MEMBER PROFILE 



THE GOUDREAUETS 



Reinventing the Family Farm 



The Traditional New England farm 

 was often a complicated place 

 made up of many separate eco- 

 nomic components — a cow, a vegetable 

 garden, chickens, a woodlot, a cash crop 

 or two. Some specialized farms — dealing 

 in apples or dairy products or maple 

 syrup — do well, but many of New 

 Hampshire's successful agricultural enter- 

 prises still follow the traditional pattern 



THE GOUDREAULTS are farmers 

 — Richard's father was a farmer in 

 Haverhill, IVlassachusetts — and Richard 

 would probably still be there if, in 

 the early sixties, Massachusetts 

 hadn't built Route 495 through the 

 family farm. The house is stand- 

 ing — his father still lives there, but 

 the land was taken. Richard looked 

 for other farms in the area, found 

 one five miles away — "but in an- 

 other state — it seemed far away at 

 the time"— and, in 1962, he, his 

 wife Lucine, and their family 

 moved to 34 acres in Plaistow. 



It was primarily a dairy farm. 

 He had forty cows, but grew some 

 vegetables and sold them at his 

 father's stand. 



THEN IN 1980, THE FIRST GREEN- 

 HOUSE — a 10x25 lean-to against the 

 bull barn — was built; the first crop — 

 bedding plants and geraniums. 



iVlore greenhouses were put up. 

 Today the main growing unit con- 

 sists of four 30x96 New Englanders, 

 and, perpendicular to these, a 

 30x100 rigid-sided Nexus with a 

 double-poly roof; each house is 

 connected to the Nexus by a 4x6 

 passageway. The Nexus serves as 

 headhouse, retail sales area, and a 

 growing space as well. This year 

 it's being extended in order to add 

 an overhead door which would allow 

 vans to drive in and be loaded. 



There are also two 17x96s and 

 two 14x96 inflation busters. 



It's a straight-forward operation 

 on an open site — lots of wind, 

 plenty of light. Two houses have 

 rolling benches; in one of these, 

 the benches have heat — hot water 

 through tubing — and the house is 

 used for propagation and a crop of 

 4500 New Guinea impatiens in 4 1/ 

 2-inch pots ("the heat forms nice 

 roots"). In the other houses, the 

 growing is done in ground beds or 

 on plastic weed barrier laid on dirt 

 floors. All houses are heated with 

 natural gas ("it's clean, renewable; 

 the equipment costs less"). 



THE CROP MIX is traditional. In 

 mid-january, pansies are hand- 

 sown. (They've tried a number of 

 seeders and decided they prefer 

 seeding by hand.) But now — to 

 save time — less seed is sown and 

 more plugs bought in. They grow 

 70 types of annuals- — all are trans- 

 planted into 606s ("we used the 

 606s with bigger varieties — mari- 

 golds, salvia — at first and found 

 they gave us a nicer plant; people 

 wanted the larger size — so now we 

 use them for everything") 



They pot (using Sunshine Mix) in 

 each individual house using a por- 

 table soil bin. There's automatic 

 drip watering for pots and hangers; 

 the 606s are watered by hand. 



In early March, bareroot perenni- 

 als arrive — 100 varieties; in most 

 of these, several species are of- 

 fered. At the same time, hanging 

 baskets are put up. One house is 

 filled with 6000 4 1/2 geraniums. 



The retail side of things begins 

 around April 20. Customers are al- 

 lowed in five houses — those with 

 rolling benches are closed (for con- 

 cern customers might get their fin- 

 gers caught between the benches). 

 A cashier is in the lean-to against 

 the old bull barn (which is now the 

 office). 



"We give a lot of verbal service." 

 Two daughters work with Richard 

 and Lucine: Cynthia is full-time — 

 book-keeper, grower, salesperson... 

 and Pamela and her husband (a 

 dentist) help out during the busy 

 season. 



There are other part-time people. 

 "We try to educate our employees," 

 Cynthia says. "We feel an employee 

 who deals with customers well is 

 more valuable to the business." 



IN EARLY JULY, the farm stand (in 

 the barn — in the old birthing stalls) 

 opens. The first produce is bought 

 in: because they're busy with the 

 greenhouse side of things, the 

 Goudreaults plant late — five acres 

 of corn and an acre of mixed veg- 

 etables. Again, it's very straight- 

 forward. They lime and fertilize; 

 grow most everything through plas- 

 tic. (It's dry land; there's no irriga- 

 tion — as well as keeping weeds 

 down, the plastic holds moisture: 

 "in spite of last year's drought, we 

 grew exceptional melons." They no 

 longer grow potatoes — the potato 

 beetle "was too much— there were 

 no chemicals we wanted to use;" 

 they use a minimal amount of 

 chemicals on other crops (on let- 

 tuce there is none; they hand-pick 

 hornworms off tomatoes) and make 

 sure customers know it — "It's a 

 strong selling point." 



"We try to do a lot with local 

 businesses" and fill out their own of- 

 ferings with locally grown fruit and 

 honey. 



In fall, it's mums that are of- 

 fered — 8500 in gallon containers — 

 and 500 ornamental kale. They sell 

 pumpkins — they bought in ten tons 

 of them last year. 



Winter means 1500 poinsettias 

 in larger pots — 7s, 8s, lOs, 12s, 

 along with hangers. "Lilo is popu- 

 lar, but we have a few of all col- 



20 



The Plantsman 



