In early 2018 I got a call from my sister Dotty, who had just bought her home in Stratham. She wanted to have a craft sale and asked if I wanted to help. For a few weeks we made crafts in a small room in her garage. While making the crafts we had a conversation about making the garage into a small craft store.
The building attached to her garage used to be an antique shop and had several rooms. On our craft store’s opening day she decided to bring her 4 pet goats up to the front of the store so people could see them when they came to shop. Everyone who visited wanted to pet and feed the goats.
The next spring we had goat babies. Our first
two babies born to our goat, Sylvia, was Spock and Kirk. We invited our visitors to hold and bottle feed our new baby boys. Obviously, this was a hit, and eventually grew bigger every year as we bred our goats.
We began to market our farm on Facebook and people would come from all over to see and help bottle feed our baby goats.
The second year we also added goat yoga. This drew the attention of the local newspaper who posted an article all about our yoga and the farm animals. Eventually we drew the attention of NH Chronical who did a week long segment filmed on the farm. Things really took off for the farm after that.
Children seemed to love being at the farm, in nature and around animals. Although we have Wi-Fi we have never been asked for the password from anyone. Here, children forget about technology and cell phones and get immersed in the outdoors and the animals.
As people asked for things on the farm we listened and expanded the farm and its services to fit the wants of the local community. Everyone wanted to see ponies and pigs, so we added them too.
My sister, Dotty, owns the property and the farm. Growing up there were times we could not afford to visit things like petting zoos or could not afford to get but one handful of the petting zoo food. Because of this, she has made a point to keep the farm a donation only farm so it is available for every child who wants to see the farm. We do charge for parties, some events and special activities but access to the farm and petting zoo will always remain donation only and those that cannot afford to make a donation will always be welcome for free.
We also encourage handling of our animals. Most of our animals have been born on our farm at this point. They have all been cuddled and loved since birth and are comfortable being around people. They love attention and love which there is no shortage of this on the farm from the staff and the visitors.
We added new animals, and slowly grew into a full petting zoo. We began to include birthday parties, mobile petting zoos, family events, farm camp, yoga and so much more. Our little farm store is still up and running and is now a gift shop for the farm and the welcoming point of the petting zoo.
This year we project to be our biggest year ever as the farm has grown every year we have been open. This is all thanks to the generous and ongoing support of our community for their ongoing support and word of mouth recommendations. We would not be where we are today without you.
This March, the beginning of our fifth year of opening our little craft store that became Legacy Lane Farm, it is with heartfelt sincerity that we say thank you to everyone that has visited and supported our farm over the years and helped make it what it is today. As our way of saying thank you to all of the people who have supported the farm we will be having free ice cream day on Saturday March 4th from 10-3. We hope to see all of you there.
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