Established nearly one hundred years prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Ridge Hill Farm in Boxborough, Massachusetts may be the oldest, continuously operating farm within the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area.

Within its soil, this farm holds the stories of hard-working immigrants, the trials of establishing a new country, and a multi-generational love for working the land. From hops, to dairy and apples, to Black Angus beef cattle, fifteen generations of the same family have adapted over the centuries to ensure the viability and success of their farming legacy.

Although descendants of Zebediah Wheeler have farmed the land known today as Ridge Hill Farm since 1682, records suggest that Wheeler’s father purchased the property from the Nipmuc people nearly half a century earlier for 20 bushels of maize. The farm was named for the 2.5-mile-long and 45-foot-high esker, a long ridge of gravel deposited by a melting glacier, that was located within the property boundaries but has since been protected as open space within the Boxborough Conservation Trust‘s Beaver Brook Valley Preserve.

Originally more than 300-acres in size, the farm primarily grew hops and beans, as well as grapes for winemaking, during the first hundred or so years of operation. The growing of hops was a specialty on many Boxborough farms in the early 19th Century when the town was reputed to be the largest hop-growing community of its size in New England.

By the late 18th Century, Ridge Hill Farm transitioned to raising dairy cows and later generations planted an orchard of apples. In 1974, the current owner, Donald C. Morse, a descendant of Zebediah Wheeler, purchased the farm and began a decades-long mission to adjust its direction and develop a strategic business plan to ensure the property’s longevity. One of the first things he did was to remove the apple orchard as the farm lacked the cold storage necessary to efficiently produce and sell apples at a profitable scale.

Over the centuries, Ridge Hill Farm has been reduced to a fraction of its former size, having lost a significant amount of land by eminent domain when Interstate 495 was constructed in the 1960s. Don and his wife, with the help and support of their children and grandchildren, farm the remaining 80 acres for haymaking and grazing beef cattle. The family has spent years developing and perfecting their breeding program for Black Angus, resulting in a superior product that is available for purchase via their website or at numerous farmers markets throughout the Heritage Area.