From Farm to Farm: Local Produce and Plants at 60-Year-Old Hingham Business

Penniman Hill Farm has been a locally-owned business in Hingham since 1953.

It offers flowers, vegetables and seasonal products. Penniman also features a farm stand, a garden center, a holiday decoration center, a petting zoo and even landscaping service.

Dan Nessralla owns the farm with his two brothers. Hingham Patch sat down with Nessralla recently to talk about the farm as part of a weekly business conversation series. Come back every Monday for more interviews.

What did you do before?

Nessralla grew up in Brockton and studied business at Massasoit Community College. His brothers, Hanna and Tony, also went to college before all three worked their own farm stands in Marshfield and Halifax.

When did you buy Penniman Hill Farm?

The business, at 272 Whiting St., has been around since 1953. The former owner, Bill Costa, approached Nessralla and his brothers 20 years ago at their farm and offered to sell.

How did you make it your own?

The Nessrallas kept the original name, because it was well-known and liked in the community, but expanded the business. They added retail space, an ice cream shop and the petting zoo.

The petting zoo is open year-round and features goats, miniature goats, sheep, miniature donkeys and chickens. Admission is free, and kids and their parents can buy a bucket of food for $1.

How many employees do you have?

It ranges from five to 15 depending on the season.

What's your busiest time of the year?

Spring is when people come out in droves to get plants, flowers and other products, Nessralla said. April through June is the busiest, with items like Geraniums, shrubs and Impatiens the most popular. Customers also pick up gardening supplies, though Nessralla said it is hard to keep up with the prices of stores like Home Depot.

Where do your customers come from? 

Many are from Hingham, but Nessralla said people come from all over the South Shore – Milton, Cohasset, Scituate.

What's your holiday business like?

Penniman Hill Farm sells more than 1,000 Christmas trees each year, plus scores of wreaths and poinsettias. They get their trees from New Brunswick and Quebec.

The weekend after Thanksgiving is the busiest for outdoor decorations, Nessralla said, and then people turn out in droves the following weekend for Christmas trees.

What do you sell that would surprise people?

Penniman offers a custom line of gourmet food, produced specifically for the farm. It includes various kinds of barbecue sauce, salad dressing, jarred fruit and vegetables and more.

There is also native, locally-grown produce available during the summer, such as corn and tomatoes. If Penniman doesn't grow it itself, the Nessrallas buy it from nearby farms.

"Whatever we can't grow we'll get from the guy next to us," Nessralla said.

What's your favorite part of being in Hingham?

"People are very friendly," Nessralla said.

He added that locals like the history of the farm, and Nessralla enjoys socializing and helping customers.

"We appreciate their strong support," he said.

If there was one thing you could change in town to help small businesses, what would it be?

Nessralla said that in his two decades in Hingham he has not encountered any problems – nothing sticks out that he would change.

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