Bouchard Family Farms
By JANICE BOUCHARD
We will never know the full expectations of Charles
Bouchard when he began his Fort Kent farm back in
1843; but we can safely guess that he had no idea his
great, great, great grandson would still be working
that same farm today.
Using oxen and hand axes, Charles began by clearing
and planting oats and buckwheat, and as years
passed his farm grew to about 60 acres. His son
Israel added to the acreage and continued to grow
oats, wheat, buckwheat, barley and potatoes and to
raise sheep and cattle. Israel’s son Joseph continued
this tradition of enlarging the farm and planting
and selling his crops to maintain his family’s way of
life. A lifetime of hard work has always been the
lot of a farmer, and Joseph worked along with his
son, Herby in the hay fields the year he died. At his
death, the farm consisted of over 180 acres.
Herby Bouchard and his son Alban worked together
until Herby retired in 1952. They were still growing
oats, potatoes, buckwheat and hay and raised animals
both for feeding the family and for market.
When Alban inherited the farm, he knew that the
key to a farm’s survival was diversity. While he
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continued to raise buckwheat and hay he greatly
enlarged the potato crop. Alban purchased the first
potato harvester in the area, and by the early 1960s,
he was planting 240 acres of potatoes along with
hay. In 1963 Alban and his wife Rita began raising
laying hens and selling their eggs to local woods
operators, restaurants and grocery stores. By the
1970’s they had approximately 13,000 hens and sold
5-6 cases of eggs per week (30 doz. per case) alone to
some of the largest woods operators in the area. As
successful as this endeavor was, the family farm was
nearly devastated when the barn containing 4,500
replacement hens burned. Alban also tried his hand
at raising turkeys and enlarged his beef herd, but the
farm’s lifeblood was its potato crop.
In the early 1980s, the potato farmers of Aroostook
County were faced with the loss of their very lucrative
market, and most farmers were forced to find other
ways to make a living. According to Alban there
were over 60 working potato farms in the Fort Kent
area in the 1950s, 11 remained in 1998 and by 2009,
that number had been reduced to 5. Alban and his
son Joseph knew that things needed to change if the
farm was going to survive.