Jeff Bennett's Blog

Verrill Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, has been a wonderful source of vegetables, fruit, gourmet food, Pumpkins, Hay Rides, Bar-B-Q’s and great memories for generations. Verrill Farm is also the purveyor of fresh vegetables for many of the great restaurants in the Boston area that include: Craigie Street Bistro, Radius, Il Capriccio, Jasper White’s Summer Shack, Harvest, La Campagne, Hamersley\’s Bistro, and many more. This past Saturday the Verrill Farm stand was ravaged by fire.

It is the height of the harvest season and the Verrill Farm has endeavored to continue working the fields, opening a temporary stand for retail sales, continuing to work with the restaurants and even working plans to host a Bar-B-Q Thursday evening. This activity and revival is great news to all of residents of the towns to the west of Boston and the restaurants who have come to rely on the high quality food that the Verrill Farm is known for.

Verrill Farm is much more than a farm to all of us. Members of the Verrill Farm have been operating a farm since 1918. Today Verrill Farm is operated as a partnership between Stephen and Joan Verrill and daughter Jennifer Verrill Faddoul. One hundred acres are prime farmland and 100 acres are wildlife habitats, woodlands, and wetlands. The Verrill’s have worked the land diligently and also managed their land with generous foresight. In 1982, after years of planning and negotiations, about 200 acres were placed under an Agricultural Preservation Restriction, thus preventing development of this land. This long term commitment gave sharper focus to our agricultural enterprises. This is a marvelous gift that the Verrill family have bestowed upon it’s neighbors for generations to come in Concord, Sudbury and Lincoln.

In this day of hectic comings and goings some of our staples for industry, production and farming are forgotten or taken for granted. It is wonderful to see the outpouring of support and concern for the Verrill’s and the institution and rightful place this farm has in our communities. In this time there are two things that we can all do to help. One is continuing to frequent Verrill Farm and buy your vegetables and fruits from the temporary stand. The second if you are so inclined is to contribute to the rebuilding of the stand and a special account has been set up for this, The Verrill Farmstand Fund, at the Middlesex Savings Bank, 1208 Main Street, West Concord, MA 01742.

You can also keep track of the Verrill’s plans and gain updates to their progress by visiting the Verrill Farm Blog.

Viva Verrill Farm!