Newton & Whiting Farm

       Southborough, MA. Totally not haunted.

• Currently at the farm stand:
  • Eggs $6/dozen, $3/half dozen
  • Honey $5/jar or bear, both are 12 oz.
  • Wildflowers 3/$1
  • Vegetable plants in grow bags, $7/grow bag. Each grow bag contains at least one bush squash, patio size tomato, kale and cilantro, and they come pre-fertilized. You can put it in a container to make it look fancy if you want, but just water it and you’ll get plenty of veggies.
• Coming soon: Roses, mulberries, lettuce
• Coming later: Beans, snap peas, squash, cucumbers, cooking greens (kale, callaloo, goosefoot/lambsquarters), herbs, Halloween pumpkins, probably other stuff if the weather cooperates

About Newton-Whiting Farm:

The main house was built in 1719 by Ephraim Newton, and expanded 1830 – 1850 by Rufus & Elizabeth Whiting who also built the barn. The previous owner, Paul Bourdon, assured me that even though it has secret passages, creaky doors, a spooky well that looks exactly like The Ring, voices heard in other rooms and odd smells, it’s totally not haunted.

The eggs come from about 30 chickens at any given time: they eat a mix of soy and corn based layer feed from Ventura Grain in Taunton, freeze dried bug treats, garden weeds and veggie thinnings, my dinner leftovers, and mineral supplements. They freely waddle / flap / perch around their coop and fenced-in run and try to share the favorite nest box. Coyotes, foxes, fishers, ospreys, hawks, owls, eagles and stray pets are a big problem – while the chickens do have to be fenced in for their own safety, they have a lot of room to run, crow, dust bathe, and poop. I practice pretty strict biosecurity, which is why I still have eggs and chickens while the big producers are losing their flocks to H5N1.

The honey comes from two beehives at the moment and I will probably add more next year. The honey and pollen mix is all from local plants: maple and locust trees, jewelweed, garden flowers, fruit trees, multiflora rose, goldenrod, asters, phlox. I’ve had no luck with sugar-fed colonies in winter, I usually harvest in early spring when the honey left in the hive is no longer needed for winter survival, to improve the chances of the bees making it through winter and ensure they get enough nutrients.

There are 35 fruit trees which have good years and bad years, as well as a large potager-style vegetable garden: mulberries, peaches, raspberries, pawpaws, squash, salad greens, Jerusalem artichokes, cucumbers, kale, chard, amaranth, cilantro, beans and pumpkins do especially well here.

I keep cashmere and dairy goats, which are protected by livestock guardian dogs and a very anxious little Border Collie, as predators are a problem here. The goats can in fact get their heads untangled from the fence, no matter what they tell you, they just want attention and head rubs – please don’t feed them, they have sensitive stomachs. They eat a small fortune in hay and make up for it with fertilizer and weed whacking services, otherwise I’d drown in poison ivy and bittersweet vine. I’m originally from central PA, where my family has been raising dairy animals, chickens, fruit, vegetables, hemp and tobacco for over 300 years, and I had to re-learn everything about agriculture when I moved to Massachusetts.

No, I’m not on Facebook. I am on TikTok (@elceeelle), WhatsApp, BlueSky (@newton-whiting.bsky.social) WeChat and 小红书 though! I will post notifications about what’s available for sale on TikTok, BlueSky and 小红书, along with recipe suggestions and gardening tips.