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Doug Higley and Liz White co-own and operate Blackfire Farm, a small diversified farm in Hancock, NH. Higley is a Hancock native and met White at a farmer’s market. They fell in love, built a tiny house and devised a business plan to build a farm business that would foster the health of the land and surrounding environment.
To that end, they purchased a section of fallow land in Hancock that was cleared from forest 20 years prior. Higley and White employ intensive pasture rotations, enriching the soil with animal droppings from their chickens, sheep, rabbits, and pigs. They trade crops three or four times a year in each of their 55 permanent beds in sequences that promote soil health, a method known as biointensive farming. Additionally, they minimize tillage by using mulch or living cover to control weeds. They leave plants to flower in order to attract flowers, as well as some pest-resistant heirloom varieties of plants.
Currently, they're in their third growing season and run vegetable, egg, and meat CSAs, sell at farmers markets, and wholesale to area restaurants like the Waterhouse Restaurant in Peterborough where their rabbit can often be found on the menu.
Their Farm to Fire catering events featuring their amazing pizzas are baked in their mobile wood-fired oven using their own ingredients. Their pizzas can be found at local venues like Post & Beam Brewing in Peterborough or Main Street Cheese in Hancock, as well as private events - give them a call!
In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and tricky drought conditions, they credit a major component of their success to support from the local community. At one point, a town resident offered the farmers grazing land across town when dry conditions had stymied pasture growth.
It is their hope to provide their community with the best local food they can grow --nutrient rich produce and pasture raised livestock -- while assuring great food for future generations through the use of regenerative and holistic growing systems.
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