This 97-acre working farm in Maryland, which traces its roots to the 17th century, is heading to auction on April 9.
Known as P.A. Bowen Farmstead, the Brandywine farm includes a 19th-century home with a kitchen that, in part, dates to 1665 — before the United States was an independent nation.
Located at 15701 and 15407 Doctor Bowen Road — just an hour outside Washington, DC — it was last asking $7.5 million for sale.
The no-reserve auction was first reported in Mansion Global.
The seller is Sally Fallon Morell, who built the farm with her late husband, Geoffrey Morell.
“Raising a dairy herd and making cheese the old way — chemical-free, with the land doing what land is meant to do — was a dream Geoffrey and I built together over 15 years, and I’m proud of every bit of it,” Morell told Gimme Shelter, adding that continuing to work after losing her husband was both a “tribute and a comfort.”
However, she added: “The time has come to pass this farm to someone who will love it as we did.”
Morell is the co-author of “Nourishing Traditions,” which promotes a diet that incorporates raw milk and saturated fat, contradicting low-fat heart health guidelines. She is also co-founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for raw milk to be available for consumption in all 50 states and argues that a diet high in animal fat, like butter, lard and tallow, is good for you. (Price was a dentist who traveled the world in the 1930s and believed that people who ate like their ancestors, including a diet with no processed sugar or white flour, had better teeth and health than his patients.)
The estate includes an 1870s Italianate-style home. Elite Auctions is handling the sale of the property, which is listed by Bob Lucido and Tracy Lucido of Keller Williams Lucido Agency.
The 5,500-square-foot, six-bedroom, 6.5-bath home comes with 13-foot ceilings, crown moldings, hardwood floors and seven fireplaces. Outside, there’s a pool and a pond with a dock.
The couple bought the estate for $1.2 million in 2009, and then renovated it and invested in the construction of a 2,000-square-foot milking parlor and a 1,600-square-foot cheese facility, a spokesperson for the auction house said.
It’s now a nationally recognized regenerative farm, operating chemical free, where pesticides, herbicides and synthetic chemicals are banned. Its award winning cheeses include raw blue and cheddar from pastured cows, as well as grass-fed beef, pasture-raised poultry, eggs and seasonal turkey are all sold at the on-site farm store, and local farmers markets.
In addition, the auction includes that farm store, a farm manager’s 2,500-square-foot ranch house, a 500-square-foot cottage, a 2,500-square-foot restored barn for events and a 2,000-square-foot horse barn. Additional structures include a loafing shed for cows, a hay shed, and a 2,000-square-foot green house.
