33mi from Marlborough · 2 sites · Tents, RVsWelcome to Rosy Goat Farm!
We are a quintessential family farm and homestead — our farmhouse dates to the 1840s. Bill and I bought this 13-acre property in 2012, overgrown with wild roses. The animals did the clearing: goats ate the roses, pigs dug up the roots, chickens raked it clean. Win win!
A Touch of Hardwick History
In 1686, Captain Samuel Ruggles and seven men purchased this land from the Nipmuck people for twenty British pounds. His grandson, Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles, became a notorious Loyalist — driven from Hardwick at dawn by his own brother Benjamin, who warned him: “Cross today and you will never cross again alive.” His daughter Bathsheba became the first woman executed in the newly independent United States, for murdering her husband — told in Murdered by His Wife by Deborah Navas.
Local Eats
Whistle Stop Diner (former railroad station) for breakfast and lunch.
Mimi’s overlooks the Common.
Rose 32 is a lovely bakery.
Hardwick House of Pizza, Hardwick Crossing Country Club (full bar, 3 mins away), Stone Cow Brewery in Barre (kids area).
In Ware: Mexicali Grill, Theresa’s, Hanna’s on Main, Pig Park BBQ.
Farmer Matt, North Brookfield: takeout with picnic tables and views.
Things to Do
Gilbertville has one of the last covered bridges still in use in Massachusetts!
Mass Central Rail Trail: 1-mile section through Gilbertville from the covered bridge; separate 3-mile section (East Quabbin Land Trust) from Creamery Road to Wheelwright — park at former New Braintree train station on Hardwick Road. East Quabbin Land Trust also has birdwatching trails.
Hardwick hosts the oldest agricultural fair in the US every August, plus a Sunday farmers market on the Common.
Hardwick Vineyard and Winery and nearby Lost Towns Brewery, named for towns submerged to create the Quabbin Reservoir. Medicine River Pow Wow every August, River Run Road. Quabbin Reservoir: boating and fishing. Swift River, Belchertown: kayaking. Lake Lashaway, East Brookfield: swimming 20 mins. Lake Siog, Holland: beach 30 mins south. Free concerts Grenville Park, Ware; live music weekends at Janine’s Frostee. Old Sturbridge Village 30 mins. Also: Ragged Hill Orchard, Rock House Reservation, Carter and Stevens Farm, Leicester and Mendon drive-ins.
Is this area great or what?!