About Us

Black Shoals Farm encompasses three properties totaling approximately 117 acres of riverfront and lake

front land in the small, pre-Revolutionary War town of Francestown, NH (Incorporated 1772). The

farm’s name is a double entendre alluding to the shoals that make the Piscataquog River – South Branch

unnavigable and to the owners’ former careers as stock option traders. (Black-Scholes calculations allow

you to estimate the fair value of a European put or call option using the Black-Scholes pricing model.)

The owners, Mary and Mike Murphy, have successfully reinvented themselves several times throughout

their careers in business, high technology and chemical engineering. Their goal is to develop a self-

sustaining, chemical-free, non-GMO fruit and vegetable farm to help provide food security to

surrounding communities. The farm will produce herbs, vegetables, orchard fruits, certified organic

elderberries and other berries.

Mary and Mike donated a conservation easement on one of their properties to help protect the

Piscataquog riverfront and watershed. This philanthropy allowed the Francestown Land Trust to

conserve funds and secure grant money to acquire two other riverfront properties. The two main farm

properties are important riverfront properties through which diverse wildlife travel, feed and drink.

Farmland has been disappearing in the United States as the result of development, which is decreasing

the availability of locally grown, healthy, chemical-free, non-GMO options. Black Shoals Farm is part of a

movement to reverse this trend and provide healthier eating options to our surrounding communities.

We hope you will support this effort.