Hanson's Farm

History:

Hanson’s farm has been a working farm since 1715, farmed for almost 200 years by the Child’s family, and was called grey rock farm after the granite ledge across the street from the present day farm stand. In 1908, Matthew Hanson got the opportunity to rent the fifty acre farm and loved it, finally purchasing it in 1913 after which it officially became Hanson’s farm. In the 1930's Mathew’s son Carl took over operations of the farm and ran it right through the 1950's as a diverse New England farm with some milk cows, orchard, and vegetables. Carl had 6 sons, 3 of whom stayed and built their houses on the farm. Carl’s  son Charles, who went to Stockbridge school of agriculture at the University of Massachusetts, took over from Carl in 1959, and the farm went solely to vegetables with a retail farm stand and a wholesale

Business that supplied the Boston wholesale market and eventually directly to chain stores such as Wonder Markets and Star Markets. In 1986, Charles’ son Tom took over, doing less wholesale, and concentrating on the farm stand and adding things such as upick, hayrides and other things.

To bring families to the farm, diversifying has helped to keep the farm going and such things as a horse boarding business, a haunted hayride, and starting in 2005, Tom with his son Matt started doing a cornmaze (we call it Tom and Matt’s excellent adventure). The same year, Tom’s wife Martha started doing farmers markets and that has grown to a big part of our farming operations.

In 2009 we started a CSA -or community supported agriculture where people buy a "share" of the harvest in advance of the season. Each year our CSA is expanding and we are learning new ways to make it run more smoothly.

Hanson’s farm continues to grow and adapt to the future while cherishing our past. With a large extended family involved in the farm, and vibrant community support, we look forward to the coming years