Edible Food Find: Still Life Farm

Photos by Adam DeTour

On a cool, foggy day in early spring, the sight of deep green escarole, celery, spinach, leafy cilantro and other herbs and the heady fragrance of green onions cut through the haze in a Still Life Farm greenhouse in Hardwick. These and other vegetables grown under cover by Halley and Curtis Stillman are clear signs that New England farming now stretches almost year-round.

Still Life’s sales to CSA customers and farmers markets in the winter and spring give the couple a niche business, and their summer fruits supplement the offerings of Stillman’s Farm, owned by Curtis’s father and family. In turn, Halley and Curtis enjoy a vibrant farm life.

Walking around the farm this April morning, one can see their efforts. This area, Curtis says, “is kind of the land that time forgot,” a rural and rugged stretch near the Quabbin Reservoir. Three goats, a wedding gift to Halley from Curtis, poke their heads out of a little shed, and the sounds of clucking chickens permeate the air. Two dogs and cats follow us, and toys belonging to the couple’s 6-year-old son, Kip, dot the property.

As we look through an unheated high tunnel structure, Halley points out rolls of thin fabric used to insulate winter crops to create a microclimate that warms the ground enough to protect crops even when temperatures dip into the 20s; several propane heaters are used in severe cold. Halley and Curtis laugh, saying that when cold threatens, they can spend whole evenings covering vegetables, and then must return in the morning to remove the floating covers so that the sun can warm them.

It’s one of many methods they utilize to raise crops through the winter. Their efforts were put to the test in mid-April on a night when the temperature dropped to 26° with low humidity. Along with workers, the Stillmans worked through the night, covering the berry plants to save the just-budding crop. Being prepared is crucial in the uncertainty of farming, Halley says.

Still Life Farm comprises 60 acres with 20 in cultivation, Halley says, with another 20–25 acres leased off site. Besides supplying winter and spring crops for CSA customers and a few winter markets, the couple grows berries, other fruits and some vegetables for Stillman’s Farm displays at many summer and fall farmers markets in Boston and elsewhere. Halley prides Still Life on variety: She grows three colors of raspberries, three of currants and two of gooseberries; blackberries, peaches and cherries; and zinnias, snapdragons, sunflowers and other flowers, which she says are “surprisingly lucrative.” And then there are Curtis’s cherry tomatoes, which by summer will fill a whole unheated greenhouse. “I paid my way through college with cherry tomatoes,” he exclaims.

Curtis, who “grew up shadowing” his father, Glenn Stillman, purchased Still Life Farm in 2010 with the help of the East Quabbin Land Trust; the land is protected from development. Halley, who became interested in farming as a middle-school volunteer, has done research on its history: The area around Hardwick was once known for orchards and dairies; for a time, Halley says, Hardwick butter was being shipped to France. Their property was once the Hardwick Poor Farm, where indigent people would do agriculture work for lodging and upkeep.

Now the Stillmans pursue innovations in year-round agriculture.

“We have developed our product line to use as little heat as possible,” Halley says, adding that the three high tunnels and two heated greenhouses on the farm also provide shelter for warm-weather crops. In early spring, a few employees clean and pack vegetables in the large storage barn; by summer there may be as many as 10 workers. The work is nonstop, the Stillmans say, but well worth it. This niche farming also allows for experiments. Curtis explains he’s looking into growing raspberries in the high tunnels so a crop might be ready in June, beating competitors by a month or so. A project like this “keeps life interesting when you farm.”

When asked about a perfect day on the farm, Curtis doesn’t hesitate: “A summer day when Halley and I are together out picking fruit and I can hear Kip running through the fields, playing.”

StillLifeFarm.com
1643 Petersham Road, Hardwick

This story appeared in the Summer 2026 issue.