Refreshing the Land at Historic O’Neil Farm

Through Duxbury Creamery, Elaine Philbrick and her small team have big plans as successor farmers at the Historic O’Neil Farm—think artisanal goat cheese, Wagyu beef, and specialty wool, as well as classes, a retail presence, and a summer camp. There are plans to transition what was once a thriving dairy farm that provided countless households with cow’s milk toward a future that includes a more diverse and visitor-oriented farm experience. The plans are big. Getting there has been, and will continue to be, a lot of work. Elaine is optimistic, and the progress she and her team have made so far is impressive.

This article is the first in a series that will follow the progress of Elaine Philbrick and her burgeoning operation, Duxbury Creamery. Elaine is the farmer selected by the Historic O’Neil Farm to follow in the footsteps of Carl O’Neil and the centuries-long tradition of dairy at this treasured Duxbury farm.

New Construction Views at Duxbury Creamery

A New Lease

In late 2024, after a long and deliberate process, the Board of Directors of the Historic O’Neil Farm, Inc., the nonprofit that owns the farmland, signed a lease with Elaine and Duxbury Creamery LLC as the successor farmer, thus taking over the reins that Carl O’Neil and his family had held for centuries as the farmers and stewards of the property. Elaine’s lease includes roughly half of the 146-acre farm. Carl, who still has a dairy-cow herd, will continue to lease several acres, a milking barn, and the house that he has lived in for most of his life.

The Historic O’Neil Farm will retain control of roughly 70 acres of woodland surrounding the farm, which the public can access through an extensive trail network. But Elaine’s lease covers nearly all of the highly visible farm fields that one sees off Autumn Avenue. And the structures she is building to support her farm will be the first thing you see when you drive up the picturesque driveway and enter the barnyard. The pressure to preserve the farm’s legacy and viewscape is not lost on Elaine. “The weight of history is all around us. We know our lease is just a small part of a very long history.”

Elaine and her team have been hard at work since their lease was finalized in December 2024. Starting early in 2025, Duxbury Creamery broke ground for a new goat milking parlor as well as two barns and a smaller building that she refers to as the bottle barn, which will hold the bottles for feeding the kids (baby goats) and which will eventually support retail operations and will be a place where visitors can sit and enjoy the goats.

The new dairy barn that will house the goat milking parlor and cheesemaking room is roughly halfway complete. The exterior is finished, but the building needs to be connected to power, water, and the milk waste system. All of the interior finish work needs to be completed and, probably most important, all of the goat milking, processing, and refrigeration equipment needs to be installed.

Though Elaine’s team has driven many of the fence posts for the new pastures, there is still wire fence to hang, gates to install, and paddocks to lay out. But there is undeniable progress, and Elaine’s vision for the farm is taking shape.

Let’s Hear It for The Animals

There are animals on the farm, lots of them. Duxbury Creamery will make goat cheese using a blend of milk from two breeds, Saanens and Nubians. “Saanens create the most milk, and Nubians are one of the breeds with the creamiest milk.” Elaine jokes that milk from the cross-bred goats will be “Snubian.” Right now, there are 65 goats on the farm, including four bucks. She hopes to eventually build the herd up to 200 using the does and bucks from the goats currently on the farm to breed yet more goats.

Elaine is also very excited about roughly half a dozen Valais Blacknose sheep, from Switzerland’s Valais region, specifically Zermatt, and, if you ask Elaine, “the cutest sheep in the world.” But visit the farm, and in addition to the bleating of goats and sheep, you will hear the bark of a Maremma sheep dog named Ercole, currently a forty-pound puppy but eventually a 130-pound bear of a dog. Ercole is Italian for Hercules and he is already assuming his role as 24-hour guardian of the herd.

Ask Elaine how the process of building her vision is going, and she is very positive. “We have a great team in place.” Ashleigh Woolf, a young but experienced herdsperson who’s been managing a herd in East Bridgewater, is in charge of the goats and the sheep. She will be responsible for herd health as well as all of the breeding and kidding. She will also be responsible for the twice-daily milking. The goats won’t use the entire farm area. Sean McGillicuddy hays several of the fields while Brooks Chase, one of Elaine’s closest partners in the venture, works with Elaine to oversee other operations and will take on more projects in the future, one of which may be the Wagyu beef, a Japanese beef cattle breed known for its unique taste and tenderness. “We do plan to have cows on the farm, too. Beef is having a moment.”

She is also very happy to have a group of eight local individuals she calls her “Advisory Board.” This group includes experts in marketing, farming, brand management, cheese production, and other facets of running a successful farm.

Elaine Philbrick and her curious friends at Duxbury Creamery.

There have been challenges. Cold weather delayed the start of construction. A wet spring delayed the completion of the barns, and thus the arrival of the first goats did not happen until later in the spring of 2024. Weather aside, there is the fact that Duxbury Creamery is a very different operation than the cow-based dairy operation Carl O’Neil and his ancestors ran, and that Carl continues to operate, albeit at a smaller scale.

Elaine and Carl are learning how to work together. Elaine believes that things are going well thus far. “We have our separate animals, and we work in our separate spheres… he’s making changes with his herd, and we’ve established new boundaries for our animals.” And as for working with the Directors of the Historic O’Neil Farm, the owners? “That has gone well, too. I have not gotten everything I’ve asked for, but that is to be expected, and we are working well together.”

Duxbury Creamery will make goat cheese using a blend of milk from two breeds, Saanens and Nubians.

So, What Is Next?

Elaine hopes to be producing milk by the spring. She is pursuing her Grade A Certification with the State and hopes to have that in place by early 2026, as well. She is also looking toward an orthodox kosher certification and is optimistic that it will fall into place in the spring. With a bit of luck, there will be goat cheese by the early part of the summer of 2026.

Elaine also hopes to investigate the market for Wagyu beef and may have some beef cows on pasture in the spring of 2026. “We are a small farm. We cannot try to compete with large commercial farms. We have to do artisanal, higher-end products to be self-sustaining.” Specialty goat cheese and Wagyu beef are part of that plan.

Beyond that, Elaine hopes to host cheese-making classes and farm-to-table dinners, maybe even a farm-based summer camp where kids can learn about all that goes into farming. Elaine is also open to working with other local food businesses. “We’d love to collaborate with other local farms, like the DeLorenzo Farm. They grow vegetables and raise chickens, quail, and lamb. We’d love to work with them.”

Roughly half a dozen Valais Blacknose sheep are also at the farm, and if you ask Elaine, they are “the cutest sheep in the world.”

So, stay tuned. Things are happening at the Historic O’Neil Farm, and Elaine Philbrick and her team at Duxbury Creamery hope you’ll like what you see.

Duxbury Creamery
Historic O’Neil Farm
Duxbury, MA 02332
DuxburyCreamery.com