Food and Fiber

Eaton has thin soils and many rocks, thus is not well suited for large scale agriculture. Nevertheless, there are several commercial operations and many small scale efforts in raising animals and growing crops. These serve an important conservation goal by maintaining open grassland habitat.

The commercial growers include:

(a) Berry Knoll, off the Brownfield Road near the Maine border, presenting large fields of high bush blueberries, raspberries, currants, honey, maple syrup and a huge variety of day lilies;  

(b) Uplands Apple Farm, on Towle Hill Road, featuring over 25 varieties of apples, some for eating or apple champagne, but most are turned into cider by the community in late October and sold to benefit local charities;

(c) Hebert Microgreens (sprouts), situated in a greenhouse off Route 153 on Eaton’s northern border with Conway-- sold in many local stores including our own Eaton Village Store;

(d) Littlefield Farm and Store on Route 153 just north of the King Pine Ski Center, selling their own and locally grown organic fruits, vegetables, beef, pork, eggs, breads, baked goods and preserves.

(e) Foss Mountain Farm on Foss Mountain Road raising rag doll cats and alpacas for wool and wool products such as socks and hats.

(f) Thoms Farm on Youngs Road raising beef cattle for local consumption

(g) Snowbrook Farm selling their own eggs, lamb, pork, rabbit, and turkey

Small scale producers include:

(a) Primarily family operations which produce food for themselves, their extended families or for selling in season to locals through CSAs, stores and farm markets. Food products which are available almost every year include:  blueberries, blueberry preserves, vegetables, apples, peaches, raspberries, wool, lambs and mutton, beef cows, pigs, chickens, eggs, maple syrup, honey and apple cider.

(b) Fiber production includes several large fields  harvested for alfalfa and hay and grazing of sheep for wool; many residents have private pastures for horses. 

Being heavily forested, the town of Eaton and private land owners harvest a good bit of timber each year, which goes into dimensional lumber, firewood and wood chips. The local forests are also good hunting grounds for deer, bear, turkeys, and sometimes moose. These forests play a role in conserving soils on steep slopes and in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. 

In their 2011 natural resource inventory the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust ranked soils based on their value for farm and/or forest land.  Their results are displayed below.