‘The community has been very welcoming’

FITCHBURG — Childhood sweethearts Meghan Buckley and Juniper Mendelsohn were inspired by an idea deeper than the soil they sow plants in when they launched Stargazer Hollow Farm five years ago.

“Originally, we started our farm primarily as a climate change response after research on regenerative agriculture and soil carbon sequestration,” Meghan said. “The question we were trying to answer at that time was, ‘What is the biggest way we could impact environmental health as just a few individual people?’ and this was our best answer. At that time, addressing food insecurity was a secondary mission and since then we have upgraded that to our primary goal while continuing to prioritize sustainability and ecological restoration in our growing practices.”

They started the farm in Berkley and then moved it to Fitchburg last December, which took a couple months to do. They focus on growing heirloom produce at the property located on Sheldon Road that is just shy of 80 acres.

“We have about 20 acres or a little more of cleared fields that are for growing crops and grazing animals, about an acre of orchard, and I’d say about 40 acres of forest, with the balance being small fields, the house, the barn, and driveways,” Meghan said.

Next year, they will be growing approximately 200 varieties of annual fruit and vegetable crops at their diversified farm.

“A few highlighted specialties are our seasonal salad blends with edible flowers, unusual northern varieties of melons, and a large assortment of winter squashes,” Meghan said of their unique offerings. “We also have an orchard that is currently mostly producing peaches and pears but has other young trees and we will be expanding the orchard [in] the next couple of years.”

She said even the animals on the farm align with the regenerative agriculture practices they are dedicated to.

“They graze to improve the pastures and crop fields, and their bedding is the primary component of our farm-produced compost that we use to enrich the crop rows,” Meghan said, adding that they occasionally sell yarn from the animals.

It’s a family affair, with her sister, Hannah Buckley, serving as the farm’s sales manager, a hardworking trio who are happy to give back to their community in a big way by donating half of everything they grow to locals as well as food banks and such.

“When [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits temporarily lapsed, we canceled our remaining farmers markets for the rest of the season in order to pivot to donating all food crops that we had on hand,” Meghan said of their recent efforts. “We did this in a couple of ways. We joined the City of Fitchburg Board of Health at a community food distribution event, did direct donations to a couple dozen families, and also shared some with a local Food Not Bombs group for prepared meal distributions.”

Her partner echoed her sentiments, saying they didn’t hesitate to give what they had on hand to help feed those in their community in need.

“Roughly one-third of the city relies on SNAP in some capacity, so it was a pretty easy decision to cancel our remaining markets and distribute what we had to our local community through direct donations and distribution to keep the food in our region,” Juniper said.

Hannah herself was personally affected negatively by the SNAP freeze that was the result of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

“Being a widowed mother of two children, knowing if I could contribute to the annual Thanksgiving meal for my family including both my in-laws and parents was in question,” she said. “I was already at the point of paying out of pocket for my children’s meals. I knew pausing the market sales in favor of donations was for the best because there was no clear sign of when, or even if, food stamps would come back. I knew I could get fresh produce from our farm for Thanksgiving and a turkey from my wonderful local Kiwanis.

“I am only one story of many families who were in fear of what was going to happen,” Hannah continued. “It is in our family’s nature to help those in need, even before helping ourselves. It meant that we wouldn’t be able to make more sales because our produce would all be donated but we never want a child or adult to go hungry.”

She and her sister grew up on the South Shore in the coastal community of Duxbury. After graduating from high school there, Meghan “bounced all around the state” before settling in Fitchburg last December with her partner. She and Juniper, a “military brat” who “grew up as somewhat of a nomad in the desert southwest,” got married in 2010. Meghan said her parents and Hannah and her kids will join them in Fitchburg in the future.

“I moved to Massachusetts in 2004 to be with Meghan and wouldn’t change a thing,” Juniper said.

Meghan disclosed that launching the farm in 2020 in the midst of the global pandemic was “in hindsight a very challenging first year for a business.”

“At that time, we were in Walpole and then we moved to Berkley for the next several years and finally to Fitchburg last winter,” she said of her and Juniper’s path that led them to where they are today. “We selected Fitchburg after a long process of considering many different options for our permanent home. Our main considerations were that we wanted to be in or immediately near a city in Massachusetts with food insecurity needs to be addressed with adequate nearby housing options for future staff, and above all, we needed to find a property that fit the rest of our needs.”

The farm is named after Stargazer lilies, Meghan’s favorite flower, which they planted “up at the front of our farm properties” and will do at the Fitchburg farm as well in the spring.

“It also has a nice double meaning with one of Juniper’s primary hobbies of astronomy,” she said. “In July, we have beautiful fragrant pink lilies.”

Moving their farm and rebuilding it has proven to be challenging. One of the things they are struggling with the most is restarting their Community Supported Agriculture program, which is currently open for registration for the 2026 season. Tailored for families of one to three or more, each CSA share included in the 18-week distribution period will feature a diverse selection of vegetables and fruits along with microgreens, duck eggs, honey, cut flowers, and more. They offer a “solidarity share” option as a part of their CSA program, which gives a 10-50% discount for families with financial hardships.

“At the same time, some things have been delightful,” Meghan said of their silver linings. “Our farm animals have never had such beautiful and well-fenced pastures, we have a small young orchard that already has some fruit bearing trees and berry plants, and the tractor that came with this property is top notch and we have a great equipment manager running it. The community has been very welcoming and engaging, particularly in terms of helping to connect me to others in agriculture and food insecurity initiatives. Many people have been delighted to meet us.”

Another issue they face is the notoriously fickle New England weather, something farmers are always struggling with, and yet they have given even that a positive spin.

“One thing that has been a meaningful challenge for all of us has been the extremes in weather that we have experienced over our time farming,” Meghan said. “Our farm has existed through a record drought year, a record rainfall year with widespread flooding, a record single-event snowfall, tornadoes in southeastern Massachusetts, and everything in between.”

Not too long ago, higher-than-forecasted winds did a couple thousand dollars of damage to their farm infrastructure.

“With climate change, weather extremes will only become more frequent,” Meghan said.

Stargazer is a weekly vendor at both the Hingham Farmers Market, which is held on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May to November, and the Lunenburg Artisan Market on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2. p.m., May through August, and they are looking to add additional markets for 2026.

“The Lunenburg Artisans Market is one of my favorite markets in the state,” Juniper said of the local market. “A wide variety of crafts, jewelry, decorations, and foodstuffs and a really tight-knit vendor community. Kate Ravellette does a phenomenal job managing, setting up, and promoting the market and I’m excited for next year’s markets.”

Meghan said being part of the farmers markets gives them “the opportunity to meet our customers and other vendors and members of our community face to face and make strong, lasting connections.”

“Also, we are ourselves customers at the markets we sell at,” she said. “During the farmers market season, we have a family goal that 90% or more of the food we eat at home is sourced from local farms and producers.”

Fellow Fitchburg resident Chris Rosinski is not only a Stargazer Hollow Farm team member but a huge supporter and fan of it in general.

“I would describe myself as mesmerized by the beauty of the land the first time up this past spring,” he said of the scenic spot. “From the vitality of the animals and land, the camaraderie of the people working it, and the mission to feed people through sustainable agriculture and stewardship, it only took one day of experiencing Stargazer Hollow Farm and I was hooked.”

Juniper said they appreciate that kind of backing from locals and that in their experience, area residents “are very community oriented.”

“We’re not a high population city so in addition to there being somewhat of a small-town feel, people that I talk to generally feel like we’re all in it together even with some of our differences,” Juniper said of Fitchburg.

When asked what their future goals and plans for the farm are, Meghan said that over the next couple years they will be focusing on “scaling and getting more efficient so that we can feed more people in a cost-effective way.”

“We’re tripling our growing space for this upcoming season, investing in a better greenhouse, and hopefully also some additional tractor attachments to lessen some of our hand-powered labor,” she shared, adding that they plan to grow over the winter next year and beyond.

For now, they are happy with how far they have come since relocating the farm a year ago and remain committed to Earth-friendly farming.

“It’s important to me that we make efforts towards rewilding and regenerating the landscape with native plants, upending all the invasive species, and constructing a permaculture food forest similar to the so-called ‘wilderness’ in the region before contact,” Juniper said. “The goal is that there will always be something to harvest separate from anything grown on the crop field or in the future greenhouse, fostering and encouraging foraging knowledge while staying firmly in the bounds of sustainability.”

For more information call 781-600-5250, email [email protected], visit stargazerhollowfarm.com, and follow Stargazer Hollow Farm on Facebook and Instagram.