BUSINESS
FARM fresh EXPERIENCES BY SOPHIE NELSON | PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRETA RYBUS
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n a Friday afternoon in October, at a place called Toddy Pond Farm down a long dirt road in Monroe, Maine, a four-year-old boy named Ethan cannot wait to meet some pigs. His excitement lifts him up on his toes. “Can I also see cows?” he pleads with the farm’s owners, starting to hop. Heide Purinton-Brown, who co-owns Toddy Pond Farm with her husband, Greg Purinton-Brown, laughs and nods. “C’mon,” Heide says, turning toward the barns and pastures. Ethan, his parents, and his younger brother follow along. The family is spending a long weekend at the Toddy Pond Farm Cottage and this—the opportunity to join Heide and Greg on a round of afternoon chores—is part of the package. When Heide and Greg established Toddy Pond Farm in 2012, the property included the guest cottage (“house” is probably more apt—it’s big, warm, and well-built). Offering farmstays made sense; they
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had the infrastructure in place, as well as a desire to educate people about life on a small, diversified family farm and microdairy and how it feels to eat “food you can feel good about.” The cottage is perched on a ridge overlooking a winding dirt path, rolling hills, and the pond that gives the farm its name. Guests also enjoy private access to Toddy Pond, hiking trails, and a peek into life on a working farm. It turns out that a peek into life on a working farm is an experience more and more people are looking for. Maine farmers—and farmers across the country—are taking note and expanding into agritourism, trying everything from onsite farm cafes to pick-your-own berry patches to farmstays. (The term farmstay is somewhat of a catchall; a farmstay can range from experiences where guests work in exchange for accommodations to leisurely, bed-and breakfast-style vacations in bucolic settings.) Between
Pitching in on afternoon chores and meeting the rambunctious goats and other animals is part of the package for guests who stay overnight on Heide and Greg Purinton-Brown’s (pictured left) Toddy Pond Farm.
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