CHICOPEE, Mass. - At the McKinstry's Family farm, their old store is completely demolished. Construction has started at McKinstry's Market Garden Inc. and the family is filled with mixed emotions.

"It's sweet and sour, right?" said Bill Mckinstry.

"It feels scary," said Nicole McKinstry. "It's a very scary project but at the same time I am happy going forward."

The farm has been around for more than a century, passed down through their family. The original store was built in the 1950s. The family decided it was time to expand and the new building will be nearly double in size.

"It's a new chapter. The boys are coming on, their name is on this project," said Nicole McKinstry.

Will McKinstry just graduated college and said he is ready for the new opportunities. "It's everything I could have asked for and dreamed of growing up," he said.

When complete, the farm store will also be staying open longer during the year. Both Will and his brother Warren have different roles in making it happen.

"I work a lot in the field and growing the crops for the store so I am really excited to increase the variety of vegetables we grow and increasing the volume for the newer and bigger store," said Will Mckinstry.

Warren works primarily in the store which will have a variety of new products and a sweet new attraction for customers.

"I am really looking forward to the ice cream, we are going to start off with that this year, hopefully by June we will have that up and going, we will have hard ice cream and soft serve ice cream," Warren said. 

As they get ready for this new chapter for their family farm, they said it is still nerve racking to do all this during a pandemic. The McKinstry's said having the community behind them has made all the difference.

"The support we had this year in our store was great and it's because of the customers we are able to keep going,"Warren said.

Bill added, "The customers have been so loyal for us over the years, multi generation families have been coming here "and we are doing that to be able to accommodate them too and to help ourselves too."

Construction is expected to be complete by May 1, just in time for their busy season. This time, they will stay open until December instead of October.