In 1935, Karl Friedrich Franz Milde and his wife Majorie, living in New York City, decided to find a home in the country within 100 miles of Manhattan.  They found the Sedgwich property, a former farm, for sale in Litchfield, Connecticut, fell in love with it, and purchased it.  Soon after, they purchased an abutting parcel of land bordering the Bantam River.  In late 1935, the Mildes acquired from the town of Litchfield their town farm.  Thus was born Litchfield Farms.

Karl Milde looked upon land as a stewardship and that there was a responsibility in ownership to improve the land for later generations.  Although an attorney by profession, Mr. Milde was able to forsee the importance of conservation and reforestation in the 1930’s long before it became a fashionable and popular issue.

Today we can see his love for trees in the thousands of Douglas Fir all of which were planted by hand and in the black walnut trees lining many of the fields.