A Family Legacy Rooted in the Land
Our farm consists of about 200 acres in Concord and Sudbury. One hundred acres are prime farmland, and one hundred acres are wildlife habitats, woodlands, and wetlands.
The Original Dairy Farm
Steve’s father and mother moved to Concord in 1918 and started a successful dairy business. Floyd and Amy Verrill bought 30 cattle that arrived by rail from a farm in Vermont, and together they walked the herd from Concord Center to their farm. This marked the beginning of a dairy business that thrived until the 1950s, when pasteurization and better cooling gave milk a longer shelf life, allowing large supermarkets to sell it at a lower price.
Transitioning to Agriculture
In 1957, Steve graduated from Cornell University with a degree in agricultural economics and took over the farming operation with his wife, Joan. In 1982, after years of planning and negotiations, about 200 acres were placed under an Agricultural Preservation Restriction, thus preventing development of the land. This long-term commitment gave sharper focus to our agricultural enterprises.
In 1990, with mounting pressure on the dairy business, Steve and Joan decided to sell their dairy herd. They spent the next several years planting vegetable crops to sell at local farmers markets, which were just being introduced into the area. At the same time, the family opened a small pick-your-own operation at the current site of their roadside tent on Wheeler Road.
After graduating from UMass, Steve and Joan’s daughter, Jennifer, began working in the restaurant business, where she developed her interest in cooking and baking. Upon returning to the family farm, a small bakery was built in the milking parlor, where the first of many Verrill Farm pies would be baked.
After growing tired of making many trips to farmers markets and outgrowing the confines of the roadside tent, plans were drawn up for a new farmstand, which was built in 1995. This included a small commercial kitchen, where Jen and just a few employees began baking and making prepared meals—the first farmstand to do so in the area. After a fire destroyed the original farmstand in 2008, a new one opened in 2009 and was expanded in 2016.
Verrill Farm Today
Today, Jen Verrill Fadoul, her husband, Tim, and their daughters, Chloe and Grace, have joined Joan and Steve in carrying the family’s legacy forward. Currently, over 40 crops are grown on over 100 acres of land, and the farmstand is known for its New England specialty foods, fresh seasonal produce, fresh flowers and gifts, homemade baked goods and prepared foods, and year-round family events, including cooking classes, farm-to-table dinners, and festivals.