But look again, the phone number is normal. But look here, at the giant barn with the solar panels:

I went back to my email and asked them about the unique signage. What I learned was one of those cool CTMQ things that makes me proud to write this blog… Because this information is not anywhere on their site that I could find: “It was originally designed as a ‘billboard’ to advertise our eggs, but the town of Simsbury makes you pay a tax on something like that.. so instead.. they put it backwards and called it a work of art.” 2020 Update: these days, this tidbit is fairly well know, but it wasn’t when I wrote this page, I swear.

Cool, huh? I thought so. There was nothing left to do there except relax and enjoy a drink:

Flamig Farm