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MEMBER PROFILE 



French Farm 

 Greenhouses & Garden Shop 



A TEMPLATE FOR "COUNTRY" 



"FRENCH POND," French Road," 

 "French Pond Road" — the place 

 names suggest that the family's 

 been around awhile. The first 

 French came here around 1868, right 

 after the Civil War. Currently, Dur- 

 wood and Barbara French live in the 

 house at French Farm Greenhouses; 

 IVlichael (Durwood's son) and Zoe 

 French live in the original farmhouse 

 at the beginning of the road. 



The presence of the family seems 

 a constant, but the land itself has 

 seen dramatic changes in use. Levi, 

 Durwood's grandfather, planted the 

 first commercial apple orchard in 

 the state, producing 10,000 bushels 

 a year before leaving the business 

 with the decision not to put in a 

 cold storage; Durwood raised chick- 

 ens in the early fifties — the sudden 

 preference for broilers — not fowl — 

 ended that; he worked for the state 

 as the first director of the division 

 of pesticide control; then returned 

 to dairy, but because of the eco- 

 nomics of the milk market, he de- 

 cided to sell the herd — just before 

 the government buyout of small op- 

 erations. The farm's current meta- 

 morphoses is as a retail greenhouse 

 and farm stand. 



These uses- — though varied — have 

 all been agricultural and the rural 

 feeling remains French Road is still 

 dirt; the field abutting the green- 

 houses opens onto other fields and 

 a view of the hills in Weare. "We're 



out in the country and we want to 

 preserve that feeling," Zoe says; "we 

 pride ourselves on not paving the 

 driveway and in having no cement 

 or crushed stone in the green- 

 houses." 



The first greenhouse — a home- 

 made 20'x40' double-poly with fiber- 

 glass ends — was put up 20 years 

 ago. At least three additions have 

 extended its length to sixty feet and 

 put a 25'x50' addition known as 

 "The Fuchsia House" (fuchsias are a 

 specialty) onto and perpendicular to 

 the end. 



Ten years later, a second house 

 was built beside it. This is solar — 

 I7'x30', with a vertical north wall, 

 heavily insulated, and a broad, gen- 

 tly sloping south-facing fiberglass 

 roof In 1990, a 28x80' Ed Person 

 hoop house was put up; the follow- 

 ing year another, slightly smaller, 

 Person house was added. 



In 1993, Zoe joined the business 

 ((previously, she'd worked eight 

 years as director of retail sales for 

 the New Hampshire Audubon Soci- 

 ety). The next year, Michael joined 

 as well and it became important to 

 expand to a size that could support 

 two families. In April, 1994, a 

 28'xIOO' New Englander (a state-of- 

 the-art house with biotherm bench 

 heat) was put up; in April, 1995, a 

 secondhand 30'xl00' inflation buster 

 was added and later last year, two 

 14'x60' tunnels to be used for grow- 



ing tomatoes were put up as well. 



The only change now contem- 

 plated is to tear down the original 

 greenhouse/Fuchsia House and re- 

 place it with two tunnel houses. 

 This will be done for efficiency, not 

 increased space, and will probably 

 be done this fall. 



THE SEASON BEGINS in February 

 when seed geraniums are started in 

 a home-made germinator (3x12', 7- 

 high; shelves, bottom heat, light on 

 timers) in the barn; then plugs are 

 begun in the solar house and more 

 seed ("we buy in mostly plugs; 

 some of the unusual things we can't 

 find in plugs we start ourselves") on 

 the heated benches of the New En- 

 glander. 



Sometimes customer demand af- 

 fects choice of plant material — 

 white marigolds ("marigolds should 

 be yellow") were not grown until 

 this year — they sold out and will be 

 grown again. But basically, "we grow 

 what we like." They produce over 

 1000 hangers — all in 10" swirls — 

 fuchsia, ivies, some Proven Win- 

 ners — "nothing finicky- — we choose 

 plants customers will have good 

 luck with They do well because we 

 make good choices." 



One house is kept cool for the 

 Martha Washingtons (grown for the 

 first time this year), pansies, ivies, 

 vinca...by mid-April, most of the 

 houses are full. 



"We're very low-tech, but this 



AUGUST ♦SEPTEMBER 1996 



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