After 378 Years in the Family, Farm for Sale

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Aug 2nd 2010 @ 3:00PM

Lucy and Will Tuttle. Photo: Jim Cole / AP Photo

Eleven generations of Tuttles have worked the land at the family farm in Dover, N.H., but this generation may be the last.

The family has put the 378-year-old farm on the market, CNN reported.

"We've been here for 40 years, doing what we love to do," Lucy Tuttle, 65, told the Associated Press . "But we're not able to work to our full capacity any longer, unfortunately." She runs the 134-acre farm with her brother Will, 63.

The farm, started in 1632, grows sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. It was listed last Tuesday for $3.35 million, the AP reported. The farm carries a deed restriction stating that as conservation land, it cannot be developed into strip malls or a housing development.

"We've been here for 40 years, doing what we love to do," Lucy Tuttle, told the AP. "But we're not able to work to our full capacity any longer, unfortunately." She and her brother both left the farm and had careers outside New Hampshire before returning to take over the business.

Despite family ties and a love of the land, the Tuttles are tired of working the long days needed to run a farm and trying to compete with local supermarkets, which can often undercut even their wholesale prices. They discouraged their own children from taking over, Lucy Tuttle told the AP.

"We would be saddling them with a considerable amount of debt," she said.

While it's on the market, the Tuttles will continue to run the farm and grow and sell produce. "The farm is operating until we find a buyer who loves this land almost as much as we do," Will Tuttle told the AP.

"This is not going to sell in one day," he told CNN. "Its may take a long time to sell it. We're prepared to battle it out until that time and spend what's left of our energy, so I can keep this place as vital as it can be."

Filed Under: Farming
Tags: farms, featured, tuttle family farm, tuttle farm, TuttleFamilyFarm, TuttleFarm