Nourse Farms Celebrates Milestone

What was once solely a strawberry nursery with annual sales of less than 1 million plants has become a nationally recognized small fruit nursery, now shipping 2,000% more product than at its inception.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, Nourse Farms today offers more than 75 varieties of small fruit plants — including strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, gooseberry, and currant plants — plus asparagus, horseradish, and rhubarb.

Established in 1932 in Andover, MA, by Roger Lewis, the Nourse family acquired the business in 1968 and moved the base of operations to Whately, MA. The Nourse family continues to manage day-to-day operations at the farm. Tim Nourse serves as president, Mary Nourse is director, and Nate Nourse is sales director.

“We’re located in the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts, where we are blessed with Hadley fine sandy loam soil,” says farm president Tim Nourse. “Today our farming operations encompass some 400 acres in the towns of Whately, Hatfield, and Montague, Massachusetts. Plus, we’ve developed some fine acreage in Pasco, WA.”

Commercial growers rely on Nourse Farms to provide them with healthy, vigorous plants, and for practical information on planting and culture. “Our mission of producing top-quality plants,” says Nourse, “is further supported by our tissue culture lab which we opened in 1982. Besides propagation of strawberries and brambles, our lab specializes in virus and disease detection and elimination.”

Nourse Farms has recently established the newest technologies in RNA and DNA extraction and PCR testing. “This is state-of-the-art technology,” says Nourse, “that allows us to offer certified planting stock.”

For more information on where Nourse Farms is headed in the future, give them a call at 413-665-2658 or e-mail Nate Nourse at [email protected].