WILMINGTON-For generations, Adams Farm has changed with the times. It has been a dairy farm, a sleigh ride destination, a petting farm, and most recently, a collection of short-term rentals. Now, seventh-generation family member Olivia Adams Mancivalano is preparing to bring the farm back to life.
Mancivalano plans to reopen Adams Family Farm, on Higley Hill Road, over Labor Day weekend, bringing back some of the traditions longtime visitors remember, while introducing new ideas of her own. The farm, which has been in the Adams family since 1861, has been closed to the public since 2018.
“I’m just really excited to get people back and create that family experience and touch into those nostalgic moments that people shared here,” said Mancivalano.
She grew up on the 100-acre property and spent much of her childhood around the farm’s tourism business. After moving to California to work as a fashion designer, she returned to Vermont during the pandemic.
She later worked with her father, Carl Mancivalano, on a farm in Shrewsbury that operated a mental-health and substance-abuse program.
Her grandparents, Sharon and Bill Adams, have owned the property for decades. Sharon married into the Adams family after growing up in Wilmington and has lived on the farm for over 60 years.
“First it was a dairy farm,” Sharon said. “His dad and mom had a dairy farm, and Bill continued and remodeled the barn and made more room for more cows.”
In 1980, the family began looking for ways to expand beyond dairy. Sharon and Bill bought a team of Belgian draft horses from the Amish country in Pennsylvania and started offering sleigh rides, with Bill building the sleighs and a log cabin. During the warmer months, the family offered tractor-drawn wagon rides around the property.
The sleigh and wagon rides eventually became part of the farm’s broader tourism operation, bringing visitors around the property to learn about its history and see the farm animals.
The dairy operation continued until 1986, when the family participated in the federal Whole Herd Buyout program, in which dairy or livestock producers were paid by the federal government to slaughter herds or cut production to curb milk surpluses and stabilize market prices.
Later, Sharon and Bill partnered with their daughter Jill and son-in-law Carl Mancivalano to turn the property into a petting farm and tourism destination.
Visitors could see and feed animals, take wagon rides around the property, and learn about the farm’s history. The operation also offered activities like pony rides, agricultural demonstrations, corn mazes, and seasonal events.
Sharon remembers how unusual it was for so many members of the family to work together.
“People could not believe three generations working together because so many families are scattered all over the country, all over the world,” she said.
The petting farm eventually closed in 2018. Since then, Sharon and Bill have operated Airbnb rentals on the property, providing a different way for visitors to experience the farm.
Over the past several years, they have welcomed guests from across the country and as far away as England and Scotland, giving visitors the opportunity to experience a traditional New England farm.
Now, the property is shifting again.
A farm reborn
Mancivalano plans to start smaller than the previous operation and build from there. The initial reopening will include a petting farm, a small store, and an event called “Adams Farm Meet the Machines,” where children can see local trucks and farming equipment.
The farm has Icelandic and Gotland sheep, two Highland cows, miniature donkeys, Flemish giant rabbits, more than 100 chickens, and a dairy goat. Mancivalano also hopes to add piglets.
For the fall, she has planted a 2-acre corn maze and nearly 2 acres of pumpkins for a pick-your-own patch. Wagon rides will also return.
However, Mancivalano does not plan to simply recreate what existed before.
She hopes to eventually offer yoga, revive a concert series she hosted at the farm in 2024, and work with local craftspeople and food producers to stock the store. She also wants to create a museum inside the store and eventually open the farm’s 1800s workshop to visitors.
“We’ve got a lot of big ideas and just need to figure out how to make this all work. We want to bring back a lot of the old traditions, and then bring in new traditions as well,” Mancivalano said.
One part of the farm’s former operation that she will not bring back immediately is its on-site meat-processing plant, which was built in 2014 while Mancivalano’s uncle, Kip Adams, was operating the farm and allowed the family to process meat raised on the property and sell it directly to customers.
There are also more immediate challenges. Years of deferred maintenance have left barns and other buildings in need of work, while Mancivalano is simultaneously rebuilding the farm’s animal population and figuring out how to operate a business she has never run before.
“I’ve never done this before, so this is all new to me,” she said. “I’m kind of winging it.”
For Sharon and Bill, keeping the farm in the family has been important for years. They had held onto the property in the hope that eventually one of their children or grandchildren would want to take it on.
“We just didn’t want to see it subdivided with condos and everything,” Sharon said. “And so there was always hope that maybe for one of the kids or grandkids, and then she decided she really wanted it.”
For Mancivalano, taking over Adams Farm is about more than reopening a business. She wants to preserve the property and the memories tied to it while creating something that can continue for generations. Her goal is to carry the farm forward for another seven generations.
“I’m just really excited to carry on the traditions and memories that everybody has shared here,” Mancivalano said.
She also hopes the farm will become a place where people can learn about its history, interact with animals, and experience agriculture firsthand.
“I want to have this be an educational place for people as well,” she said.
Ultimately, Mancivalano wants visitors to slow down and become part of the farm, even if only for a few hours.
“You can really be present here and let go of what is beyond this property to be able to slow down and feel the dirt,” she said. “It’s okay to get dirty. It’s okay to get cow slobber on you.”
This News item by Jon Hurdle originally appeared in The Deerfield Valley News and was republished in The Commons with permission.