Issues → November/December 2007 → Home & Garden →
House For Sale: Goshen, New Hampshire
It's time to recycle the old 105-acre farm
by The Moseyer
For the past 55 years, Ed and Phyllis Baker, ages 77 and 76 -- their three children now away with families of their own -- have been living on their 108-acre farm, 105 acres of which are currently for sale (asking $495,000), in the small town of Goshen, New Hampshire. Never heard of Goshen?
Well, it's a lovely little community, a few miles south of the Mount Sunapee ski area and only a half-hour's drive or so from Claremont or New London.
It's not a town that offers myriad career opportunities -- that is, unless you're Ed Baker. A direct descendant of John Alden (you know, the famous Mayflower Pilgrim), Ed is originally from Duxbury, Massachusetts (Phyllis comes from nearby Plymouth). He's a machinist by trade but is also proficient in plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, mechanics, and, well, you name it. As he explains, he's always been willing to "take on anything that was available, day or night." For some 26 years, for instance, he was in charge of the ski lifts and gondola at Mount Sunapee while serving on the side as Goshen's fire chief and highway superintendent, too.
Phyllis has also been an integral part of Goshen, serving as tax collector and town clerk for almost 38 years. Retired now, both have been presented with "Community Citizen of the Year" awards and other honors. "Pretty good for stump jumpers," quipped Ed, using an old term that denotes people "from away" (no matter how long ago).
Last summer, Ed and Phyllis wrote us that they were thinking, regretfully, that it was time to "recycle the old farm" -- "Baker's Acres," as they call it. And so it was that one recent morning, we found ourselves sitting at the kitchen table of their two-story, four-bedroom farmhouse (built "sometime about 1840," Ed noted) and enjoying coffee and the best coffee cake we've ever tasted.
"We've never had much money," said Ed, recalling the many years gone by, "but we've had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs." Not many idle moments, however. For instance, with the help of their two girls and one boy, they raised pigs, chickens, ponies, ducks, and beef cattle, which they butchered themselves. Cured their own ham and bacon, too, and made their own cider and ice cream. They didn't have a milking cow but never had to buy milk, either. "Traded for it," explained Ed. In exchange for milk, he'd do some work around a neighbor's place or maybe fix something. They had a thriving maple syrup operation, and they cut and split (by hand) a dozen cords of wood every year to heat the house. (They've been using an oil furnace the last couple of years.)
At Thanksgiving dinner, they'd sometimes have as many as 15 kinds of pies, all made with berries or fruit from their property or vegetables from their huge garden. Of course, they always cut their own Christmas trees on their land, and it wasn't unusual for one of those turkeys or deer that wander through their acreage to end up as part of the holiday meal, too. Oh yes, and there were plenty of fish to be caught in nearby Gunnison Lake.
Although the house is warm and comfortable, it's far from fancy. As Ed put it, it's more "a lived-in place to hang your hat type of home." With three bedrooms upstairs, it also has an extra bedroom on the first floor, plus the living room, family room, a kitchen large enough for the breakfast table at which we sat that morning, a screened-in sitting porch, a nice glassed-in porch, and the one and only bathroom. (Hey, at least it's indoors!)
Reader Comments
Comment from Suzie Titus on January 1, 2008
I must have read this article 6 times already. I want to move to the farm and spend the rest of my days hearing stories and learning about this family farm from this wonderful, warm couple, The Bakers.
Comment from Michael Lynch on January 6, 2008
WOW
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