The property at 153 East Old Route 6 was christened “Popover Hill” by the Ostby family to describe the experience of climbing the narrow, unpaved drive, stonewalled and lined with tall pines — an enchanting corridor — “and popping over the top of the hill” to reveal one of our town’s most bucolic locations, an old farmhouse — a center chimney cape, nestled within stonewalls, surrounded with rolling hills, and sheltered with evergreens.
New owners, Sam and Rosetta Fisher, a Mennonite family from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and their four sons, are preserving the former name in their “Organic Roots Farm at Popover Hill.” The Fishers are also preserving the roots of the property by establishing a farm here, from which they will sell seasonal crops of fruits and vegetables. The sloping fields southwest of the house have been plowed, fenced, and planted. Strawberries, red and black raspberries, and blueberries are being cultivated, along with a spring crop of asparagus, summer’s cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and eggplants, zucchini and summer squash, string beans – yellow, green and burgundy, sweet corn, and an autumn harvest of butternut and winter squash, sweet potatoes, early red and Yukon gold potatoes, ornamental and edible pumpkins. Fresh herbs are also anticipated– basil, parsley, dill, mint, and nasturtiums. The Fisher’s own roots are visible in the garden as well, in several of their plants, in heirloom tomatoes such as one for a special “Amish paste” that promises a thick tomato sauce. An Amish woman started the plugs for several types of peppers, including a variety likened to “candy for the kids.” Among the melons, there are heirlooms such as “Teacher Lydia” watermelon, with larger, yet fewer, seeds. “Lizzy’s Lettuce” also originates from a former Amish neighbor, from seeds saved through the years. During our visit, Sam and his older sons returned from Lancaster with plants from neighbors there. Most importantly, the crops grown on the farm at Popover Hill are completely organic; no chemicals are used on the plants or in the soil. Customers can purchase produce that has never been treated with chemicals, nor has the soil, nor the seeds.
All farms entail a lot of labor, with everything else dependent upon the weather and the farmers’ trials and errors as they discover the strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies of their particular site. So far, Rosetta’s only regret — “We forgot to leave a spot on the slope of crops for sledding.”
The property has always served as some sort of a farm. A brick in the chimney is inscribed with the date 1809. Earliest documents record David Fox, who operated a fulling mill here along the Little River, which traversed the property, as owning over 100 acres of land east of Bigelow Road and on both sides of “the road from Hampton to Brooklyn”. His will mentions two houses and there’s speculation that the Sears house was once part of this property. This section of town is a little confusing because of changes in the town line, moving east when Hampton was created. In 1827, David Fox left “the old farm” of 103 acres to his son, Anson. Josiah and Jackson Horace owned it from 1834 to 1877, and John Smith from 1877 to 1887, when it became known as “the Sherman place” until 1916.
The Ostby’s operated a renowned Christmas tree farm for over 30 years on Popover Hill, starting in 1969. They also built a new barn to house their small assortment of animals — goats, sheep and chickens, and a horse — after the original barn collapsed. The old foundation of the barn near the house remains and is now host to lettuce, kale, peas, echinacea for tinctures, and rose bushes to attract bees.
Although the Fishers have only lived here for a half a year, the match of family and farm is more than evident in Sam and Rosetta, in their sons, Adam, Max, Spencer and Ben, ranging in age from 15 to 6, and in the settled look of the place, which appears as though they’ve lived here forever. Across the front of the house, window boxes brim with an assortment of flowers, and outside the kitchen door, a window box stuffed with lettuces provides the ingredients for fresh salads. Along the barn’s old foundation, a row of bluebird houses are inhabited by blue birds, and little blue eggs have been discovered inside. A new house has been erected for Sam’s parents, who are Amish and are expected here shortly.
The Fisher’s appreciation for the property is evinced everywhere. The stone walls around the house, Rosetta says, make the home feel like it’s “cradled”. Beyond the patio at the back of the house, the Fishers unearthed the truth of the rumored existence of an outhouse when they ground a tree stump and discovered the privy’s old boards. Stone hitching posts delineate the home from the pastures beyond, spilling first into a sea of Siberian irises and purple tradescantia, the massive stone wall extending into the meadow, lining a path and cloaked with Concord grapes and wild roses, punctuated by an enormous honeysuckle perfuming the air. The path leads to a pond from which water is used to irrigate the vegetable field. East of the house, the family is excavating for an orchard – apples, plums, peaches, and pears. A couple of buildings brought from Lancaster will be used for the harvest, preparation, and sale of crops. Produce sheds wait to be situated in the garden for storage and near the lower driveway for sales. Old wooden boxes for displaying produce have Rosetta’s grandfather’s initials carved in them. A small pen houses guineas. Free range chickens will produce eggs for sale later in the summer. The family expects to open the vegetable stand in early July.
Although the Fishers only arrived soon after Christmas, they have already transformed their home, opening the small rooms typical of capes to allow for one large room encompassing the stone hearth, the kitchen, dining, and living room areas, lending an airy feel to the sunlit space, antiquity and structure alike supported with repurposed tobacco barn beams from Pennsylvania. The room that was once Leila Ostby’s jewelry shop, however, remains separate.
Settling in Hampton, the couple feels like they’ve come “full circle”. Sam and Rosetta honeymooned, and celebrated a New England Christmas, in Mystic, returning to Connecticut on their 10th anniversary. On their 20th anniversary, last Christmas, they came to stay.
Though the Fishers were one of first families to commit to coming to Connecticut, they searched for three years for the right property.
Selectmen Allan Cahill and Mike Chapel were “instrumental in getting us here,” says Sam. When the property became available with Leila’s passing last year, Mike told them — I think I know exactly what you’re looking for. Popover Hill “was a direct answer to our prayers. All the dreams we have for this property, we won’t fulfill in my lifetime,” but subsequent generations will, he says. As to their progress in fulfilling these dreams – “the property is doing its part.”
Sam speaks reverently of the fertile soil, the stream, the pond, the beautiful land, the cozy home. And Rosetta describes a “Currier and Ives homestead where we can grow crops and raise our children” and calls their discovery, “a blessing from God”.
While they grew discouraged with their futile searches to find the right place, someone said – “You will never find a property with everything you want,” Sam recalls, “but we did.”
As they speak, circles form, full and concentric, their sentiments echoing someone else’s discovery of another special spot in Hampton – Trail Wood. Ironically, Edwin Way Teale wrote of the Ostby’s assistance in their search for a place here, too, referencing “the list of things we had hoped for in a country home. Miraculously they all seemed here.”
Watch for signs announcing the opening of Organic Roots Farm on East Old Route 6.
“I lived at the farm for 14 years. I was brought into the family when I was three days old and lived there till I was 14 or 15, when my parents, Lester and Hattie Hawes, sold the place and moved. I think my mother was worried the new road, Route 6, would cut through our property, so we moved. The old barn – it was a nice old barn. There was always a cow, sometimes two, sometimes a calf. There was one horse, and on the other side of the horse’s stall there was a smaller pen with a nanny goat and three babies – that was unusual, for a goat to have three babies. The other half of the barn was used for hay. My father worked for Lester Burnham who owned the farm before we bought it from him. We would bring the horse and wagon up to the hay field, we’d rake up the hay, and my father would pitch it up into the wagon. We worked until we were finished, and sometimes we returned home in the dark. We used to sleep in the barn sometimes. It was cooler there, with the big doors open. We slept in the hay.”
Margaret Easton, Judy Noel’s “Aunt Maggie”