Welcome to Autumn Harvest Farm!
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Ray and Suzanne
LeBlanc bought their home and 95 acres of old farm land- now
mostly wooded in 1999. We spent 2 years part time cleaning and
finishing the house and grounds. Then moved here full time, from
southern NH, in 2001, supposedly to “retire”. Not ones to be
idle and both of us coming from farming backgrounds we began
with a garden, a few chickens for eggs, and a pig. In 2002 we
decided to get involved in 2 local Farmers Markets and things
have steadily grown from there. We have reclaimed about 5 acres
of fairly good garden area and are working on more. We also
lease some land in Springfield bringing our total acreage
cultivated to about 8.
We grow all our veggies and berries organically, though not certified, as we don’t feel the government needs or has done a good job at regulating our food supply. Sweet Corn being the exception, we do spray for corn borer and earworms, and for this we use Sevin, ‘an over the counter’ type pesticide. We grow our corn on the leased land so our farm crops are never in jeopardy of drift from spray. If you get to know your local farmer and how they grow there foods it should mean more to you than any government certification would.
As part of our sustainable diversified farm we raise animals, both for the meat and their additions to the compost pile! We try to keep 3-4 hives of honey bees, for pollination and for the great tasting honey we get!! We usually end up replacing at least one each year, but it is still worth the time & money. It is becoming an increasingly difficult task to keep them alive, as things we don’t understand seem to be affecting hives all over the world. Honey bees are enjoyable to watch, provide for interesting learning and show us what is going on in nature. We have a heated greenhouse for spring starts.
Last year we added a
High Tunnel for non-heated season extension. It never got
covered so this year will be the first season it goes into use.
We plan on it being overflow area for spring plants, protected
growing area for summer tomatoes, and then for experimental
growing area for season extension of mesclun, spinach, radishes,
baby carrots, and snap peas. We want to try growing these in our
SmartGro Towers to allow us to utilize our space to the max.
Last season we grew strawberries in the Towers. They were a
great success. We grew 720 plants in 3 rows of Towers in
an area about 15’ x 24’.
We’d like to add more berries this year and also try
other outside crops in them so we can better utilize our small
space and even use poorer growing areas to produce excellent
crops. We love to experiment with ideas, new crops and are
looking forward to achieving our goal of a 4 season farm in NH,
a place where you can get local all the time if you learn to eat
with the seasons! In April 2007 we went one step closer to this
goal by opening a year round Farm Stand.
We offer local products not only of our own but other farms in NH and VT. We have many types of cheeses and other dairy items, milk from McNamara Dairy in Plainfield, meats of all types, conventional and farm raised game, NH made soda, Wine and Hard Cider. Organic VT coffees, and are looking to add more as we find it or by your request.
Included
in the Farm Stand is our licensed commercial kitchen where
we bake breads, pies, muffins etc. and where we do all our
preserving. We also included the Quilt Studio where Suzanne does
Long Arm Machine Quilting, helping others finish their works of
art. We sell several weights of batting to go in your quilts and
have a wide selection of extra wide backing fabrics. For the
Long Arm we have over 60 choices of pantograph patterns to
choose from and we can also do freehand or custom work. Lead
time to get your quilt done is usually about 2 weeks, except
maybe in the heart of summer. See our Quilting Page for all the
details.
Autumn Harvest Farm
77 Johnson Lane, Grafton, NH 03240
Phone: 603-632-9144 E-mail:
info@autumnharvestfarm.com