Following in Her Mother’s Footsteps

Those warnings didn’t stick. Michelson went on to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and ran a successful produce and catering company on Long Island in the ‘80s, as well as a mail-order brownie business.

As a kid, Heffron grew up working in the catering business, but graduated high school at age 16 to pursue a different passion for horses. Don’t be a cook, her chef-mother had pleaded with her. It’s a hard life. Avoid being a chef.

Again, for the second time around, these cautionary tales did not stick. Though Heffron, now 38, went on to attain her master’s degree in counseling, and says she tried to heed her mother’s advice to stay away from the kitchen, she couldn’t escape the calling.

“Eventually I accepted my fate,” Heffron recalled. “I had to work with food.”

She went to Bend, Ore., in 2009 to study pastry with an internationally renowned teacher and baker and then spent time in South Carolina with her partner, Craig Thompson, selling prepared foods, produce, pastries, and pasture-raised meats at farmers’ markets.

They relocated to a farm property in Harrisville in 2011 when Heffron was eight months pregnant with their second child. Her parents were Peterborough residents by that time.

Heffren’s dad, Jim, lovingly referred to the property as Ramshackle Acres and they toiled away to make improvements, clearing debris and removing sheds. It was far from fancy. They even turned an old dog kennel into a commercial kitchen, she recalled.

It evolved, eventually, into the Mayfair Farm of today, named a New Hampshire Farm of Distinction in 2017 by the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food. The farm has two pieces to the business, as Heffron describes it. There is the farm itself, mostly overseen by Thompson, where they raise sheep and grow fruit and produce; and there is the kitchen piece, which encompasses the event catering and wholesale bakery.

The farm is now a beautiful and popular event space for weddings, farm dinners, and private parties. Her parents live on the farm as well these days and her son joins them every morning for a full breakfast cooked by his grandmother.

In 2017, a fire destroyed the barn. While it was a devastating blow, it was also a chance to re-evaluate and rebuild with intention.

“We used to switch from pigs to parties in the same space,” Heffron described. “When the barn burned down, we rebuilt a dedicated party barn and really focused on hosting events here in a space where we could control the variables.”

They do less off-site catering these days for that reason. Catering, she says, is so much crisis management, something her mother definitely “shines at,” helping to cater the larger events held on the farm.

Heffron said she loves those Saturday mornings spent with her mother, prepping for events when it’s just the two of them together in the kitchen, plattering and garnishing the dishes, putting the final touches on everything.

Now in her 60s, Michelson also assists with recipe and menu development and she loves to garden with Jim. They are the energy behind the vegetables on the farm and have a wonderful herb garden, Heffron said, while Thompson is focused on the fruit and orchards.

Michelson is also the author of two cookbooks. Her latest, published in 2019, is “Presque Tres Bien” and it chronicles Michelson’s cooking journey from Le Cordon Bleu all the way to Mayfair Farm. Presque tres bien translates to “almost very good” and was Michelson’s grade on her diploma from Le Cordon Bleu.

The cookbook interweaves stories with hundreds of recipes, making it more of a memoir than a straight-up cookbook. Her first cookbook, once referred to by the family as “the Bible,” has now become known as the “Old Testament” to make way for the new publication.

Continuing to follow in her mother’s footsteps in multiple ways, Heffron also writes, contributing a regular recipe column to the local “Monadnock Table” magazine for the past seven years.

Heffron and Thompson have two children, Cal, 12, and Fiona, 10, and both are very involved in the farm’s day-to-day management. Fiona is a “farm girl through and through,” Heffron said, and she loves working with the sheep, rising early to care for them. Cal is a great cook and a skilled baker who sells his babka, danishes, and ice cream at the farm stand.

And the wholesale bakery end of the business is busy as well. They work with a wholesale distributor out of Boston that brings their baked goods to about 20 Whole Food locations.

She has a more than competent right hand in the baking duties in Elena Gonzales, who she describes as energetic and highly skilled. They produce hundreds of cakes each month in two flavors: a gluten-free almond cake and a flourless chocolate cake. Locally, their cakes can be found at places like the Monadnock Food Co-op and they are distributed to restaurants through Food Connects in Brattleboro.

“I only want to make gluten-free cakes that are great,” she said of the products. “Not adjusted recipes. They have to be indulgent and delicious desserts.”

On a smaller scale, the self-serve farm stand also sells their brownies and frozen meals, like lasagna and pot pies, as well as lamb and fruit from the farm.

Things are starting to pick back up for weddings and private events following the effects of the pandemic on the event industry. She said this year has been great and they are almost fully booked for next year as well.

Their farm dinners will continue to be a priority and they hold a couple of these each year, using them as wedding tastings for prospective couples to experience the farm’s food offerings and to bring the community together, with dinner-goers often entertained by Jim, a talented jazz musician.

Balancing life on the farm is important, she said. They strive to put extreme care into each event and also need the capacity to still keep the other aspects of the farm going. For that reason, they stick to a schedule and don’t fill the calendar with events every weekend.

Now with children of her own and a son who loves to cook, she can more fully understand why her mother tried to warn her away from a career in cooking. While the physical demands are evident after 16 hours spent on one’s feet on a typical wedding day, she says they are fueled by passion and dedication.

“It’s a lot, but I love it.” she said. “It’s super-rewarding to work with couples and see their vision come to life. We’re in a good spot of balance right now and it’s a place where we can do the best job.”

Mayfair Farm is located at 31 Clymers Dr. in Harrisville and can be reached at 603-827-3925 or info@MayfairFarmNH.com. For more information, visit mayfairfarmnh.com.