Farmer from Ledyard, Connecticut wins award

Aug 17, 2015

Allyson Angelini owns Full Heart Farm

A farmer from Ledyard, Connecticut received the 2015 Emerging Leader of the Year award from the eWomenNetwork at their 15^th Annual International Conference and Business Expo, held this year in Dallas, Texas.

Allyson Angelini, the 27-year-old owner of Full Heart Farm, won the award based on her passion for feeding her community, the 10 years of experience, the time she’s spent using innovative farming techniques and helping people realize that hard work and dedication can help dreams come true.

The six-acre farm, which she purchased in 2012 using a USDA Farm Service Agency loan for beginning farmers, operates a meal-based MemberShare program that allows more than 50 families to visit the farm each week and take home upwards of $30 worth of fresh vegetables, pork, chicken, eggs and herbs.

During her thank you speech in front of thousands of women, she said that she’s a farmer and not used to receiving any kind of accolades. She said the opportunity to do something more than simply feeding animals and growing vegetables.

Angelini was one of eight finalists from over 200 international submissions. The award is given to women between 22 and 29 who demonstrate a drive and passion for academics, entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

2015 has been an impressive year for Angelini as in February she was named to Connecticut Magazine’s 40 Under 40 – a list showcasing 40 people, under the age of 40, making a difference in their communities.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.