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and communities to protect their farms, forests, and other
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    The 107-acre Plainfield farm, which the Guyette family purchased in 1932, would make lovely house-lots, with its rolling meadows, stone walls and woods. But before her husband, Harry, died in 2007, he said he wanted the farm to go "somewhere they couldn't build on it." And Evelyn made sure of it.

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    Last spring, Evelyn Guyette gifted the farm to the Franklin Land Trust in honor of Harry. Evelyn, now 97, will continue to live in the house. But the property will now be protected from development, under a conservation restriction held by Hilltown Land Trust. Meanwhile, FLT will work to restore the 1800s barn and establish a trail system for the public to enjoy.

    Living off the land 

    Harry Guyette farmed the land with horses, until he got his first tractor in 1948. 

    "And I'll never forget… He said he could always take a tractor and put it where he wanted it and it would stay there," recalls his wife, Evelyn Guyette. "And he could put the horses there and when he came back with what he was after, they'd be home." 

 The Guyette family fed itself through the Great Depression with homegrown vegetables and one milking cow. Harry, his brother, Merrell, and his father, Arthur, kept the farm going for more than 70 years. When Evelyn married Harry and moved to the farm in 1957, she joined in the work, tending to three large gardens, berry patches, and more. 

    The vegetable they grew most of was cauliflower.  Harry was known as "the cauliflower man."  "We had beautiful cauliflower," said Evelyn. 

    But the Guyettes grew just about every vegetable in three large gardens on the farm.  Evelyn had a job delivering mail on a route from Williamsburg to Plainfield several times a day. 

    "I'd get up early every morning and pick my produce and take maybe $10 or $12 worth down to the post office. I'd mark it and leave it there, let them take it and pay for it," she said. 

    They also had cattle.  When Evelyn first came to the farm, the Guyettes had a dairy operation with 40 cows.  But when health regulations began to require that dairy farms be more industrialized, they stopped milking and only had beef cattle.  Harry sold the cows about 10 years ago. 

    Though it was a lot of work, Evelyn enjoyed gardening.  She said, "I'd love to do it over again.  That's all in my life I'd like to do again is get out in the garden." 

     The Guyette farm supports a lot of wildlife.  The stream had good fishing down by the culvert on Gloyd Road.  One day, Evelyn remembers, she caught 30 fish.  "And I'll tell you right now," she said, "We had fish, fish, fish, fish!" 

    The decision to conserve

    Once Evelyn decided that she wanted the land protected, she determined that one organization was not enough.  The Franklin Land Trust would own the property, she decided, while Hilltown Land Trust would hold a conservation restriction on it.

   
 FLT held a dedication ceremony Oct. 4 to celebrate the gift of the property with the local community. Next, it plans to begin a survey to establish the precise boundaries of the property, and begin creating a network of trails for hiking, cross-country skiing and other activities.

In the future, FLT hopes to install a kiosk with information about the property's history. 
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    Evelyn remarked recently, "I hope I can look down and know what they do with it eventually." 

This article includes excerpts from an interview with Evelyn Guyette conducted by Caroline Raisler, who interned with Hilltown Land Trust.  
Photographs by Alex Atwater, Alain Peteroy & the Guyette Family.