Wheelview Farm

Eliza Mann

“People love to come to the farm and see the animals” says Carolyn Wheeler, fourth-generation owner of Wheelview Farm in Shelbourne, Massachusetts. Wheelview Farm has been in Wheeler’s family since 1896, and she and her husband, John, began stewardship in 1979. To Carolyn, the best part about farming is the wonderful people they meet in the process. Regular customers, some of which the Wheelers have known for fourteen years, have become family as the Wheelers see their children grow up and get to know them well.

Carolyn and John are not alone on their farm, rather in the company of multiple generations of Wheelers, with their children and grandchildren working the land as well. Carolyn loves showing visitors old farming tools in their farm museum when they come for farm sales, and John loves keeping their animals comfortable and healthy. In many ways, Wheelview Farm is the quintessential small family-owned farm.

However, it has become hard for the Wheelers to compete with bigger, corporate farms, as large farms have the ability to sell what they produce for much cheaper prices. At one of the farmers’ markets that Carolyn and John sell at regularly, the introduction of corporate farms has hindered their sales incredibly. They once sold a lot of ground beef, but then could not compete with the lower prices of a bigger farm that came along, and their sales plummeted. Their pasture-raised, grass-fed beef is of higher quality so it has to cost more.