The Morey Hill Farm landscape is a mix of rolling pastures, diversified forest ecosystems, and cultivated fields of flowers, fruits and meats.
Since 1945, the landscape was used primarily to support a small dairy herd and a family homestead. A hill farm classic: small vegetable garden, making hay, building pasture fences, harvesting fire- and pulp-wood, and making maple syrup. After the herd was sold and folks were “getting done farming” the landscape sat idle for several years.
In the spring of 2013, the landscape began a very dynamic transformation. After years of removing old fencing, cleaning up and renovating historic buildings, constructing a new shop and place to live, the labor of love continues. Rocks that have been placed by glacial uplift have been pulled out the fields and now rest in stone walls under construction. Land that hadn’t been plowed for decades is now yielding harvests of all kinds. And so the next iteration of influencing the landscape continues.
After 20 years of experimenting with many different facets of agriculture on rented homesteads, the experiences coalesce on a more permanent canvas here in Craftsbury. The objective of implementing form and function to nourish and create a land-based livelihood holds strong. Today, the landscape is a mix of fruit and nut trees, flowering and fruiting shrubs, annual and perennial flowers, interspersed with veggies to round it out. Specialty cut flowers have become the farm’s primary focus, with hopes of larger fruit harvest in the near future. Besides attracting bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other insects, the blooms add a seasonal color palette to the everchanging landscape. Such diversity feeds the creative mind and stimulates the “mad scientist” within all of us.
