About the Welch Farm

view to Great Cove, from Welch Farm blueberry fields

The farm consists of 425 acres, most of that in wooded growth.  There is access to a mile of privately owned beach. Coming soon, there will be a private picnic area overlooking the ocean. There are also roads and trails available for hiking to the ocean or to a salt-water marsh.   If you are interested in the wildlife, there is an abundance here.  Moose, deer, coyotes, raccoons and the occasional rare sighting of a bear can sometimes be seen wandering the fields or eating the blueberries.  In season, fresh blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries are available for your morning breakfast, or for that freshly baked pie, or for your trip home.

view to the farm buildings, from the blueberry fields

History of the Welch Farm

(by Lisa Hanscom)

My great grandparents, Frank and Mary Welch brought the farm in 1912.  They moved into the house on Christmas of Day of that year.  In February of the following year, the house burnt down.  As Frank rebuilt the house that now stands on the original foundation, they lived in a small room of the woodshed that stood behind the house.  The woodshed was just recently torn down because of disrepair.  The barn is the original built by the previous owners, the Thompsons, back in the early to mid -1800’s.  It is the oldest building in the Town of Roque Bluffs. It is post and beam construction and it is slowly being restored.  Frank started clearing the land within two years of moving in.  He raised sheep and cattle. Since sheep eat everything but blueberry bushes, soon the cleared rye fields became blueberry fields.   The Welch farm has been a working blueberry farm since the early 1900s.  There have been many changes in the blueberry industry and we have adapted to them all.  Alex, Michaela, Britni, and Caleb are the fifth generation to be raised here.  They someday will carry on the traditions started by Frank and Mary Welch so many years ago.