Welcome to Broadfork. We are a small diversified family farm and homestead in the hills of Greensboro, Vermont, practicing restorative agriculture, low-till gardening, and season extension. We raise cows and goats for dairy and meat, pigs, chickens for eggs and meat, and bees for pollination, beeswax, and honey. And we teach skills that promote sustainable growing and food independence.
When you visit our farmstead, you’ll notice a lot of diversity, and a lot of creativity and experimentation. We know that diversity leads to resilience, and the loss of one crop doesn’t mean disaster, and nobody goes hungry, because there’s always plenty more to eat. To us, that abundance is the greatest wealth. We also believe in low-waste, closed-loop systems. We minimize imported amendments, and rely as much as possible on returning native nutrients to the soil. It’s a beautiful ecosystem, with each animal and plant creating a web of growth and fertility. We believe in building the soil ecosystem, not destroying it, so most of our work is done with hand tools like our trusted broadfork.
We offer seasonal farm products, honey and beeswax, eggs, pastured chicken and pork, lard, and the occasional piglets, chicks or goat kids. We really like baking bread and making pickles and preserves, so those are almost always available on bake days or by special order.
We also offer homesteading workshops and classes to help reskill folks in the forgotten arts. Some topics include food preservation, soap making, small-scale poultry processing, dairy and cheese making, fermentation, composting, gardening and season extension. Many others are available upon request, and we’ll occasionally open up an activity we have scheduled, like compost building, or hoof inspection and trimming, for folks to come and learn. If we know how to do it, we’d be happy to set up a workshop to teach you how, too.
The farm stand is open daily from May to October, and year round by appointment or by chance. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood, or send us an email for more information.
Broadfork is a Vermont LC3 (Low-profit Limited Liability Company). Our mission is to promote small-scale, local, sustainable food systems, build skills that support food independence, and increase food equity across the region. In addition to providing free access to skills and education, a portion of our profits and products help support local charities.
Meet Your Farmer!
Carol Fairbank is a first generation farmer, cultivating her family farm and homestead in the hills of Greensboro, Vermont. She’s had a livelong love for farming and the homesteading arts, but growing up in a busy Boston suburb, she got a late start on her journey. She began considering herself a farmer in 2007, when she bought her first rural property in Massachusetts. She spent 10 years there, honing her growing skills, learning to raise her own livestock for meat and eggs, and waiting for the fruit trees to finally produce.
In the summer of 2014, she moved to a primitive seasonal summer cottage in Greensboro, with her family and all her livestock in tow. She jokes that her animals had good lodging, and the fruit trees were planted before she had an indoor shower. The intervening years have seen many updates to the property, including outbuildings, a proper well and septic system, and a grid-tied solar array. Learning to manage a very short, cold growing season has presented new challenges, and it’s always exciting when the gardens produce something delectable, like a perfect, glossy eggplant, or a French melon at peak sweetness. She’s still waiting for the fruit trees to produce.
When she’s not looking after the farm, you can find her looking after her corner of the Northeast Kingdom, and creating vibrancy and vitality however she can. She dedicates much of her time to working with local non-profits and town government, either working in the field, or serving on boards and committees. She has a passion for projects that empower communities, and her work has made an impact in the areas of arts integration, inclusion and diversity, economic growth, accessible high-speed internet connectivity, and ecological sustainability.