Welcome to Beech Hill Farm — A Project of College of the Atlantic

Beech Hill Farm, located on Beech Hill Road in Mt. Desert, Maine, includes approximately five acres of diversified, MOFGA certified organic farmland, several acres of heirloom apple trees and 65 acres of forest.

Alumni donated the farm to College of the Atlantic in May, 1999. COA has since then been developing this unparalleled opportunity to preserve working local farmland and create a hands-on educational resource for students, farmers, and community members. today is sunny.

Our Mission

Beech Hill Farm produces certified organic food for COA and the Mount Desert Island (MDI) community, while using methods that maintain the integrity and health of the land, and work toward environmental and economic sustainability. Beech Hill Farm is a base for understanding agriculture as a central concern of human ecology for College of the Atlantic students and faculty.

 History

COA alumni Barbarina Heyerdahl '98 and her husband, Aaron Heyerdahl '97, founded and successfully operated Beech Hill Farm for 10 years. College of the Atlantic has owned Beech Hill Farm since 1999, when the Heyerdhal's donated the farm to the College.

The Heyerdahl's granted a conservation easement on the property to Maine Coast Heritage Trust in May 1999. The purpose of the easement is "to provide a significant public benefit by protecting and preserving the highly scenic and open views of and across the protected property enjoyed by the public from the Beech Hill Road; and to prevent the conversion of open lands on prime agricultural soils to development or other land uses that would limit their productivity and availability for agricultural uses in the future."

Location, Facilities and other Characteristics

The 73-acre farm is located in the Town of Mount Desert at an elevation of 300 feet on a ridge of deep glacial till soils. The farm is unique on Mount Desert Island (MDI) because of the depth and quality of the soil. The fertility of the soil is partly the result of intensive poultry farming that took place on the site in the mid 1900's. There are eight field units under tillage that total of five acres of crop production. Three of these acres are on rented land. There is an additional 12 acres of open land that includes two acres of heirloom apples in three small orchards. The majority of the land is forested and consists of approximately 56 acres: 36 acres of mixed wood, 12 acres of hardwood, and 8 acres of softwood.

The facilities at Beech Hill farm include a ranch-style farmhouse, carriage barn with attached glasshouse and four unheated plastic greenhouses. The farm is also equipped with a packing shed, machine shop, drying room, office, and popular on-site farm stand.