"End of a 378-year era; Nation’s oldest running family farm put on market in N.H." by Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | July 27, 2010
DOVER, N.H. — Like generations of Tuttles before him, Will Tuttle has spent his life on the family farm, working its tree-lined acres from seed to harvest. He learned by the side of his father and grandfather and, like them, chose to make his living off the land.
But after years of toil and dwindling demand for the crops he produced, the thick-armed 63-year-old has decided the family legacy will end with him. His landmark property — passed from father to son since 1632 and billed as the country’s oldest continually operating family farm — is up for sale.
Yesterday, as he looked over a rolling field that could be in a brochure for local, sustainable agriculture, Tuttle said that like many small farms, his had probably seen its best days.
“This is a different business now,’’ he said. “Farming at any level is a labor of love, but now the future is so uncertain. Looking forward, I don’t see much opportunity for small farms to thrive. It’s a tough grind.’’
Few of us are so lucky in this world.
That reality is behind the disappearance of farms and farmland in New England and beyond....
Yeah, the reality of $$$!!!
Massachusetts has lost 24 percent of its prime farmland since 1982, more than all but four states....
The farm was turning a small profit until the recession, the Tuttles said. But in the past three years, as families looked for ways to pare spending, business has faltered....
Founded by English settler John Tuttle, who arrived in the New World with a land grant from King Charles II, the farm grew into an institution.
Local residents looked forward to picking season for months, and tourists went miles out of their way for a visit. Even actor Robert De Niro was known to stop in now and again....
Even though she did not grow up on the farm, Michelle Tuttle has grown to love it and cried when her husband told her he thought they should sell it.
Will Tuttle is decidedly less nostaglic, even when mulling the end of a family enterprise born more than a century before the country itself. With the economy and the changing landscape of the small-farming industry, it was time, he said.
“Fifty-seven years is enough,’’ he said, noting that he was just 6 when he began helping out his grandfather. “And I didn’t want this to become a burden.’’
The Tuttles own a home next door to the farm and plan to move there when the sale goes through. After years of backbreaking work, that view will be perfect, he said. And thanks to the conservation restriction, the land, a lovely vista of fields and woods, will remain largely unchanged.
“It’s not going anywhere,’’ he said. “It will always stay beautiful, open land, and will always be a piece of land with every square inch of my sweat on it.’’
Still, when Tuttle considers life without the farm, he grows wistful, if only for a moment....
Not easy to give up a way of life, is it?
