From Classroom and Stage to Fields in Bloom: Meet Sunset Farm
There’s a certain kind of person who looks at a blank field and sees possibility. For Kaitlyn Kimball and Lawrence Passeck, the founders of Sunset Farm, that instinct runs deep — even if it took a few detours to get there.
Before they were farmers, Lawrence spent over fifteen years building sets for Broadway productions, and Kaitlyn taught high school English for more than a decade. Both careers required creativity, patience, and a commitment to showing up every day for something bigger than yourself. It turns out those are pretty good qualifications for farming, too.
Kaitlyn and Lawrence founded Sunset Farm in 2018, starting with 4 acres in Naugatuck dedicated to vegetables and flowers. Since then, the operation has grown considerably.
They now lease an additional 15-acre parcel in Milford, where they grow over 100 varieties of vegetables and fruit, along with flowers and value-added products like marinara sauce, salsa, and pickles made from what they grow.
Both are first-generation farmers, and they’ll tell you that the seed was planted long before 2018 — in their grandparents’ gardens, where a love of food and growing things quietly took root.
Rooted in Community
What makes Sunset Farm stand out isn’t just the breadth of what they grow — it’s how deeply embedded they are in the communities they serve. Kaitlyn serves as Director of Agriculture for CitySeed, a New Haven-based nonprofit, and sits on the board of CT NOFA (the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut) and the state’s Farmland Preservation Advisory Board. Both Kaitlyn and Lawrence hold elected positions in Naugatuck’s local government. Farming, for them, is civic life.
That philosophy shows up in where their food goes, too. You can find Sunset Farm products at their farmstand in Milford, at the Monroe, Ridgefield, Naugatuck, and CitySeed Edgewood Park Farmers’ Markets, on shelves at New Morning Market in Woodbury, and on the lunch trays of Naugatuck schoolchildren. Local restaurants including The Farm Belly, Sanctuary Kitchen, Union League Café, and Mantras Market also carry their produce.
Kaitlyn and Lawrence are committed to organic practices and transparent about how they manage their land. They believe — firmly — that access to fresh, healthy food is a human right. That conviction isn’t a marketing line. It shapes every decision they make about where their food goes and who gets to eat it.
If you haven’t visited Sunset Farm yet, this season is a great time to start.
Learn more at sunsetfarmct.com or follow them on Instagram @sunsetfarmct.
