Grateful harvest

Lots of help and kind words have buoyed the Verrills since their farm-stand fire

CONCORD - Two months after the farm stand at the heart of their family enterprise was destroyed by fire, three generations of Verrills will share a Thanksgiving meal beneath the glow of an antique oil lamp in this 1840s farmhouse, their sadness greatly eased by the generosity of neighbors and the work they are doing together to bring it back to life.

"It was like a death in the family," says Steve Verrill of the Sept. 20 fire, standing in the well-used kitchen of his childhood home.

Though it was devastating to see ashes on Wheeler Road instead of their lively neighborhood produce and food emporium, they took little time to grieve. The next morning, the Verrills were picking produce in the fields and salvaging a few items from the farm stand kitchen. "We got right back to work," he says. "It's what we do."

Verrill, his wife, Joan, and their daughter, Jennifer Verrill Faddoul, are partners in Verrill Farm, once run by Steve's father as a dairy business. Today, 150 acres of the farm yield a variety of produce, much of it destined for top Boston restaurants. The razed stand was the family's retail base, from which they sold dozens of varieties of tomatoes and corn along with many other seasonal vegetables. Deli items, freshly prepared salads and side dishes, bread, scones and - the local favorite - fruit pies with perfect, buttery crusts, were always available too. "Whenever we go to someone's house for dinner, we always bring a pie from Verrill Farm," says Elizabeth Scott-Fox of Maynard.

Despite the blaze, those who have come to rely on Verrill Farm to ease their holiday preparations will not be disappointed. This week, the staff will work day and night shifts baking about 2,000 pies and assembling hundreds of sides. Cooks will use donated kitchen spaces at local restaurants and farms. Anticipating how she's likely to feel on Thanksgiving Day, Jennifer says, "Exhausted would be a good word."

Today in the farmhouse, all thoughts of eating anything else are canceled when Jennifer's apple crumb pie, a Thanksgiving staple, emerges from the oven. It is lovely: a golden dome of buttery crumbs on aromatic fruit. She uses a mix of apples, such as Cortland and Mutsu. Jennifer knows a pie is done by looking at it: the color and consistency of the juices where the crust meets the crumb topping are her barometer.

How did her pies garner such fame? "I think it's because we make them fresh every day," she says. "Oh, and we do use a lot of butter."

Thanksgiving specialties have varied a little over the years at Verrill Farm, though the traditional bread stuffing is a constant. A generous amount of butter is also a must for stuffing this moist. This year Joan and Jennifer say they'll offer customers a healthier savory side dish. To that end, they're roasting small, fresh Yukon Gold and red potatoes from their own fields with cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and little else, producing a flavorful fall medley.

This is an unusual harvest for the Verrills. The family is awed by the encouragement, generous gifts, and support they've received from neighbors since the blaze. "You go about your business and you just don't have any idea how much what you do really means to other people," says Joan Verrill.

Fans of the farm - from local businesses to a group of women in a nearby cul-de-sac - delivered coffee, pastries, and lunch each day to the family and their staff in the weeks after the fire, which started in an overhead fan. Offers of kitchen space, credit card processing machines, and computers followed. Fund-raisers were held: bake sales, raffles at farmers' markets, and benefit dinners. "It is a business," says one family friend. "But it has retained the soul of a small farm."

That soul was in evidence every month of the year. Pancake breakfasts, barbecue nights, cooking classes, harvest festivals, charity events, weddings, and Gardening 101 lectures all made the farm stand, which the family hopes to rebuild by June 1, a center of social activity.

Steve Verrill has spent almost his whole life on this land. After graduating from Cornell University, he made his way back to his father's dairy business here. As milking cows led to diminishing returns, he and Joan, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next year, retooled their business. They began by peddling produce at local farmers' markets and invited families to "pick your own" vegetables and strawberries from their fields, leaving an honor box for payment.

The Verrills were also among those leading the way on a once-radical idea: to offer fresh, local produce to urban restaurant chefs. Gordon Hamersley, whose South End restaurant was one of Verrill Farm's first such customers, says despite the fire, "They didn't miss a beat. . . . There isn't a better bunch out there than Steve and Joan and Jennifer and all the people who work for them."

About 80 percent of the produce used at Hamersley's Bistro comes from Verrill Farm during the peak of summer. And since Hamersley lives near the farm, he stops by when he can. "I love watching the asparagus grow," says the chef. "I can actually see it popping up as I drive by."

By the early 1990s, Jennifer brought her cooking talents to the business, offering prepared foods and baked goods at the stand. It was an easy decision to join the family enterprise, she says. "We have the same ideas about a lot of things and have really grown the business together." Gesturing toward Jennifer's daughters, Chloe, 8, and Grace, 6, playing nearby, Joan adds, "I think they're next."

Jennifer, her husband, Tim, and the girls live about a mile from the farm in what was once her grandfather's home. During the slower winter months, the Faddouls and the Verrills often take a trip to warmer climes. "We work together every day and we still like to take vacations together," says Steve.

Nearly $50,000 has been raised to supplement the farm's insurance. According to Patrick Padden, senior vice president at Middlesex Savings Bank, where a fund was started, proceeds from fund-raisers have been added to more than 140 individual donations, some from as far away as Colorado and California. "People around here like to do things locally and like to patronize people who give back to their community," Padden says. "And certainly [the Verrills] fit that bill."

Lori Bromberg moved to Concord four years ago and was soon visiting the stand almost daily. When her son turned 10 he wanted a Verrill pie instead of a birthday cake. "Now that they are rebuilding, they've been asking customers what they like and what they don't," Bromberg says.

"I'd say the response has been, 'Keep it just the way it is.' "

Verrill Farm, 11 Wheeler Road, Concord, 978-369-4494; www.verrillfarm.com