Farm History
Brandywine Croft is the first farm in Maryland to breed and sell rare, pure bred, registered KuneKune pigs. We have an assortment of critters in addition to the KuneKunes, including our farm mascot, Father Peacock, Olde English Southdowne Babydoll Sheep, Nigerian Dwarf Goats, various breeds of heritage Chickens, small cell, chemical-free Bees, tropical Fish, our rescued cocker spaniel, Buddy, and, last but not least, our felines Merlin and Flower.
What’s a Croft?
A small enclosed field of ~10 acres that usually adjoins a house, and is worked by a tenant.
That perfectly describes our farm. The house was built in 1912 for the tenant farming Hyde family who had worked the land for many years prior to that. It was part of a larger farm called Mattaponi that dates to 1751. Adjacent to our old house on the farm is another house built in the 1950s. It was built as a wedding present for the Hyde’s eldest son. The family continued to farm the land until the 1980s when the property was sub-divided, and twelve large estate homes were built. The colonial era Mattaponi home, and several acres of its surrounding land and barns were preserved, and accorded Historic Registry protected status. Brandywine Croft, and its modest acreage of pasture, also survived, surrounded by a large woods, and, happily, is very secluded and quiet.
A large forest, creek, marsh and open fields back our property. So, in addition to our domesticated animals, we share the land with a wealth of wildlife. A few of our frequent visitors include red foxes who used to ignore the chickens in favor of watermelon rinds in the compost heap, but now eats more chikin; five lined skinks that our cats adore tearing the tails off to watch them twitch while the poor, stumpy reptiles scurry away; egg-eating black snakes; copperheads too; frogs and toads galore; black vultures that sun bathe their outstretched wings atop our old barn or soar silently overhead; our annual house guests, the Chimney Swifts, who return every year from South America to raise the next generation in our flue; too many beautiful white tail deer; raccoons who, thankfully no longer enter our cat door to eat the cat food!
