SHELBURNE — After having Kenburn Orchards in their family for more than a century, former owners Susan and Larry Flaccus have sold the blueberry farm, passing the torch down to two new families — the Wilkins and Slowinski families.
The 150-acre property, located at 1394 Mohawk Trail (Route 2), features a multi-family home, along with a blueberry farm and acres of conservation land and woodlands. It will now be operated by Kurt and Jenelle Wilkins, along with Caitlyn — Kurt’s sister — and Sam Slowinski. Kurt said the family purchased the farm roughly three weeks ago for approximately $850,000.
“It was a huge opportunity for us. There’s not a piece of land as beautiful as this that is available all too often. I’ve known the previous owners for about a decade now, and they wanted this place to be passed down to a family that would continue to keep it in agriculture,” Kurt said. “It’s a big task, so we had the opportunity to kind of buy it as two families. … That’s part of the reason we were given the opportunity — we kind of agreed on the future of the property and where it should go.”
Caitlyn Slowinski said all four of the new owners grew up farming and hoped to carry on the tradition of operating a family-owned highbush blueberry farm. She noted that in the winter, the new owners also plan to carry out the Flaccus family’s winter Christmas tree sales, which had been discontinued.
The property has been held primarily by just two families since Quintus Allen sold off part of his larger tract of land to Amos Allen in 1802, according to Kenburn Orchards’ website. The farm remained in the Allen family until about 1913, and then had several owners until it was purchased in 1924 by Kenyon Yale Taylor, Susan Flaccus’ grandfather. Members of the Taylor family have owned the property continuously since that time.
Kenyon Yale Taylor bought the original dairy farm in 1924 as a summer home and later moved to the property full-time, the website states. With the help of his sons, he planted more than 40 acres of apples. Kenyon combined his name with that of a benefactor, Burnham Colburn, and Kenburn Orchards was established. Though little of the original orchards remain, the family has kept the name.
Under the ownership of Susan and Larry Flaccus, some of the original apple trees were removed to plant several thousand Christmas trees, and more than 2 acres of cultivated blueberries.
With the farm being none of the new owners’ full-time jobs, Caitlyn added that the blueberry bushes are producing more fruit than the family can harvest, so in addition to selling pre-picked blueberry pints for $6 or quarts for $12, the farm also allows visitors to pick their own for $5 per pound, or $4.50 per pound, should someone pick more than 10 pounds. The farm is open Thursday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“Pick your own is certainly much more popular [than pre-picked],” Caitlyn said. “There’s so many, we want people to pick them. We can’t possibly pick them all, so we want people to come pick them before they fall off.”
In its first week open, Kurt said the orchard already produced and distributed roughly 600 pounds of fruit. The farm has also partnered with Rachel’s Table, a nonprofit that picks surplus produce and distributes it to food pantries. He said the nonprofit picked roughly 120 pounds of blueberries for donation.
Additionally, Redneck Wine LLC of Colrain, Caitlyn added, is expected to pick roughly 100 pounds of berries in its efforts to make a new blueberry wine.
Jenelle noted that she and the farm’s co-owners are working to “carry on the torch.” Because she and Kurt have a 3-year-old child, Lincoln, she said it is also a chance to teach him some agricultural skills, with the hope that he will someday carry on the family business.
“Giving him an opportunity to explore, be out in nature, but also get a firsthand view for what hard work is, is really important,” Jenelle said. “We’re excited to share this opportunity with him.”
Caitlyn and Sam also have a young child, who they said will hopefully be able to carry on the farm’s legacy.
“It’s much more than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s a once-in-1,000-lifetimes opportunity. It’s not every day someone gets to purchase a property like this,” Kurt said. “We’re very grateful to the two of them for establishing what it is today and maintaining the heritage of the property.”
