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MEMBER PROFILE 



LOW-KEY ABUNDANCE 



WAYSIDE FARM 



%EJ^ ravelers on 1 1 3A in North Sandwich can be 

 ^m hT excused for not noticing the small field be- 

 ^^l|Side the road. The hills of the Sandwich 

 ^^^ft Range just beyond; McCrillis up Whiteface is 

 a mile away. But the land is being used — bags of 

 peat are waiting to be spread; a rotary sprinkler is on. 

 Across the road are greenhouses. ..plants displayed, a 

 small sign. It's all fairly low-key — the owners don't 

 like pushing their ideas onto people. 



Originally, three greenhouses were set back near 

 the house with an area of woods between them and 

 the road. 



Today, four houses (21x104, 17x96, 11x96, 14x96)— 

 the major portion of Wayside Farm's greenhouse op- 

 eration — have been built much closer to the road. 

 Three are inflation busters; the 11x96 is taken down 

 each fall to allow easier removal of snow 



A long narrow lath area runs in front of the four 

 houses, connecting them visually. 



In front of all this, trees have thinned and pea 

 stone laid down. Potted perennials — shade plants 

 under trees; sun-lovers in the open — and 4-pacs of 

 annuals are displayed 



Ben Shambaugh does the growing; his wife, Lisa, 

 works with customers. 



Kthe newest house 



Ben designed the main house — the 21x104 built last 

 year — with specific aims in mind. 



Because of the wind gusting through Sandwich 

 Notch in winter, it needed to be strong, so the frame 

 is of 1 7/8-inch galvanized pipe. Trusses are every 

 four feet and there are diagonal braces from each 

 truss to both the rafter and the side support. Along 

 with the trusses, there's support from x-bracing of air- 

 craft cable at eave height. 



However, to prevent condensation dripping on 

 plants, there are no purlins. 



The house was designed so that it could be cov- 

 ered with a solid material |at some point Ben and 

 Lisa may get tired of changing poly) The roof pitch 

 is 6 over 12 — snow doesn't accumulate. The rafter 

 pipes are straight, but each pair is connected by a 

 piece of bowed pipe, creating a slightly curved 

 peak — but if a 2x4 is placed on the present ridge 

 line, this curve is removed and flat sheets of mate- 



Tfie Planlsman 

 18 



rial — polycarbonate, for example — could be used to 

 cover the house. 



A small office and sales area is built onto the front 

 of this house. A wood stove makes it a cozy space in 

 which to seed flats in winter. Up to ten cords are 

 used to supplement oil heat. 



There are homemade rolling benches. The propa- 

 gation bench (non-rolling) along the north side of the 

 house is heated by hot water provided by a heat ex- 

 changer on the wood stove. Hot water is held in a 

 storage tank; convection circulates it through a loop of 

 copper pipe to the heat exchanger and to a second 

 loop connected to PVC pipe embedded in the gravel- 

 filled bench. Temperature is held at 80 F And mist 

 is regulated by a double time clock system. 



Four and a half-inch pots of zonal geraniums alter- 

 nating with 3 l/2s of vinca fill two lines of roof gutter 

 running the length of the house along the trusses. A 

 submersible pump activated by a timer pushes the 

 water from a barrel at the office end of the house 

 through an ordinary garden hose which, in turn, feeds 

 two trickle tubes at the upper ends of the gutters. 

 The greenhouse is pitched 7/8 inches in four feet and 

 the water runs downward to a cross gutter which 

 drains back into the barrel. This year was the first 

 time this system was used; "It works well," Ben says 

 and he plans to expand its use next year, but as a 

 trough system at bench level. 



^Hl BEGINNINGS 



Both Ben and Lisa moved here in the seventies. The 

 farms and the way of life that went with them were 

 disappearing from Ben's Massachusetts hometown and 

 for Lisa, Washington, DC, seemed full of increasing 

 traffic. 



"We started Wayside Farm in 1981. We were really 

 small then — we had one 14x50 greenhouse and three 

 acres of vegetables; we sold our produce one day a 

 week at the Farmers' Market in Conway For awhile, 

 we had a portable stand that we set up in Conway 

 Village. This didn't work out as well as the farmers' 

 market — the traffic was heavy, but mostly tourist. 



"All-in-all, it worked out fine, except it was obvious 

 almost immediately that there was a bigger market for 

 flowers than for vegetables. So after two or three 

 years, the vegetables declined Now we grow only 

 flowering plants." 



