A wonderful way to step into the past is a visit to Muster Field Farm, a short 20-minute drive from Grantham. Lovers Lane, a narrow dirt road through a thick forest, leads to the farm and is the perfect way to enter your trip back in time.
Matthew Harvey and his family settled there in 1772. One cold winter night, their first house burned down. Neighbors got together and made a one-room home complete with a fireplace in one day. That tiny house was added to and still stands there to this day.
The spirit of neighbors helping neighbors is very much alive today as a team of dedicated volunteers work the farm and maintain the historic farm buildings and artifacts that were brought there for visitors to see. I spoke with a few volunteers who happily answered my many questions. When I saw a bunch of just-picked beets being carried away, I hurried to the farm stand which is a re-purposed chicken house. Produce is purchased using the honor system with money left and change made from an old tin box with a picture of George Washington’s honest face. (That evening I roasted my beets and can report that they were scrumptious.)
Muster Field Farm was a place where citizen soldiers from Sutton and the surrounding towns would drill and parade. The first recorded muster was held there in 1787. Although the main reasons for the musters were to prepare men to defend their towns or join the army as a group, the annual gatherings were a great excuse to party. I imagine many of the troops and their families camped out and enjoyed communal dinners and impromptu dances.
If you stand very still and gaze across the flat land, you can almost hear the faint sounds of a fiddle playing along with a subtle whisper telling you to “remember.”
Matthew Harvey and his family settled there in 1772. One cold winter night, their first house burned down. Neighbors got together and made a one-room home complete with a fireplace in one day. That tiny house was added to and still stands there to this day.
The spirit of neighbors helping neighbors is very much alive today as a team of dedicated volunteers work the farm and maintain the historic farm buildings and artifacts that were brought there for visitors to see. I spoke with a few volunteers who happily answered my many questions. When I saw a bunch of just-picked beets being carried away, I hurried to the farm stand which is a re-purposed chicken house. Produce is purchased using the honor system with money left and change made from an old tin box with a picture of George Washington’s honest face. (That evening I roasted my beets and can report that they were scrumptious.)
Muster Field Farm was a place where citizen soldiers from Sutton and the surrounding towns would drill and parade. The first recorded muster was held there in 1787. Although the main reasons for the musters were to prepare men to defend their towns or join the army as a group, the annual gatherings were a great excuse to party. I imagine many of the troops and their families camped out and enjoyed communal dinners and impromptu dances.
If you stand very still and gaze across the flat land, you can almost hear the faint sounds of a fiddle playing along with a subtle whisper telling you to “remember.”
For directions go to musterfieldfarm.com.
Farm buildings on display beyond the flower and vegetable gardens
A field of yellow hawksbeard in September, 2020, on the Muster Field