The name Lilac Hedge Farm was named after my grandparent's dairy... I decided on it in middle school when I started collecting farm animals and needed a name, My family's house had a lot of lilacs where I was keeping the animals and I wanted to pay tribute to my grandfather who I was very close to.

Lilac Hedge Farm was founded by William MacKay in 1898 at the corner of Salisbury and Flagg Streets, Worcester. My great grandfather moved the dairy to 876 Salisbury St., Holden on Oct. 10, 1927. No cows were kept after 1927, but milk processing and delivery continued.

Lilac Hedge Dairy remained in the MacKay family, with R.H. MacKay and finally Donald MacKay as owners. Operations continued under the name Lilac Hedge Dairy until 1965, when the dairy was merged into the Sunrise Dairy.

Fast forward to 2015, I had a business operating on leased land in 5 different towns, a farm name, but no land to call my own. In what only could have been fate, after looking for land for many years I found a farm to call my own in the same town my dad, grandfather and great grandfather grew up, and where Lilac Hedge first resided.

I was fortunate to move to a town where although a new comber, I got to work side by side with cousins, old family friends, and my grandfather for 3 amazing years till his passing in 2018. He helped spark my entrepreneurial spirit, did whatever he could on the farm to pitch in including mowing, tractor work or lending equipment, peeled me away from the farm for dinner out every few weeks, and ALWAYS knew what was going on on the farm.