Horse-powered Homesteaders

Gouldsboro, Maine

To some, gliding over new-fallen snow in a horse-drawn sleigh might seem like a wintertime fantasy — or a scene from a Courier & Ives print. To Darthia Farm, a 50 acre homestead and certified organic farm in Gouldsboro, Maine, it’s a way of life. Owned by Cindy and Bill Thayer, the farm grows a diverse assortment of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers while also tending to small flocks of chickens, turkeys, goats and sheep as well as a few beef cows and Haflinger work horses. With annual sales topping $75,000, their numerous farm-fresh and value-added food and fiber products are sold through their on-site Darthia Farm Store, mail-order catalog and, in the case of their packaged salad mix, to a local high-end restaurant in the summer.

“My granddaughter calls us ‘hippies,'” admits Cindy, whose creative talents encompass the fiber, culinary and literary arts. “Bill and I were both fed up with the bureaucracy of the teaching profession in Massachusetts and wanted to do something different, and more satisfying, on the land. So I guess we were part of that back-to-the-land movement in the mid-70s.”

From the very start, the ambitious couple needed to clear away brush and trees to begin cultivation of the wideassortment of vegetables, fruits and herbs that have been transformed into delectable food products concocted in their farmhouse kitchen. Interestingly enough, Cindy and Bill were, and still are, among the few so-called saltwater farmers, growing along the rugged coastline of Maine. Admits Cindy, “We were young back then, and could work the twelve to fourteen hour days to get the farm going.” Early on, they welcomed the help and assistance of the few remaining farmers in the area, some advising the couple on the finer points about slaughtering the chickens.

“We started out diversified, arriving to our present farm in 1976 with a couple goats, sheep, horses, and chickens,” explains Cindy. “We had a little bit of everything. Over time, we added more livestock, including turkeys and pigs, and expanding our gardens to provide fruits, vegetables and herbs to use in our preserves, jams, salsas and other food products.”

Since 1978, Darthia Farm has been certified organic by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association; in 2002, the farm received its Certified USDA Organic status. “The organic movement has grown enormously over the last couple decades,” observes Cindy. “Now, of course, it’s quite mainstream. People have become more interested in where their food comes from and who is growing or raising it. Parents, too, want to have their kids come to the farm to learn about what farming is and who we are.” In addition to several thousand visitors each year, every first grader on the Schoodic peninsula visits Darthia Farm to learn about farming.

To meet the growing demand for their organic products, and to staff their recently completed 240 square foot Darthia Farm Store and Hattie’s Shed (where all the wool products and fiber is sold), Darthia Farm employs one assistant manager and hosts four farm apprentices each year. About 40 percent of their sales are split between their new farm store and the mail order catalog, with the remaining 20 percent derived from a lucrative restaurant account. “Sales really took off after we completed the Farm Store in 1992,” shares Cindy.

Not withstanding Darthia Farm’s diversity of livestock and crops, the farm’s most sustaining and profitable income stream — about forty percent of all revenue — comes from Cindy and Bill’s certified organic food products, each attractively packaged in a wooden box, like gooseberry or currant jams, fruit vinegar, four kinds of mustard, herb jellies, or their best-selling rhubarb preserves or tomatillo salsa. Then there’s Darthia Farm’s sweet treats like Scottish shortbread or fruitcake, or braided garlic or holiday wreaths and centerpieces.

“I love to cook and make jams and jellies,” says Cindy. “I’ve tried out new recipes and often find myself developing new products because we have to do something with what we have in abundance.” Some recipes, like those for Darthia Farm’s mustards one year, might come from one of their farm apprentices. The rest come from Cindy’s test kitchen.

Added to the diversity of food products are various fiber products like indigo dyed yarn, made with indigo grown on the farm, and hand spun yarn, hats, hand knit sweaters, hand-woven rugs, coats and jackets — all made from handspun wool. Their fresh vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers account for another 40 percent of their farm income, followed by direct sales of their beef, turkey or lamb (10 percent), fiber products (7 percent) and other farm sales or tours, like their sleigh rides (3 percent).

“It’s hard to live and preserve in the same place,” smiles Cindy, when talking about her juggling act of operating her canning and jam-making business out of her farmhouse kitchen. “In 2003, we added a state inspected commercial kitchen off the existing house, with an eight burner stove and double bay sink,” she continues with a sigh of relief. To get a jump on their growing season, Darthia Farm has also added both a small greenhouse and hoop house to start seedlings.

While Darthia Farm purchased two tractors two years ago to allow Bill to grow and harvest their own hay rather than buying it from other farms, their operations still rely on three horses to spread manure, plow potato furrows and perform other chores. With the swelling number of visitors to the farm, interest in horse-drawn sleigh rides and wagon rides has also grown. “Our horse-drawn sleigh rides through the woods, with the bells jingling, then returning to the farm for some hot cocoa is quite well received,” shares Cindy.

It’s possible that the sense of diversity provided the literary impetus for Cindy’s novels, Strong for Potatoes, A Certain Slant of Light or A Brief Lunacy. Or perhaps it was just the peace and quiet of the farm. When asked if Darthia Farm is the setting for any of her novels, Cindy quickly replies: “No, they’re not like this place at all.” Then she adds, “But they do take place on the coast of Maine.”

“Being a diversified farm,” advises Cindy, “means that you won’t lose everything if a crop fails. This year, for example, we lost our onion crop, but it hardly impacted our operations, or bottom line. Our apprentices like our diversity because it gives them a chance to learn a little about everything. I like the diversity because it keeps things interesting.”

“On a healthy, diversified farm like ours, we’ve learned that everything fits together nicely,” continues Cindy, recognizing the interconnectedness of farm life and nature. “The turkeys eat old tomatoes and squash, the pigs eat our left-over mushy vegetables.” True saltwater farmers, her husband loves to make compost from “hydrosift,” or fish guts, collected from nearby fish processing operations. So their vegetables are even connected to the waters that break on the shorelines of Darthia Farm.