With Gorham farm for sale, owner, employees reflect on 5 years
Allison Frederick, rght, talks with farm store owner Erica Gottshalk on the first day that Orchard Ridge Farm store was open following a fire at Gottshalk’s home on Jan. 2. The farmhouse that caught fire sits next to the store. Frederick is a neighbor of the farm. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)
GORHAM — On Thursday morning at Orchard Ridge Farm, Erica Gottshalk sat clutching a steaming cup of coffee at a picnic table. A chicken wandered as customers stopped in the farm store for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. A pile of pumpkins, a sign for apple picking and sprawling fields welcomed visitors to wander. She faced the patch of land where her home used to be.
Gottshalk and her husband, Will, announced Sunday that they would sell the 38-acre farm after five years of ownership. The decision to put it on the market for nearly $1.7 million comes about nine months after a fire destroyed their family’s 1858 house on the property, prompting an outpouring of community support.
Losing her home was not the primary reason she decided to move on, Gottshalk said. She said she has accomplished what she set out to do when she took over in 2021 — transforming the farm into a community space —but it has become too challenging to manage alone. She called the change bittersweet.
“As hard as it is to put that down and walk away, I realize that the amount of time and energy that it takes to do it all yourself is a little bit more than I have left in me, especially after the fire,” Gottshalk said.
Gottshalk has two children — a 3-year-old and 13-year-old — that she said she wants to spend more time with. They have rented houses in Gorham since the fire and intend to relocate to the Midcoast region to be closer to Will’s parents as Gottshalk contemplates her next career move.
A three-bedroom, chalet-style home is under construction at the back of the property for the new owner.
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An aerial view of Orchard Ridge Farm in Gorham, which owner Erica Gottshalk put on the market this week after five years of ownership. (Courtesy of Tim Dunham Realty)
Buying the farm from Steve and Amy Bibula, the couple that added the orchard to the property, was a shared vision between Gottshalk, her sister, Kristen Walker, and their mother, Mary Walker. Kristen had a background in farming and Gottshalk came from the restaurant and hospitality industries. When Kristen decided to step away in 2023 and Mary reached retirement age, Gottshalk wasn’t ready to give up.
Starting a bagel and breakfast business, selling beer and wine, hosting events such as birthday parties and bridal showers, scheduling regular live music, adding picnic tables and a playground, bringing in more animals and diversifying the orchard’s fruit trees are on the list of what Gottshalk has done.
“It’s a place where people can kind of just come and enjoy, no matter what their background is, or socioeconomic situation, families can just come and not spend a dime,” Gottshalk said.
She said business has quadrupled in the past five years. Starting with no employees other than family members, the farm now has about 15 seasonal and eight year-round workers.
Erica Gottshalk carries a small container with chicks she gathered for a customer at Orchard Ridge Farm in March 2025. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Beth Jourdan, an employee of four years who wears multiple hats at the farm, from bagel making to farming to building animal pens, said the staff has become like another family for her — one she will be sad to no longer see every day. She found the job when her then 8-year-old daughter became friends with Gottshalk’s son at school.
“My daughter came home from school and said, ‘My new best friend lives at Orchard Ridge,'” she said. “Erica and Orchard Ridge, in general, have been a great source of support and friendship.”
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Becky Curtis has been a seasonal cook at the farm for four years, too.
“I love the regulars that come in,” Curtis said. “That’s probably my favorite part. And making sandwiches — I think when I die, they’re gonna put on my gravestone, ‘Here lies Becky, she made sandwiches.'”
Jourdan and Curtis said they are open to staying under new ownership, depending on the new owner’s plans. They said Gottshalk’s departure gives them an opportunity to reflect on their own next steps in life, too.
Gottshalk said she will miss the visitors she has seen pass through various life stages. Supportive messages flooded the farm’s social media pages after the announcement.
“Not only have you changed a farm into something special, you have transformed people,” one patron wrote on Facebook.
“We visited the farm before you owned it, but you really brought it to life. Thank you for cherished memories with our children,” another said.
“I am a little worried because I don’t know how much I’ll miss it,” Gottshalk said. “I’m worried about walking away and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was a really big part of my everyday.'”
She said she thinks there is still room for growth under a future owner, including adding spaces for weddings and larger events. Or, she said, someone could simply make it their new home.
The farm will stay open through the holidays if it is not sold before then.
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Tagged: agriculture, farm, local business, real estate
Madeleine is a community reporter for Gorham, Buxton and Standish. She started her journalism career in Vermont, where she reported for Seven Days and served as the editor-in-chief of Middlebury College's. More by Madeleine Kaptein
