ICYMI: Nourse Plans Farm Heritage Day In Westborough

WESTBOROUGH, MA—This town knows how to throw itself a birthday party. Westborough's businesses and organizations continue to celebrate the town's 300th with another amazing event.

Nourse Farm in Westborough hosts a Farm Heritage Day, coinciding with the strawberry season, on Saturday, June 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as one of the Town of Westborough 300th anniversary events. Since 1722, the Nourse family has been farming through eight generations, for 295 years, utilizing agricultural methods and technology that have marked the decades of farming in Massachusetts.

The purpose of the day is to “celebrate the Town’s farm heritage,” David Nourse, who has organized farm animal and equipment demonstrations that highlight traditional farming practices, said in a statement. The premier event will be an oxen-plowing demonstration, repeated throughout the day, with two teams of Brown Swiss and two teams of Lineback oxen. Participants will have an opportunity to view the oxen close-up and volunteers may try their hand at plowing a straight furrow.

From plowing to ice-block cutting to logging to dairy farming to fruit and vegetable production, Nourse Farm represents an agricultural heritage that is part of Westborough’s past, present and future. Today’s local food movement has created a surge of interest in buying local, fresh fruit and vegetables, and the farm is proud to showcase its past and present to the general public at Farm Heritage Day. In addition, the farm will be setting up an equipment display (including tractors), a farm animal petting zoo, including the newest calf, Brady, born to one of the Nourse Farm Herefords in late April and raised on bottle-fed milk.

Hay rides, draft horse harnessing, strawberry-picking and self-guided farm tours will round out the day’s activities. The short walkabouts will offer folks a chance to see fields of corn, the peach orchard, a raspberry field and other crops grown “behind-the-scenes” at the farm. One walk will take place at the top of the hillside, where on a clear day there is a view of Mt. Wachusett in the distance; the other walkabout will take place closer to the Farm Store.

In the greenhouse, where Nourse Farm grows all its vegetable plants from seed, one of the farm staff will be on hand to explain how plants are grown, and participants will have an opportunity to plant a seed or transplant an herb plant to take for their home gardens.

At the farm store, Jon, Marsha and Catherine Nourse, along with the staff, will be selling strawberry desserts, ice cream, fruit, vegetables, farm store products and some lunch items. The first strawberries of the season will be on the shelves that day, and as the weather permits, the pick-your-own fields may be opening that weekend. Visitors are welcome to bring along a family picnic.

On the back platform of the farm store, the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program will be on display for newcomers to see the “farmer’s market” style CSA unique to Nourse Farm. The farm store opens for the 2017 season on Friday, June 2nd.

The post-and-beam barn at Nourse Farm, historic in its own right, dates back to the Civil War period. The upper hay barn will be utilized for a continuously running, projected video program on Nourse Farm. Karen Nourse and her husband, Zachary, film artists in Manhattan, have produced short films at the farm for many years.

The Nourse family welcomes the entire community to visit the farm on its Heritage Day and savor the authenticity of the oldest farm in town, through its land, landscape, and farming commitment. Enjoy this free, fun, family day. For further information, contact Nourse Farm at 508-366-2644 and visit the website at www.noursefarm.com.

Information and photo via Nourse Farm