The Tour That Started It All: My First Visit to Malabar Farm

Getting a behind-the-scenes tour of Malabar Farm in 2015 started my career as a writer.

I can’t believe it’s already been ten years since I visited Malabar Farm for the first time. Back in July 2015, I had no idea that I would end up turning my research on Malabar into a book. It was my last summer as a student at The Ohio State University, and I’d just spent the Spring 2015 semester looking at archival documents about the farm. Before I wrote my honors thesis, I wanted to actually see the places that I was going to write about.

I'd read lots of books about Malabar Farm, but actually visiting it made history come alive.

This was the first time that I had visited a place with the intention of writing about it, and I was amazed to discover one of the perks of being a writer—behind-the-scenes tours. When I told the park that I was doing research on the history of Malabar Farm, they scheduled a private tour of both the Big House and the farm—even though I was just a college student! Tom Bachelder from the Malabar Farm Foundation—retired park guide and unofficial Malabar historian—met me at the visitor center on the sunny morning of July 6. There weren’t many other visitors that day, but the gift shop was almost sold out of fudge from the busy Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Tom Bachelder took me on my first tour of the Big House at Malabar.

Tom’s behind-the-scenes tour of the Big House was great—he even showed me the unrestored rooms on the top floor where the staff offices were before the current visitor center was constructed in 2006. A retired art teacher, Tom was helping restore the park’s two Grandma Moses paintings. And he explained that he was one of the ones who had helped repaint the barn door mural, using a photograph of Bromfield’s original as a guide.

Tom even showed me the former staff offices in the Big House, which used to be Bromfield's parents' rooms.

After lunch, we met up with Korre Boyer, the park manager at the time, for a tour of the farm itself. Korre reminded me a lot of my fellow agronomy students at OSU—he was an OSU alumnus, with a major in Agricultural Education and a minor in Production, and his home farm was just a few miles from the park. Despite also managing nearby Mohican State Park, Korre took an entire afternoon out of his busy schedule to give me and Tom a personal Gator tour of the farm.

Tom and Korre even showed me the actual spring behind the vegetable stand at Malabar, which flows out of a little cave in the cliff.

We saw the fields of windrowed hay ready to be baled, no-till cornfields, the stone vegetable stand with fresh spring water flowing through the troughs, and Bromfield’s hay-drying barn. As we headed up the dirt lane to the Ferguson Place to see the Pugh cabins, maple sugar shack, and sugar bush, a couple park visitors waved us down and asked for directions. Korre patiently and cheerfully explained to them where to go, and they thanked him and headed off. I’m sure they had no idea that they were talking to the park manager! I knew I’d never be able to go on a Jeep tour of the farm with Louis Bromfield and his drooling Boxer dogs, but a Gator tour with the park manager was about as close as I could get.

Korre even took us inside the Pugh cabin, which is sometimes used for events but is normally closed to the public.

As I look back on that trip now, ten years later, I realize how much it encouraged me to go on to more researching and writing, at Malabar Farm and beyond. I learned that asking for personal tours of places I wanted to write about almost always worked, and that most places are happy to show writers behind-the-scenes stuff that isn’t open to the public. I learned that the people who work to preserve historic sites are passionate about what they do and are super excited to share their knowledge. I learned that doing as much research as I could before I went made the actual site visit more enjoyable, because then I could ask knowledgeable questions. I discovered that actually visiting a site makes the history come alive in a way that even the best books and photos never can. And it was Malabar Farm that started it all.

This fireplace inside the Pugh cabin is used for hearthside cooking classes.