New Farm Aims To Nurture Family, Sense Of Community In Marlboro

MARLBORO, NJ — Devon Levesque always wanted to have his own farm.

A New Hampshire native, Levesque, 32, said he grew up on a farm with his family. Though he always dreamed of one day owning a farm, Levesque went to a military academy in Pennsylvania first, then made his way to Long Island and New Jersey long before achieving his dream.

It wasn’t until 2021, when Levesque bought 10 acres of land in the Morganville section of Marlboro, that Sweet Honey Farm started to come together.

“My thought process with this farm is that, one; no one has ever sprayed any chemicals on it for hundreds of years, right?” Levesque said. “It’s always been an organic, chemical-free property, and that’s what sparked me to buy it.”

“And then the other idea was like, ‘hey, I have a lot of friends, family, and I want to build a farm that people have access to farm-fresh eggs, farm-fresh veggies, produce, meat that, you know, we’re raising the cattle,’” Levesque said. “And so, with those things, I always want to be able to share that.”

Though Sweet Honey Farm is now home to some 200 farm members hand-picked by Levesque, he said the property didn’t start that way.

According to Levesque, he looked into doing a farm stand prior to establishing Sweet Honey Farm, but when his farm Instagram posts started going viral, he said more people became interested in the property.

“As I started to post, there was more and more virality with my videos at Sweet Honey Farm,” Levesque said. “More and more people wanted to go to the point where there were random people coming onto my property, so there was a little safety concern.”

From there, Levesque said he decided to gate off the property and lean into making Sweet Honey Farm a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm.

Community-Supported Agriculture
As defined by the US Department of Agriculture, CSA farming “consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm.”

For Levesque, CSA farming is all about building that community.

“CSA allows a select group of people to come to the property and literally handpick and help with the farm chores,” Levesque said. “And so this helps not only get people the experience, but also peace of mind when they physically come there.”

For Sweet Honey Farm members, Levesque said that by paying an annual due, members get access to the farm property and “everything that it has to offer.”

According to the farm website, amenities range from a longevity barn to a coffee shop, a co-working space, fresh produce and more.

Though the farm is currently a private membership club available to members through referral, Levesque would eventually like to expand towards hosting events and offering some parts of the farm available to the community.

“It’s just fun, you know?” Levesque said. “It’s good knowing that all the things that people get access to are homegrown. There’s no artificial anything in it, there’s no chemicals, there’s no antibiotics–there’s nothing bad that we’re adding. It’s all natural.”

Long Term Goals
Though Sweet Honey Farm only officially opened in July, Levesque already has long-term goals for the farm in mind.

Part of those goals? Blue Zones.

Defined as places in the world with the “healthiest long-living populations,” Blue Zones were founded by Dan Buettner, an explorer, National Geographic Fellow and award-winning journalist.

Buettner identified the five original Blue Zones: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece and Loma Linda, California.

For Levesque, the longevity behind Blue Zones is something he strives to achieve with Sweet Honey Farm.

“I love the concept of people living longer, but healthier,” Levesque said. “So being 85-90 years old, but still being able to go on a one-mile swim, a five-mile run, or, you know, a 20-mile bike ride. You should be able to live longer and feel good about it.”

“And that’s kind of what Sweet Honey Farm is,” Levesque continued. “We promote longevity.”

Though Levesque initially bought the farm’s property as a personal estate, he’s far from alone in running Sweet Honey Farm.

His mom, sister and additional family members help run day-to-day operations, and Levesque said that people leaving the farm happier is something that’s fulfilling for him after his father died of suicide when he was 16.

“It’s really sad when you watch someone that’s going through stressors in life,” Levesque said. “And, you know, my goal ever since the day that happened is to help people wake up happier. And that’s what Sweet Honey Farm does.”

To learn more about Sweet Honey Farm, you can visit their website.