White Barn Farm in Wrentham Caught in Grow Local Movement

The grow local movement has sprung all over the country and a farm in Wrentham is thriving on it.

Christy and Chris Kantlehner started the White Barn Farm about five years ago. Christy said the property first came into her family in the late 1860s, when her great great grandfather bought it returning from the civil war. She said at the time, the garden and farmland was used more for subsistence than profit.

“It wasn’t commercially farmed,” she said. “The family-owned the property before there were cars, and we’ve found some old wagons and horse-drawn farming equipment. I think they needed hay to feed the horses. My great grandfather also sold eggs as the Wampum Egg Ranch on the train to Boston, but he was primiarly a minister and a teacher.”

Christy said they started commercially growing in 2008, and she said going out to make a profit wasn’t their initial intention.

“Most of it had to do with maintaining open spaces and keeping this place in the family,” she said. “It’s just been in the family for so long.”

She said though she wanted to keep the property in the family, she didn’t think of starting the farm until she started getting interested in the sustainability and grow local movements in college.

“I was studying the global sustainable development movement,” she said. “We need people to start growing their own agriculture. Our family has a piece of land that’s perfect farm land, and I though I could try to start a small sustainable farm.”

She said she met her husband, Chris, a little after starting the farm. Chris said before that he was in college in Vermont, but was doing some work of his own on the side.

“I got interested in farming at the Green Mountain College in Vermont,” he said. “I usually worked on farms and lived on some during the summer.”

The couple said they had both gotten into local agriculture because of reading Michael Pollan and Wendell Berry.

“They were the big authors I was reading in college that got me excited about agrarian lifestyle,” he said.

The couple said while they do not have an official organic designation, they use all natural methods of pest control and fertilization.

“It just hasn’t been as important to us to certify,” Christy said. “I would like to just so we can say in one word that we’re an organic farm. Paperwork is the major holdup.”

They said they use organic potting soil, cultural practices of sustainability to prevent weeds and pests, which uses a floating row cover that excludes insects, among other natural methods. They said they do not use chemical pesticides and herbicides.

Chris said the support from the community has been outstanding so far.

“We’ve had a huge following since we’ve opened,” he said. “Every year, it seems more and more people are getting in tune with what we’re doing.”

Christy said the locally grown market is growing in suburban areas like Wrentham.

“There’s not that many suburban farms, and the huge advantage is that the market is there for them,” she said. “Everyone around you wants to eat good food, but most people are so busy they don’t have their own gardens, compared to rural areas where the land is cheap but there’s not enough population for a market and they have to ship it out. We have expensive land, but a really great market.”

Chris added their customers basically hear about them through only word of mouth.

“We’re not the best at advertising,” he said. “It’s pretty much just word of mouth. We provide people with an experience and something that’s really honest.”

Chris said it’s not just about the business, but expanding the movement of locally-grown food.

“There’s never enough farm land, so we want other people to look at this place and say if these guys can do it, we can do it,” he said.

The farm stand across the street from the property is packed most Saturdays. The couple also sells their foods to restaurants in the area, including Tastings Wine Bar and Bistro in Foxborough and many places in Providence like Nick’s on Broadway. Chez Pascal and the Cook and Brown Public House.

The farm stand is located on 458 South St. and is open in May every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Starting in June they will be open Tuesday to Friday 2-7 p.m. and their regular Saturday hours.