“I’ve been going there for years, even before I opened this up,” she said of her restaurant. Pizzeria Maria highlights that the bacon on its meat lover’s pizza comes from Blood Farm.īorino, a Westford resident, has been a regular customer for about 15 years - and she was just there Sunday. Only hours after the fire was put out, Maria Borino, owner of Pizzeria Maria in Nashua, already had an idea to start a fundraiser to benefit workers who would be out of a job, at least temporarily. The fire was not deemed suspicious, Bosselait said. “It’s kind of like an oven, with the block construction with metal roof,” he said. By the time the fire was spotted, it was already spreading extensively inside the building. The types of materials used for the building, including cinder-block walls, made fighting the fire more difficult, Bosselait said. No one answered the phone listed for the business in the morning or late afternoon. “It’s a big loss for the town,” Bosselait said.Ī police officer at the scene late Sunday morning said the Blood family asked that the public be kept away from the property. Firefighters from Dunstable, Littleton and Shirley staffed the Groton fire stations while the town’s firefighters were at the scene. The four-alarm fire brought crews to the scene from Ayer, Lunenburg, Pepperell and Townsend. It took about four hours to get the fire under control. The fire was noticed by a passer-by, who called authorities just after 2 a.m. “Those places are going to be overloaded at this point,” he said. Gibbet Hill Grill and many others will need to try going through one of the very few other USDA-certified slaughterhouses in the region, Webber said. One restaurant that has used Blood Farm for decades is Gibbet Hill Grill, located about 3 miles away.įrom where the cattle are raised on Gibbet Hill Farm, adjacent to the restaurant, to Blood Farm and back to the restaurant is a short distance nearly unheard of in the industry, said Jed Webber, a co-owner of the Webber Restaurant Group, which owns Gibbet Hill and seven other restaurants and facilities in the area. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Doris Helen Whitney to pay them a last tribute. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. “I’m tempted to think there is no better place on Earth to get your meat, but I’m damned certain there’s no better place in MA,” one wrote. We are sad to announce that on April 26, 2018, at the age of 88, Doris Helen Whitney (Groton, Massachusetts) passed away. The slaughterhouse is overwhelmingly popular on the customer-review website Yelp, with regulars praising its quality and trustworthiness. “It’s pretty much all gone,” Cunningham said of the fire’s damage. It was also a major supplier for restaurants in the area, he said. The farm has been an institution in the area and a part of Groton history, Cunningham said. Barney, who is in his 90s, is also a former selectman, Sartini said. and his wife, Doris, have been mainstays in the community for decades. At least one house on the property dates to 1780. Town history books date the Blood family purchase of the West Main Street property to 1724, she said. It all causes Elliot to say: “I wish I were younger - I had more zip.“It’s always been a centerpiece of West Groton,” Sartini said. The second floor will provide additional space for an business office and record-keeping, according to Doris. For example, a part of the red wall with the name of the farm painted on it - which is next to the entrance to the retail store - will be incorporated into the new wall. Workers brought in a special equipment to remove soot and smell from the fire off the brick walls to preserve what’s left of the two-and-a-half-century-old farm. The preparation for the reconstruction began in February with the removal of debris, Blood said. The community also got together in February to raise funds for the 20 employees of the farm, including part-time employees. “Everybody has been so nice to my wife and I.” Others simply wanted see the historic farm continue. Some of them were farmers who regularly took their animals to Blood Farm for processing. Then, people started to call him, asking him to rebuild and reopen. “To tell you the truth, I am 91 and wanted to retire,” said Blood, who complains about gray hairs finally showing atop his head. The new structure taking shape looks identical to what used to stand in its place, except for a second-floor addition.Īs Elliot’s wife, Doris Blood said: “We built up instead of building wider.”Ī fifth-generation owner of the farm, Elliot said he wasn’t thinking about rebuilding initially.
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