Sisters by birth, farmers by choice: The duo behind Gracie’s Gift 1770 Farm in Northfield

NORTHFIELD — At first thought, a farm run by two sisters may spark imagery of a big sister and a little sister beaming while scratching their goats’ ears, picking out eggs and feeding the cows apples together. At Gracie’s Gift 1770 Farm, sisters Mary Sue Fowler and Debbie Frechette do things a little differently, and they like it that way.

Frechette tends to the flowers and Fowler runs the farmstand, selling fruits, vegetables, salsa, honey, herbs, soaps, facial scrubs, flowers, jams and jellies on the weekends.

“She’s much more social than I am,” Frechette said in the sisters’ living room.

Fowler wakes up early to do the morning chores and Frechette works at night.

With their own approaches, “It’s best that we do chores separately,” Fowler said. Before they landed on this routine, when Frechette joined Fowler in the barn, Fowler grumbled to her sister, “Can you just leave now? I need my zen time,” Fowler recalled as the pair laughed.

Although they feed the cows, brush the donkeys and collect the eggs separately, the sisters share a love for their animals. They named each of the two cows, two donkeys, 12 goats, 20 ducks and 40 chickens. When the veterinarian told the sisters they could no longer spoil their donkeys, Mary and Phaedra, with carrots and apples, Fowler’s heart ached. To care for the runt of a goat litter too small to nurse, the sisters even bottle fed him and tucked him into a box at night beside Frechette’s bed.

The sisters only sell their animals to those looking to milk them or keep them as pets.

“It’s just really great to know that our animals that we raise so diligently and care for so well go to really loving homes,” Fowler said.

The sisters also sell the chicken and duck eggs, and use the cow and goat milk for soap and other creations they sell at the farmstand.

And the loud donkeys’ purpose? “Just pure joy,” Fowler said.

When the animals trust the sisters, Fowler said, “You feel that bond between them. All they want to do is give you love.”

Frechette added that watching the animals grow from babies or nervous newcomers to comfortable braying, mooing or clucking residents ties this bond tighter.

With eight years between Fowler, 62, and Frechette, 70, the sisters grew up largely apart.

“Because of the age difference, we’ve grown up in two very different families,” Frechette explained. “The experiences that I have with my family at the beginning and what she [had with] older parents is totally different.”

Frechette switched schools 13 times in her first 12 years due to her father’s work. Each move, she came home to a “for sale” sign and no explanation. Fowler, on the other hand, grew up on her parents’ farm in Natick, her constant home.

Despite their different childhoods, the sisters both grew up around farm animals. Their parents bought a horse when Frechette was just 10 years old on the condition that she and her sisters step up and take care of the new addition. Frechette woke up before school to take care of the horse and cleaned the stalls after class. Later, their parents bought an 8-acre farm in Natick and filled it with pigs, goats, cows, lambs and other animals.

“Even if you did sports, you still had to come back down and milk the cows at the end of the night, and feed all the animals and pick up the eggs from the chickens,” Fowler said. “It teaches you what hard work is.”

Even after working for 25 years as a chef, Fowler said, “In my career, it was never as hard as work growing up.”

The two decided to start their own farm after their mother, Grace “Gracie” Kozlowski, died about six years ago. Fowler had left her kitchen in Arizona to start a bed and breakfast up north, and Frechette was looking for something new after working as an accountant in Natick for about 35 years and helping her aging mother with the farm. Together again in Natick during the summer of 2021, the sisters were watching television in Frechette’s living room when, during a commercial, Frechette turned to her little sister.

“How would you feel if we did this together?” Frechette asked Fowler.

They checked out properties in Connecticut, New Hampshire and finally Massachusetts. Finally, they toured the 18-acre orchard at 265 Millers Falls Road and made an offer.

Since moving to Northfield in September 2021, the sisters have removed the majority of the orchard’s 250 apple trees, built a barn and farmstand, grew a family of animals and named the farm after their mom, who grew up farming like their dad. According to the sisters, well into old age Gracie Kozlowski drove around her Natick farm in a golf cart to greet her goats.

Now, the sisters carry on their mother’s love for farming.

“At the end of the day, we’re exhausted, but you can still think about how you’ve accomplished something that you’ve done with your own hands,'” Frechette said.

Her sister added, “We used to say we’re retired. Now we say we’re farmers.”

To learn more about Gracie’s Gift 1770 Farm, visit graciesgift1770farm.com. The farmstand is open from 9 a.m. to dusk on Saturdays and Sundays.