The driveway to Turkey Hill Farm in Cape Elizabeth was full of cars Tuesday. A steady stream of kids were eagerly checking out the rabbits, lambs, pigs and chickens while parents watched and waited. Everyone was excited, and not just because the weather felt like the first true day of summer. More importantly, for these visitors, it was time to pick up their fresh vegetables.

Tuesday was the first day “shareholders” in John Bliss and Stacey Brenner’s farm could come and pick out the produce they had helped grow. Turkey Hill is an organic Community Supported Agriculture program where anyone can buy a portion of the farm before the growing season begins. Soon Brenner and Bliss will close Turkey Hill and move their farm and program to the Meserve Farm in Scarborough.

Last fall the Scarborough Land Conservation Trust, the group that successfully raised the money to purchase the farm, opened up the land to a bidding process. During the bidding period, any interested farmers could submit an application and business plan. On June 1, the trust finished reading the applications and announced that Brenner and Bliss would be the new tenants.

While Brenner and Bliss will be the residents and managers of the Meserve Farm, they will also sublease about 20 of the 430 acres to John and Ramona Snell of the Snell Family Farm in Buxton.

After the move to Scarborough, Brenner said they plan to continue to run the same Community Supported Agriculture program, as well as the eight week summer farm camp they host each year for about 32 kids.

“We’re basically going to mimic what goes on here,” said Brenner.

Part of the experience

The agriculture program they will continue in Scarborough depends on shareholders who come and do any work Brenner and Bliss need. From weeding to moving rocks, shareholders are a part of the farming process. In return, the shareholders receive fresh food all summer long.

After all the work, the big day comes. Brenner and Bliss update the Web site, and shareholders come to pick up the produce they’ve already paid for and grown. For about the next 20 weeks they can come by and see what veggies, flowers or other produce are available.

“People can really see where their food came from,” said Brenner. “You get to be a part of the experience.”

Through word of mouth, Turkey Hill has 55 shareholders, even though Brenner was supposed to stop at 50. The goal is to not only involve the community, but to share the risk of the farm as well. It also keeps Brenner and Bliss at Turkey Hill as opposed to packing everything up for a farmer’s market.

The program has been a success, but Last November they decided to look for more room to better rotate their fields. It took them all winter to write the business plan and proposal, but in April the Land Conservation Trust first read their application and by June had chosen them as the new tenants

“I really think this is such a great project,” said Laurene Swaney, president of the Scarborough Land Conservation Trust.

Work to be done

The Meserve Farm is the largest piece of property owned by the Land Trust, according to Paul Austin of the Scarborough Conservation Commission. When they finalized the deal with the Meserve family it more than doubled the land preserved by the Trust.

“This is just an amazing property,” said Austin. “To be able to find a use for this land is just wonderful.”

Though the Snells, Brenner and Bliss have begun preliminary work at the Meserve Farm, according to Swaney, much more renovation needs to be done before they can move in completely.

Swaney estimates that about $70,000 is needed to fix up the farmhouse and surrounding buildings. In order for Bliss and Brenner to live at the farm, $35,000 is needed to complete the repairs to the house. The rest of the money will go to fix the barns and storage areas.

“We’re not sure how to approach asking for that money,” said Swaney. “We’ve found that it’s harder to raise money for bricks and mortar than it is to acquire a piece of land.”

The major repairs are mostly structural, according to Austin. They’ve already replaced beams and flooring in the barns to keep them standing.

“We don’t have the luxury to restore this exactly as it would have been in 1800,” said Austin. “We have to stabilize everything with respect to how it would have been.”

For example, in the barn attached to the house, they replaced half the original wooden floor with cement to allow storage of heavy equipment and grain. The house has also been gutted and re-sided, and all the windows were replaced with modern glass. Still, some of the interior has been preserved, and all of the old barns will be repaired instead of being torn down.

The “square barn” is one of those original buildings the trust is working to save. It is also possibly the oldest building on the property. Built in the 1700s, it’s what Austin calls a “gem of a building.” It might be the biggest historical portion of the farm, but it also needs the most work.

“It’s an absolute treasure,” said Austin.

Eventually these will be the buildings where the shareholders will arrive to pick up their flowers, vegetables, eggs and fresh, organic meats. The fields that are just being prepared will be farmed by new volunteers looking forward to their first pick-up date in early June.

A difficult move

Brenner said they hope to be in by next September. She hopes that some of their current shareholders will come with them, but understands the commute might not appeal to everyone.

She’s excited to move on to the larger Meserve Farm, but it’s still hard to leave her home and the success of Turkey Hill.

“It’s very sad,” said Brenner. “Very, very sad.”

Shareholder Kira Wigoda and her son Eli Sobel paused Tuesday while clipping lupine to think about the day when Bliss and Brenner move to Scarborough. Wigoda isn’t sure they will make the drive as Turkey Hill is only three miles from their home, but she loves the program and hopes someone else will continue with it in Cape Elizabeth.

“It’s so great,” she said. “It’s really nice here. It’s definitely something everyone should do. Plus, you get to do a little hard labor.”

This is her second year as a shareholder. She has done chores such as clearing out rocks from the fields and squashing little red bugs with her bare fingers.

“That was a little hard for me,” she said.

For Bliss and Brenner, the move means finding new neighbors and community members to come and not only buy shares, but to drop off grass clippings, compost and other things necessary to running an organic farm.

“Those are things we really want to build up in Scarborough,” said Brenner.

The move is something they’re looking forward to, but it won’t be simple. Even after all of the repairs are made and the Meserve farm is ready for new tenants, farming is still farming.

“There’s nothing easy about being a farmer,” said Austin. “It hasn’t gotten any easier to farm. It’s just different.”

A pair of Cape Elizabeth farmers plan to run a community agricultural program on the largest piece of preserved property in Scarborough.John Bliss and Stacey Brenner are planning to close Turkey Hill and move their farm to the Meserve Farm in Scarborough. Stacy Brenner and John Bliss.