Our Story

In 1987, John Moriarty, then a resident of Arlington, was looking to move to a house with a larger yard for his expanding garden. One day his real estate agent called to say she'd turned up something that might interest him. Following her directions, he found himself driving almost half a mile down an unexpected dirt road in East Lexington. What he found at the end of the road were the ruins of the former Meek Dairy Farm.

Never intending to buy a farm, he nevertheless went ahead with the offer. A month later, as he returned to survey the dilapidated buildings and abandoned hay fields he had just purchased, he wondered about bringing the farm back to life.

That summer he purchased an old Ford tractor and planted an acre and a half of sweet corn. Over the years, the collapsing barn and out buildings were replaced by new ones. Berry bushes were planted, gardens were staked out, and the animals returned.  

Lauren Yaffee joined John at the farm in 1995. After receiving a a calf from him for her birthday, any doubts that she had in handling the physically demanding work of a true "back-to-the-earth" no-chemical farm were put aside and her Meadow Mist adventure as "Momma" to all the farm animals began!

In 1987 there was little interest in preserving local agriculture. Thirty years later, there is greater appreciation for our remaining local farms and what they add to an increasingly homogenized landscape.

Though small in size, Meadow Mist today is a working farm (see details on what we have expanded to offer below!), an integral part of the local community, and an unspoiled remnant of the Lexington's once vital agricultural past.