Dunn Farm
Nothing fancy
Freddy Dunn tried working a factory job once only to quickly realize that, like his cows, he needs to get outside every day. He grew up farming with his dad. “It’s all he’s known,” says his wife, Denise. She does the farm’s books and works for the local police department: “I have a sign in my kitchen,” she says chuckling: “For every great farmer, there’s a spouse who works in town.” Every summer, the family grows sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumbers to sell from a roadside farmstand. “It’s nothing fancy,” says Denise—but it’s all part of keeping things going.
Remember when?
Back when Freddy graduated from high school in 1979, there were five farms on Blackberry Hill Road. “The milk truck driver used to take all us kids riding with him,” Freddy says. “We’d ride the whole route and wouldn’t hardly leave town.” There was a wooden bridge to Dunn Farm, he continues, but by the time the milk truck got back there after doing the full milk pick-up loop, it was too heavy to cross back over the bridge to drop the kids, so they’d jump out and walk the half–mile home. Now Dunn Farm is the only dairy that remains.
Sharing their story
The Dunns consider themselves lucky to have both of their daughters around, though they work off-farm. Ashlee, the eldest, lives with her husband and two kids on the farm. “It’s a joy, a real blast to have the grandkids here,” Denise says. “They don’t worry about getting dirty and they love to help feed the calves.” Both Ashlee and her sister, Marey, motivated the family to get involved with Maine Open Farm Day. “They liked growing up on the farm,” their mother says. “They realize that there are people who don’t know where their milk comes from. This is a way for us to share what we do here.”
