Hungry Bear Farm

About us

When Gene got laid off from his software job back in December of 2008, it was his third time seeing a pink slip since being honorably discharged from the US Air Force, so he started considering a career that would allow him to be self employed doing meaningful work.

As luck would have it, soon after being laid off, he ran into a woman who worked for the New Entry Sustainable Farmer Project, a group that was offering a free course designed to teach people about the business of farming. That summer, Gene took the course, started a summer job working for Farmer Dave Dumaresq at the Brox Farm in Dracut, MA, and he and his wife, Marilyn, put their Westford, MA house up for sale.

As soon as they moved into their new home in Wilton, NH, Gene started working the land. The farm got its name when a big black bear came to feast on a bird feeder that was left out by the previous owners. The Wilton property was not ideal farmland, so that winter Gene found a man in Milford who wanted someone to farm part of his land. For two years Gene developed and worked plots on the Milford land and began selling produce at two area farmers markets; one at a hospital in Keene and another market in Jaffrey.

Dreaming of having some good farmland of their own, Gene and Marilyn began to search for likely properties. Gene found the Mason land thanks to a Google map error that brought him to the corner of Reed and Marcel roads instead of another listed property that he had set out to see. What he saw when he arrived at that corner was a beautiful, hay-covered field that seemed to have great potential and had a small sign posted on a big pine tree that said “For Sale by Owner”. When he called the number on the sign, he found out that the field had been “de-rocked” in the 70’s and covered in hay ever since. He also learned that a neighbor would generously let the farm use their water. A soil test revealed that the field contained Marlow loam, some of the regions’ best soil.