Oct 12, 2018

Nourse Farms doubles greenhouse space in Massachusetts

A new chapter is about to begin for the greenhouses at Five Acre Farm in Northfield, Massachusetts, as its sale to Nourse Farms in Whately has been completed.

According to a story in the Greenfield Recorder, Tim and Mary Nourse paid $1,050,000 for the 2.3 acres that double their greenhouse space. Those greenhouses will be used to grow strawberry, raspberry and blackberry plants.

The property was sold by Karen Randall of Randall’s Farm in Ludlow, the executor and trustee of the will of her brother, William Randall, who until his death in 2007 had owned the Northfield farm on Hinsdale Road since 1979.

Tim Nourse, who turns 80 in December, said his farm needs more space to grow plants. The farm was founded in Andover in 1932 by Roger Lewis and sold to the Nourse family and moved to Whately in 1968. The Nourses planted their first crops the following year. The farming operations now encompass 400 acres in Whately, Hatfield and Montague.

Nourse Farms employs roughly 100 people, including at least four full-timers from Five Acre Farm who will remain in Northfield. More people may be hired, depending on how well production goes. Raspberries, currants and gooseberries, blueberries, asparagus, rhubarb and horseradish are picked at the Whately site and shipped to every state in the country, as well as to Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Poland. At least 20 million plants a year are shipped from the farm every year.

For more on the story, visit here.