Farm Fair and the Future of Farming in Chelmsford
This weekend, Chelmsford’s Farm Fair brings us together to celebrate something that helped build this town. I hope it also gets us thinking about what we want to keep.
The Historical Society’s Farm Fair returns Saturday, September 19, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Barrett-Byam Homestead, 40 Byam Road. There will be animals, rides, familiar faces, and a chance to enjoy an afternoon together.
https://www.chelmhist.org/calendar.htm
The first Farm Fair took place in September 2005 during Chelmsford’s 350th anniversary celebration. Bernie Ready had spent years working with the Historical Society to make it happen. His idea was simple: celebrate our agricultural history and give our remaining farmers a chance to connect with the community. Parlee Farm, Jones Farm, and Lupien Orchards were among those involved that first year.
https://www.chelmsfordgov.com/CHCwebsite/PDF_files/Event_350Journal.pdf
Today, the fair has grown to include local organizations and businesses such as the Chelmsford Dog Association, Cooking Buckets Sugar House, and COSS. That wider community connection is a good thing. Farming has always depended on people supporting one another.
For me, Parlee’s Farm on Pine Hill Road remains one of the brightest parts of that story. It is a working farm and an important part of Chelmsford’s community. Its roughly 40 acres are only part of the picture, with additional land used for hay here and in neighboring towns. A UMass profile documents the farm’s 40 acres and long family history.
https://ag.umass.edu/sites/ag.umass.edu/files/interest-topic-pdfs/AgritourFinalREVforDistribut.pdf
There is still a farm stand, fresh produce, and the pleasure of picking your own tomatoes and blueberries. Flowers and sunflowers have become part of the mix, and some years there are Christmas trees. Farmers adapt. They pay attention to what people want and find new ways to keep going.
Smaller growers are carrying that tradition forward too. Cooking Buckets Sugar House is producing maple syrup, including through the maple plantation at Sunny Meadow.
https://chelmsfordoss.org/2026/01/09/waiting-to-greet-a-sap/
BitzNPeace Farm deserves recognition as well. Mike Raisbeck’s farming on Wotton Street is part of that local story. The farm supplies vegetables, eggs, honey, and maple syrup to the Greater Chelmsford area; sells at local farmers’ markets; and donates a substantial portion of its production to people in need. That is a farm giving back to its community and something worth supporting.
Wotton Street brings together farming and community gardens, with tomatoes and a small CSA also part of the picture. These are the kinds of growing spaces we should cherish. Farming does not have to be large to have a place in town.
But we are losing too much. We are down to a handful of familiar farms, and that is sad. We need to cherish and support what we have while making room for new farmers.
Jones Farm is gone. Sheehan’s fields remain in hay. Lupien is still there, but I miss the wider offerings, especially those apple pies. In 2025, we lost New Max Farm, and I also heard from a flower grower who could not secure a lease here and moved to a surrounding town. Growers from outside Chelmsford keep some of our land producing, but we have lost many of the farm families whose lives and businesses were rooted here.
I still miss the horse and cow by the high school. Instead of two animals, we have two condos. That is not what I hoped for.
Farming is hard work, and the financial return can be small. The land itself can be worth far more for development than a farmer can earn growing on it. That puts real pressure on families deciding whether they can keep going.
Affordable access to land matters. Essex County Greenbelt, for example, typically licenses its farmland to local farmers rent-free through renewable five-year agreements. That is a land trust rather than a town, but it shows one practical way to help keep land in production.
https://www.ecga.org/conservation/farmland/farming-greenbelt-land
Chelmsford has purchased former farms and protected them from development. I am glad we saved that land. But buying it brings a responsibility to care for what we have preserved and think carefully about what comes next.
At Warren-Pohl, the town documents farming by the Warren family dating to 1699, more than 300 years of agricultural history. Today, I see drainage ditches silting in and former hayfields moving toward wet meadow. The land remains, but its character is changing.
https://www.chelmsfordma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/12575/Warren-Pohl-Reservation_May-4-2020-Update
Red Wing and Koulas still retain that open farm-field character, even where active farming has ended. Keeping those landscapes takes work. I see invasive plants and bittersweet climbing trees and strangling native growth. At Red Wing, the orchard is struggling with what appears to be blight. We are working to help, but with the loss of the three families who cut the site for free, I worry about how long it will remain as we know it.
Sunny Meadow could be a place where we build the next chapter of farming in Chelmsford.
I want us to use it to welcome small new farmers with affordable leases and a chance to get established. Consolidating the growing areas into a single lease might simplify administration, but I worry about losing opportunities for the smaller growers we should be encouraging.
I also want education back as part of every agricultural lease. That could mean a farm walk, a planting demonstration, a visit with students, or a chance to learn how food is grown. Keep it practical and reasonable for the farmer, but make that connection with the community part of the agreement.
There are examples to learn from. Middleborough’s town-owned Soule Homestead combines farming, conservation, and public education. We should be looking at how those purposes can support one another here.
https://www.middleboroughma.gov/904/Soule-Homestead-Education-Center
Lowell has seen the loss of farming too, and the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project shows one way to help build it back. With roots in Lowell and a current training farm in Beverly, the program helps new farmers learn how to grow, run a farm business, find land, and get their produce to market.
They are doing the work, and I want Chelmsford to be part of it. We should explore partnering with New Entry or learning from its approach at Sunny Meadow. Give small growers affordable land, practical support, and a chance to get established, with education woven into the leases. We need to support the farmers we have and create opportunities for the next generation. This is the kind of future I want for farming in Chelmsford.
That is why the changes at Sunny Meadow concern me. Since 2025, I have watched it move toward more restricted use of a place that brought farming, gardening, walking, and community activities together. I am concerned about possible winter closures and restrictions on clearing the walking trails that were part of the original 2009 design. I want us to keep those connections alive.
With a new town manager, I hope we take a fresh look at what our farms mean to Chelmsford. Support the farmers we have. Give new growers a chance. Maintain the land. Help children understand what goes into growing their food.
Our town motto says, “Let the children guard what the sires have won.” I think our farmland and farming traditions deserve to be part of that promise.
https://www.chelmhist.org/media/GuardianAward.htm
Let’s hope that ten years from now, our remaining farms have not joined the list of places where “farm” survives on a sign, with “conservation land” or “development” added after it. Saving the land matters, but so does keeping farming alive. Every time we lose a working farm, we all lose something important.
That is why Farm Fair matters. It gives farmers and residents a chance to talk, make connections, and think about what we can preserve for the next generation.
Come enjoy the day. See the animals, take a ride, visit the community groups, and talk with the farmers. I hope Farm Fair becomes more than one day on the calendar: a commitment to cherish and support the farms we still have and keep some of the small-town elements that made Chelmsford a place I love.