By Alison McGonagle
Rolling hills of rural land may not be what most people associate with Haverhill, but Kimball Farm is working toward changing that. The farm is raising its profile within the community and surrounding towns by bringing in some big changes — in this case, with a big maze.
For the first time this past fall, the farm enlisted the help of a Midwestern company that used GPS technology to map and plant two supersized corn mazes. One of its mazes, which measured an overwhelming six acres, simply said "Kimball Farm." A smaller two-acre maze was of llamas, which Kimball Farm used to breed and still have gracing its fields.
But Kimball Farm will not stop there. It is already planning mazes for next year, and has started packing many activities into its summer schedule — activities it calls "agri-fun."
The farm's owners, Tyler and Laurie Kimball, recently hired general manager Brian Carifio, a lifetime outdoorsman with experience working for the city's recreation department. He also has experience as a Haverhill conservation officer.
Carifio is working on ways to bring community members out of their homes, back to the land, and most importantly, onto the farm.
"I'm working on upcoming fishing programs and nature walks. People can come to the farm and take walks along the hills and pastures where they will come across gardens and wildflowers, and pick a bouquet," Carifio said.
Carifio says the idea isn't flowery. Instead, it's simple — to bring people back to earth.
In addition to courting residents at large, programs will be geared toward students in Haverhill schools and bordering cities and towns.
"We have a lot of outdoor stuff that would make a great field trip," Carifio said of upcoming educational attractions, including a "how-to" on tapping trees for syrup.
School systems as distant as Freeport, N.H., and Brighton brought students to the farm to participate in the corn maze and other events that went along with it, like the full moon maze, where people would go through the maze at night, by the light of the moon. Also popular was the haunted maze, held weekends around Halloween. After that it was used as a paintball course. Other offerings have included a pumpkin slingshot, horse-drawn wagon rides and horse-drawn sleigh rides.
Overall, Carifio estimates a total of 7,500 people came through the maze in its many forms, from Labor Day through Thanksgiving. Once the colder weather set in, the Kimballs chopped the mazes down and used the corn to feed cows and pigs.
While the farm is providing fun times, it hasn't given up on good, old-fashioned agriculture itself.
"There are days where we send out 500 to 600 bales of hay, and another 800 bags of shavings," said Carifio. Pine shavings are generally used for bedding in horse stalls.
The Kimballs raise and show Hereford cows, and although they no longer breed llamas, they still keep a few on the property. They have dispensers that hold alfalfa pellets, which people can buy to hand-feed the llamas.
The farm also operates its own onsite store that sells woodstove pellets, split firewood, horse grains, birdseed, cat food, dog food, goat food, poultry food and pig food, soy candles and jams and jellies. It sells bulk farm supplies and equipment to other farmers, and provides the service of clearing and preparing fields.
Kimball Farm makes local deliveries from Southern New Hampshire down into the Ipswich area. But it also sends trucks long distances to pick up the things it sells.
"We've got trucks going to Pennsylvania, New York and Canada," Carifio said of the trucking operation.
Carifio estimates the farm does over $3 million in business each year, but the first year of agri-fun added another $80,000. However, that profit was reduced by the first-year expenses of buying costumes, equipment and props for some of the events.
"It's great to see those types of numbers," said Carifio. "And there's a lot we won't have to purchase next year."
From the farm's humble beginnings as a dairy operation back in 1820, it has remained in the family and expanded to the present-day business. It employs 20, plus seasonal employees as needed.
Adapting and expanding offerings to include leisure and recreation keeps the farm alive. Incorporating agri-fun into the established business model is an idea that has proven to be, well, a-maze-ing.
