On Wild Bramble Farm in Northfield, Shannon Goddard grows fresh flowers for sale, raises chickens for meat and runs a small farmstand. Along with her husband Chris, Shannon Goddard has grown this small farm from a hobby into a business, with a lot of experimentation, lessons and beautiful bouquets along the way.
Shannon Goddard bought a 13-acre former horse farm in 2010, but, she says, “I didn’t do much with it until my husband came along. He knew a lot more about farming than I did at that point. We got married in 2013 and started homesteading, growing a lot of our own food.”
A few years in, the couple was growing more than they could eat, so they set up a little self-serve stand at the bottom of their driveway.
“We had more than we needed and we wanted to share it with our community, so we started selling it and people loved it. It just grew from there,” Goddard said.
At the start, the Goddards’ primary product was pastured pork, which they continued to produce until 2023. The main reason they stopped raising pigs was a shortage of meat processing infrastructure — a common challenge for smaller meat producers.
“Especially during COVID, finding a place to process them was a really big issue — we needed to schedule 18 months out and the slaughterhouses had to keep pushing the dates back,” she explains.
This challenge, combined with the demands of raising three small children, led the Goddards to turn their attention elsewhere.
“I might get back to it someday,” Goddard said. “I did really love having pigs.”
Coming off that difficult experience, the Goddards were excited when they heard about a new poultry processing facility opening at Reed Farm in Sunderland — another local farm whose owners saw a gap in poultry processing infrastructure and took a huge leap to fill it.
“We had raised chickens for ourselves and done the processing for ourselves, but we couldn’t sell it. When Reed Farm’s facility came along, we were like, ‘finally! Let’s do this,’” Goddard said. “We were so excited when that opened and it’s been awesome working with them.”
Adventures in meat production aside, Wild Bramble Farm’s main product these days is cut flowers. “Originally, I wanted to grow flowers for our wedding, but that did not go well at all,” said Goddard. “I ended up having to buy them all. But it got me interested in it, and I kept practicing and got better.”
After taking an intensive class at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers in Philadelphia in 2019, Goddard “was ignited,” she said. “I learned about flower farming from seed to selling. It was an amazing trip and I came home and just got really into it.”
Today, Wild Bramble’s flowers are sold at their farm stand, at Sweet Lucy’s Bakeshop in Bernardston and through a flower CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. The CSA offerings begin in April and May with a spring share that features tulips, ranunculus, and other early blooms. A peony share follows in June, and then a summer share full of high-season blooms like zinnias and sunflowers. Hardy flowers like dahlias bring the season to a close when the first frost hits, usually in October, and dried flowers and flower wreaths keep the farmstand open for a few weeks after that.
“It was not as easy as we thought it was going to be — the selling part,” said Goddard. “It was eye-opening to go from ‘oh, we have extra, maybe we can sell it!’ to ‘oh, now we really need to sell this. It’s not a hobby anymore.’ But the flowers are sort of like everything else: some people really get it. They love how much longer fresh, locally grown flowers last. They really care about their carbon footprint, and are concerned like I am about the amount of preservatives and fungicides they put on flowers so they can ship them around the world and have them still look pretty good. So it’s really just about finding the people who understand that and care about it.”
For Goddard, growing flowers is deeply fulfilling. “I think it’s therapeutic,” she said. “Having my hands in the dirt and watching things grow from a seed into a beautiful flower is kind of magical. And I think it’s important to have a locally grown source of fresh flowers. But really, I just like doing it. It’s fun! My kids help with cutting flowers, and my oldest helps with making bouquets, so it’s a way for our family to connect with each other and with nature.”
For the broader community, she sees the ways that her flowers bring meaning, too. “It’s such a small thing that brings so much joy, especially the spring flowers when you’re coming off a New England winter,” said Goddard. “My customers get so excited and their faces light up when they see these beautiful flowers. Finding moments of wonder and joy in the world isn’t always easy, and it’s not getting any easier. Of course the flowers aren’t food, but I do think they are sort of essential for some of us! They’re color after a dark winter.”
To sign up for a spring flower share or a peony flower share — perhaps as a Valentine’s Day promise of future color and beauty for a loved one, visit wild-bramble-farm.com.
Claire Morenon, communications manager at CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture). To find local farms and local cut flowers, visit buylocalfood.org.