Starting a Farm? Extension Helps Those Who Don’t Want to ‘Wing It’

Colleen Ford says that UNH Extension's Jesse Wright helped her to turn her love of gardening into a profitable enterprise.

Colleen Ford learned her love of gardening from her grandparents. Emily Lucy comes from a long line of farmers. Yet when each wanted to turn their passion into a business, they knew they needed more than inherited wisdom. They needed guidance from UNH Extension.

New farmers can bring a range of business savvy to their operation. At one end of the spectrum are farmers who plant some seeds and hope for the best. Sitting at the other end are those who want more than hope, so they connect with someone like Jesse Wright, an Extension field specialist.

“I work with a lot of startups or fledgling farms who have thought about where to sell things last,” Wright says, explaining that some new farmers still think like gardeners rather than business managers. They get excited about production but don’t consider how to market their product. “Many of those folks end up getting themselves into trouble or end up having to process a lot of cucumbers into pickles.”

Wright specializes in farm business practices, including how to analyze possible markets for their goods, how to keep records of their growing seasons, and some basic best practices. She says that Extension aims to “meet producers where they’re at” to provide them with strategies that are both “useful and usable” for their farm’s scale and the farmer’s business acumen.

Ford, who grows flowers on what she describes as a “postage stamp” plot in Rumney, found her way back to gardening – one of her first loves – after the pandemic threw her off her previous professional track.

She had learned the fundamentals of gardening from her grandparents, and later worked in greenhouses and orchards. Her flower beds often drew unsolicited praise from passersby. Some even asked if they could buy her flowers.

“From that one conversation and a lifetime of growing, Side Garden was germinated from a love of gardens to a real, live, organized LLC,” Ford says.

That germination process started with Ford seeking as many resources as she could, including a conference for cut flower growers where she met Extension staff members Jonathan Ebba and Jesse Wright. She gained so much from that one-day conference that she signed up for a six week-long website design class, then a social media for farmers class, and has attended a tour of a garden in southern New Hampshire.

As Ford engaged with Extension, she noticed a pattern. Not only did she gain the technical knowledge the event promised, she also met other farmers and came away with the sense that her cup was fulfilled. That garden tour took up just a couple of hours, she offers by way of example.

“So much was learned in one evening visit,” Ford says. “I left that farm visit feeling inspired, even after the long season that the 2025 summer was.”

Ford’s Side Garden has been in business since 2023, while Lucy is still anticipating her first day of business. A product of the Mount Washington Valley – where her family has farmed for more than two centuries – Lucy is returning to her native state after living in Alaska for 15 years.

Lucy has experienced Extension services in other states and says it was a given that she would reach out to the local office.

“I knew I wanted to do soil testing, meet other farmers in my area and New England, and I also knew they would have classes and workshops that I would find interesting and have information I would need.”

So far, Lucy has taken a website design class, enrolled in the New Farmer School, and had support tailored to her specific farming vision.

“I’m just getting started, still deciding on what I will grow, how to harvest, what products to make, how to market, et cetera,” Lucy says. “It has helped to know I am supported, to participate in workshops, to have relationships with staff and people to reach out for feedback, and most of all, connected me with the agricultural community in my area. I’m looking forward to working closely with them into the future.”

“I’m not really sure how you would get started in the agriculture field without Extension support – I guess you would just wing it,” Lucy says.