Moving from teaching seventh and eighth graders to co-owning and managing a farm and dining pavilion might seem an enormous career jump for many, but though she carries memories of hard work on her parents’ farm, far more vivid  and cherished recollections spawned her interest in restoring, with her husband,  an old farm in Holderness, New Hampshire.

Her parents’ farm was a 350 acre Arabian horse (up to 30 of them) and dairy farm in Winnisquam, New Hampshire and “every little thing you do on a farm we, as children did. Helping to feed, milk, clean the barn, repair fences, and haying …haying, haying haying” she says with resolve. “We learned that “farming is not an easy business.”

Then she speaks of those good memories. “Of the many things our parents did for us, two stand out, she says. “When we were expecting an animal to give birth, they would parade all six little kids out to the barn, often in the middle of the night, and while peaking in the stall, watch an animal give birth. Sometimes Dad had to reach in and help a bit.”

Then there was a second parental kindness – not to mention an enlightened one – that Lorri clearly remembers is “us children, having taken our  evening baths, were never asked to help in the barn the next morning before school so we  never had a barnyard smell in our class room.”

Today at Longhaul Farm which Lorri co-owns with her husband H.O. Lenentine, the parent and child roles are reversed. Lorri’s father Clayton Downs died in 1999 and her mother, Miriam, now lives in Andover New Hampshire where she contributes to the Longhaul workload by making fudge and preserves for the farm’s  always well supplied seasonal farmstand. “We cannot keep it in stock,” says Lorri.

Lorri manages the retail and outreach side of the business which includes an extensive commercial kitchen and dining pavilion.  As a former teacher, she offers a class at the Squam Lake Natural Science Center in Holderness called “How Does Your Garden Grow?” The five, six, and seven year olds spend two days at the Science Center and three days planting and working in their gardens at Longhaul, an endeavor she takes great pleasure in watching as these young children make growing connections to what they eat. “Often times they discover they like eating something they had not in the past,” remarks Lorri. An added benefit for the farm is that the mini-camp is one of Lorri and H.O.’s  ways of cementing community relationships as the Science Center often uses Longhaul for their catering needs.

But Longhaul’s season is short and Lorri, whose energetic personality never seems to lack for ideas, and  H.O feel they must work toward building a year around destination farm. During the summer their farmstand is busy and  always well selling a large selection of  meats, cheeses, baked goods and their own produce, but come Labor Day “it is as if the dimmer switch is turned on and then come Columbus Day it is turned off,” says Lorri.   Always having to hire temporary help is very difficult and time consuming and retraining is always a drag. Financially, a three and a half month a year business barely keeps them afloat.

But the couple is overcoming this obstacle with the addition of winter activities.  “We are fortunate ,” says Lorri  that  Longhaul Farm is a 33 acre property snuggled into thousands of acres of preserved land. Our  hiking and snowshoeing trail system can connect to the Squam Range trail system and our newest venture Pavilion in the Woods, equipped with a commercial kitchen, will provide all the snowshoer’s or hiker’s food needs.”  Meals, desserts, coffee  will be available  and there will even be a bonfire during the winter months. “We are a long way from our planned small workshops making pickles and relishes in a small kitchen for sure,” sighs Lorri, and with her usual exuberance she continues ,”it has been great watching this property become cultivated again and to see greater and greater numbers of people visiting us to shop and enjoy homestyle meals using many of locally grown products.”

Longhaul Farm, Holderness, NH
Lorri Downs & H.O. Lenentine
Rte 113 (along Squam Lake)
P.O. Box 225
Holderness, NH 03245
603-968-9381
www.longhaulfarm.com

Retail:
Farmstand and Farm Share program: locally made products & vegetables
Retail: Pavilion in the Woods catered meals