The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: On the formation of a farm business

How Ugly Duckling Farms got started, where it is, and where it's heading

10/4/2026

A little over a month out of college, I am working at a local non-profit farm, and I am very much realizing it is not the place for me. The post-college blues? Most definitely. My insatiable urge to out-do myself? Probably. But most of all, I missed selling directly to people. I missed farmer's markets, talking to folks about their personal gardens, trading recipes, over-explaining what a rutabaga was (I still don't really know), and talking to other farmers.

So, I did the normal thing. I got a weekend job at another local farm, Bagul Farm in Lakeville, and I went searching for my own land. After a little Sunday searching on New England Farmland Finder, I found a listing for a plot in Carver, MA. I did not expect much of it, but after leaving a voicemail, I got a call back a few days later. A few more calls, and a site visit later, I leased the land on a handshake agreement (which turned into an offical document after) for $800 a year.

Thinking towards the future, I decided to move towards starting a sole-propritership LLC in Massachusetts. While not nessesary to start a farm business, I felt it was worth it for not only the protection, but the legitimacy it gave the business. Let me be clear, I started the farm at the old age of twenty. I did/do not have a house, any legitimate savings, or physical assets to protect; in fact, my only real net worth is my student loans. However, by making an LLC, I am attempting to safeguard future earnings, and my credit I just started building. In an attempt to create a sense of security to take entreprenurial risks, I opted to draw a sharp legal line between myself and the business from day one. It also gave me a clean slate to begin building business credit separate from my own personal credit. Establishing the LLC, getting an EIN, and managing a dedicated business bank account became my first attempt towards making a legitimate farm. Ugly Duckling Farms business account is with Walden Mutual Bank, a cooperative FDIC-insured bank, headquartered in Concord NH, that loans to food, farming, non-profits, and other sustainable businesses across the Northeast. Their team has also been super foundational to helping me dig through what feels like an overwhelming amount of numbers and money things to think about when it comes to running a business.

Long story, short: I started an LLC for simple taxes, but a little protection for the whole lot of nothing I own.

Not my strong suit: Social media, websites, and marketing

I can admit, marketing was never my strong suit. I haven't posted on my personal Instagram since 2023, Facebook decided I was dead and has banned three of my accounts, and I would often skip my Marketing 301 class in college (sorry to my parents). So, I took all the help I could get. First off, the amazing logo was designed by my Aunt, Lisa Mahaney of Rise and Vibe Creative. I will admit, the sunglasses were drawn on by me, and was not advised.

The design!

As for the website, it has been several months of struggle.

Advice: Do not buy a domain from Google.

Why? Google sold their domain selling sector to Squarespace, meaning they have almost exclusive rights to you designing your Google domain site on Squarespace. Fine. If you're cool with not having an ounce of ability to design anything without AI. It was perhaps the most frustrating thing in the world. You CAN transfer your domain over...with a cost...of time and money. You have to wait 60 days from first buying the domain until you can open it up and transfer it to another website host. And, obviously, you have to pay that website host too. Never again.

So when are you going to start farming?

Now.

Well, I attempted to. Because I got access to land in July, had two other jobs over an hour away, and not a lot of money, I started very small. A small patch of pumpkins was built at the front of my plot. Starting with 30-inch permanant beds, myself and my lovely friend, Izzy, dug them out by hand with shovels. I also want to shout out my farming neighbor, Dave, who let me use his BCS tractor once. A few days later, my dad and I planted some pumpkins in those rows and called it a day. I would go back when I could to weed the rows, and check in on the babies. A few weeks in, I arrived to disaster.

Total. Crop. Wipeout.

The deer had made their move.

I don't blame them. I was quite cocky, and decided investing in a fence was for next year. I did what I could, cleaning up the spots that were already showing signs of fungal disease, I bought a fence off Facebook Marketplace, and prayed. But, alas, the damage was done. The front of my plot is the lowest point on the whole farm, just 25ft from a local pond. It is made of heavy clay, and with the very rainy summer and fall we had, fungal disease was sitting there waiting. Once the deer chewed on the plants, the damage was like a super-highway for disease right into the base of the plants. Nothing we could do by that point, the disease triangle had spoken.

So...what now?

We plan.

In the very near future

There are several big things happening in the next few weeks, to months for Ugly Duckling.

The Market Research

My affirmation everyday when I wake up is: "I don't know everything, and that's the point". That is why I am committed to asking the community what you want from your local farms. With the help of the Edwin C. Gentzler Translation Center at UMass Amherst, I am building a multi-language research survey meant to figure out what the Plymouth County community cares about when it comes to food, what we are missing from our plates, and what farmers can do to make local food more accessible. Look out for more information on that coming soon! Folks who complete the research, and add their contact info will be entered into a raffle ;)

The Cardboard Drive

Why does a farmer want your cardboard? Because this farmer is cheap. Well, that's part of the truth, the real reason is I can't afford a crew, equipment, or expensive fertilizers for intensive farming. And, equally true, is I love making nature do the work for me. There is a method of gardening, that I am attempting to scale up, called lasagna gardening. The idea is to build up the soil:

Top layer of compost (for pizazz) placed right before transplanting or seeding occurs.

The Green Layer: Fresh cut grasses (intentionally grown between the rows, so the "chop and drop" method can be used. See our section on "the experiment" for more details), farming scraps, coffee grounds, and aged manure starting in March/April. Alternated with Brown Layer from there.

The Brown Layer: dry leaves, straw, pine needles, or shredded paper collected through the fall/winter. Alternated with the green layer, once weeds start growing

Loose layer of sticks: to allow air circulation and mitigate those pesky fungal diseases

Cardboard: to snuff out existing weeds. Placed in late October.

The natural ground: A mix of sandy loam, and heavy clay. Extremely weedy. Would require extreme tillage, mowing, bed building etc.

It's not just good for us, a one-person team, but also for the soil and the biological life within it! This method is meant to attract earthworms, who begin to breakdown the cardboard layer, while at the same time the top layers begin to compress and become quality soil! There is a lot of great books on the subject, that I will add into our book recommendation list.

To do this in a backyard garden would be pretty simple. However, doing this on an acre of land will certainly be a feat. I have estimated that we would require a whopping 9,000 feet of cardboard. With the average box (based off of be measuring three boxes I found laying around) being 2-3 feet, Ugly Duckling will need to collect approximately 3000-4500 cardboard boxes in the next year. That is why we will be starting a cardboard drive. For folks who want to join, you can schedule a free pickup weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or just contact us when you want it gone! You get rid of the cardboard cluttering up your house, and we are able to build garden beds that are good for us and the environment!

In conclusion

This is definitely just a taste of what was, is, and will be. Garlic will be going into the ground soon, cardboard will be collected, planning will occur, experiments will also occur. I expect many failures in the near future, but I also expect successes. If you are reading this, I figured out how to work the website (big win!). I will soon be moving back to Plymouth, and being closer to the farm will be a game-changer. I am so excited to beginning really growing, meeting people, and figuring out how taxes work.

Until then, stay ugly.

Caroline