Next Tuesday, the Select Board intends to vote to either approve with conditions—or deny—a permit to serve hard cider at a recently built taproom at Carlson Orchards on Oak Hill Road. The permit requires yearly renewal by the Select Board and the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC). The orchard has applied for a Farmer Series Pouring Permit, which would allow it to serve hard cider produced elsewhere but made from apples grown on Carlson land.
The first license hearing drew about 75 people. Ten speakers spoke in favor of the license, and another 10 voiced grave concerns that increased traffic would compromise the safety of residents who want to walk and bike in their neighborhood, and that noise from the taproom’s outdoor patio and covered porch would interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of their outdoor space, especially in the fall and summer.
The seating capacity of the 2,520-square-foot taproom is 99, with an additional 100 on the outdoor patio, and 40 more on the covered porch; parking capacity is 350, and proposed hours of operation are Thursday through Sunday, opening each day at 11 a.m. and closing at 6 p.m. on Thursday and Sunday, and 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. If the Select Board approves the license, it will set the hours, allowable capacity, parking guidelines, and other conditions meant to minimize impact on the neighborhood.
The west-facing porch at Carlson Orchards’ cider barn is situated at the edge of the Oak Hill Road orchard. (Photo by Tim Clark)
Carlson Orchards was approved by the Select Board for a license to pour hard cider in the summer of 2019, before its taproom was finished. But it withdrew its application after a taxpayer petition—signed by 71 Harvard citizens and submitted to the ABCC—objected to the potential for neighborhood disruption and what they said were last-minute changes to the application, prompting petitioners to file an Open Meeting Law complaint against the Select Board. According to Executive Assistant Julie Doucet, Town Administrator Tim Bragan responded to the complaint, and it was closed. The attorney for two of the petitioners also identified errors in the application.
The taxpayer petition is the mechanism by which citizens can protest licenses that have been approved by the Select Board to the ultimate granting authority, the ABCC. The commission did not take action on the petition, however, because Carlson withdrew its application. According to ABCC general counsel Kris Foster, this petition will not apply to the license presently before the Select Board, because it is a new application, not a resubmittal of the summer 2019 application.
Neighbors, farmers, farmer-neighbors
Several of the neighbors who are troubled by the possible negative impact of the taproom happen to also be part of an orchardist family, the Greens of Westward Orchards, who celebrated 100 years of farming this year, growing apples, peaches, and other fruit on 200-plus acres of land on Oak Hill Road, Mass. Ave. near their farm store, and Littleton County Road. Farm manager Chris Green also grows vegetables on some of the land; his sister Stephanie O’Keefe manages the Westward farm store, which is open June through December.
O’Keefe says she is not an opponent of the taproom and understands the need to diversify. She is the fourth generation of her family to live in the farmhouse on Oak Hill Road, across the street from Carlson Orchard. She said her position as both a neighbor and a fellow orchardist is truly awkward. “I’ve been put in a position of having to decide if being silent for the sake of agriculture is more important than my values and beliefs as a taxpaying, abutting resident.” O’Keefe said, “As an abutter I can tell you the potential for over 200 people across the street every Friday and Saturday evening in the summer when the weather is warm is concerning. That’s when I get to enjoy time outside with my family in my yard, in my quiet residential neighborhood.” Lamenting what she called a “black and white divide” where one “must be either for or against,” O’Keefe said: “I am not against the Carlsons or the cider barn.” Instead, she advocates a 6 p.m. closing time, which she believes is appropriate for an agritourism business. “Allowing the taproom to stay open from 6 to 8 p.m. is essentially allowing a barroom to be open in a residential neighborhood,” she said.
In the summer of 2019, after 71 residents sent a petition to the ABCC asking to “overturn the Select Board’s approval of [the taproom] license,” abutters Chris and Kerri Green, also of Westward Orchards, also sent a memo that described concerns over volume, traffic, public safety, hours, and errors in the application itself. This week, Kerri Green told the Press in an email that she still agrees with the requests included in the memo’s last paragraph:
“If the ABCC chooses to move forward and issue a Farmer Series Pouring License to Carlson Orchards, Inc, the petitioners are asking that the ABCC:
- Not allow licensing hours to exceed 6 p.m.
- [Allow] the patio [to] be licensed only on Saturdays, Sundays, and on Monday holidays.
- [Set] an occupancy capacity for the patio.”
Kerri Green cites the Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton as a similar business that closes at 6 p.m. (The winery also operates a restaurant on its property, however, which stays open later.) Kerri says “wearing two hats” has been difficult and any opposition to the details of the plan aren’t meant to impede another farm’s success or discourage diversification, but to reflect disquiet about effects of the taproom in the Oak Hill Road neighborhood.
Diversification necessary
Franklyn Carlson, who runs Carlson Orchards with brothers Bruce and Robert, said diversification of the business is necessary because of the declining market for wholesale apples. “We need more value-added products, and the cider is one thing we can diversify with. It’s about spreading our risks.” Carlson sold its cider-making business to New England Apple Products of Leominster in 2011, when that business “outgrew” Carlson’s production capacity. Now, NE Apple makes the Carlson cider, while the hard cider is made by Stormalong Cider in the same building as New England Apple Products.
The taproom rests on a roughly 120-acre farm, started by the Carlson brothers’ parents as a potato farm in 1936, with cows for milk and cream, and a few pigs and chickens to feed the family. Now, they grow apples and peaches and some other fruit, mostly on the main farm on Oak Hill Road, but also in small orchards the Carlsons own or lease on Bolton, Pinnacle, and Old Littleton roads. Not far from the taproom is a small retail store, open year-round, that sells apples, frozen apple-based desserts, preserves, cider, and four-packs of hard cider. Several families of Carlsons live around the corner from the main Oak Hill Road orchard on Littleton County Road.
Aside from wanting to do what’s right for his business, Carlson wants to be a good neighbor, too. “We’ve worked together in other instances,” he said, referring to Westward Orchards.
Meanwhile, tensions around differing opinions have run high on the social media site Nextdoor Harvard. Nextdoor moderator Robert Curran confirmed to the Press that he had taken down a discussion thread about the taproom. It violated the site’s rules against personal attacks, he said.
