LYME—Roughly 600 riders per year, bringing in about $65,000 annually for the Lyme Land Trust, have started out from Ashlawn Farm on Bill Hill Road for more than a decade as part of the perennially bucolic Tour de Lyme.
Now, the family farm is bringing its popular coffee roasting operations back home as the land trust seeks out a change of scenery for the bike riding tradition.
Those at the 13th Tour de Lyme, held last weekend, were the last to cycle and celebrate on the farm.
Land Trust Executive Director Kristina White in a phone interview this week said the farm has donated the space to the Tour de Lyme at no charge for a dozen years.
White described the arrangement as a large undertaking for the landowners, who coordinated mowing and haying operations to make room for hundreds of cars in preparation for the event that would take over their property for a full weekend.
“The land trust really appreciates what they’ve done for us, because the Tour de Lyme would not have been what it was if Ashlawn Farm wasn’t there,” she said.
Carol Adams, co-owner of the farm with husband Bill Donovan, said in an email that the family will continue to enjoy their hobby animals and gardens while allowing another farm to use some of the fields and outbuildings. Meanwhile, they are turning the barn where Ashlawn Farm Coffee was born and brewed in 2002 into an updated roastery.
The coffee business since 2013 has operated out of a cafe near the Old Saybrook train station. That’s also where they roast beans sourced from farms all over the world.
As the small business outgrew the space, Adams said it was natural to look back to their own rural roots. “We are so lucky to have the space, and we have reached the point where we need to use it,” she said.
The cafe will continue to operate in Old Saybrook.
Adams credited Lyme officials with their support throughout the approval process to renovate the roastery space. “And then we can spread out, scale up our supply purchases, enjoy a brewing/tasting/cupping lab, soak in the farm vibes and hopefully invite the public to our facility on occasion,” she said.
A video posted on the business’s Facebook page shows the couple’s progress in adding septic capacity, running water, a coffee lab, storage and office space, and improved flow for shipping and receiving.
White, the land trust director, said she’s “not even close” to ironing out all the details or announcing a new site – but she has a plan.
“We will stay in Lyme, obviously,” she said.
With a new base will come altered routes for road offerings ranging from a challenging 59 miles to a family-friendly 8 miles.
“We’ve been in the same place for 12 years, so having a new location just means it will be exciting for the riders to come to a new place,” she said. “Some of the rides will be different, so we might be able to attract some of the riders who probably didn’t come because they had done it so many years in a row.”
Two mountain bike routes take riders on a trek through Hartman Park, Walbridge Woodlands and Young preserves as well as the Nehantic State Forest.
White described cycling as a natural outlet to help support the land trust, which has been around since 1966.
The event serves as the group’s only fundraiser. Proceeds go toward stewardship, preservation and operating costs, according to White.
She recalled a rider who told her it was remarkable he’d passed through eight preserves on his ride. The land trust and its partners are responsible for preserving over 12,000 acres in a town where more than half its land mass is protected from development.
White said riders wind past forests, farms and stone walls on roads with relatively little traffic. “When you’re on a bicycle, because you’re going so much slower than a car, you can see what we’re doing in a very clear way,” she said of the organization’s mission.
Adams noted the event draws riders “from seemingly everywhere” to the small town that Ashlawn Farm is proud to support.
“We were thrilled to be able to offer up the farm as a launching and landing pad for all those years,” she said.
