Dear Farm Friends,

What an exceptionally busy month we have had here at the Farm! In addition to planning logistics of three major events for this spring—Open House, annual seedling sale, and a virtual program with Dr. Walter Willett—we have installed displays about the Farm at all eight branches of The Village Bank plus the Newton Free Library; we've been chatting with the community about vermiculture at the Newton Earth Day Festival (as pictured here) and at Newtonville Books on Independent Bookstore Day; and we're planning a book group meeting in May. We are also participating as a volunteer site for Newton Serves and hope to do some Farm cleanup.

Outside is abuzz with activity. More than 27,000 seedlings are currently growing in and around the greenhouses. Every day they get bigger and stronger thanks to the work of Farmers Greg, Andrea, and Grace and a team of dedicated volunteers. Planting in the field has begun, and I see more veggies growing in neat little rows whenever I walk through the field. There's a new Storywalk® in place for visitors young and old to enjoy as well as a beautiful new sign with historical information about the property near the farm stand on Winchester Street. And Farmer Greg is getting more chickens at the end of May! There will be many photos of them to come in the next newsletter.

Long-term projects such as the solar installation on the roof of the barn and major repairs in the farmhouse are wrapping up, and the new Dr. Eugene Rubin greenhouse and recently-upgraded older greenhouse are working well as essential infrastructure for Farm operations. We have so much to be thankful for here at the Farm and we can't wait to share it all with you. Please read on for more details on our upcoming programs and events.

With gratitude,

Sue Bottino

Executive Director

Celebrate All That’s New at Our Open House 

Saturday, May 6, 4–6 pm

Be part of the unveiling of the latest sustainability measures at Newton Community Farm at our Open House on Saturday, May 6, 4–6 pm. We will dedicate the Dr. Eugene Rubin Greenhouse (4:30 pm) and cut the ribbon on the new solar array (5 pm). You will also find our new Storywalk®, historical sign, and booths featuring the City of Newton Energy Coach, Newton Conservators, Green Newton, Resonant Energy, and Ace Solar. Light refreshments will be available.

Greenhouse Information

In 2020, NCF received a generous donation from Steven and Carolyn Barg to construct a new greenhouse in memory of Carolyn’s father, Dr. Eugene Rubin. Gene was a scholar, entrepreneur, husband, father, teacher, and activist, as well as a leader of the board of trustees at neighboring Ledgebrook Condominium Association, where he resided with his wife, Arlene. Gene was a proponent of land preservation, and he was part of a volunteer advocacy group whose work helped lead the City to purchase the Farm property from the Angino family in 2005. Gene was an active member of the NCF Board of Directors, helping to guide practical decision making, and he worked with Ledgebrook to provide financial support to NCF.

The new greenhouse doubles NCF’s climate-controlled growing space. The structure has heat to keep young, temperature-sensitive plants alive in the early spring, and active ventilation for sunny days when the temperature would otherwise soar to over 100 degrees. The new greenhouse is a key element in NCF’s endeavor to become more climate resilient so that we are able to continue providing local, organic seedlings to our community, as well as a steady supply of seedlings for the field.

Solar Array Information

In 2021, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) announced grant awards to help local farms implement climate-change mitigation. NCF and the City of Newton were chosen as grant awardees of the Climate Smart Agriculture Program - Energy grant. MDAR is reimbursing the city for $49,340 of the cost of the new solar installation on the roof of the barn, which will provide 99% of the energy needed for the agricultural operations. This grid-connected photovoltaic array of 27 panels (10.8 kW) with battery backup (16 kWh) will prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to driving a car nearly 23,000 miles or the carbon dioxide sequestered by approximately 11 acres of forest each year. In addition to improving our resilience, this project enables NCF to have an on-site, working example of solar power for our educational programs.

To volunteer to help with this event, sign up here.

Please Help Us Pay for Equipment

in the New Greenhouse

We need your support to pay for the equipment we use

to grow plants successfully in the Dr. Eugene Rubin Greenhouse. 

Your contribution will fund the grow tables, hoses, and other essential supplies. 

Meet the Match

Every dollar donated up to $7,500 will be matched by the Barg family. 

Donate TODAY to double your impact!

We need to raise a total of $15,000 and time is tight. We will only be running this fundraiser through the end of May, so please donate today! 

NCF's Annual Spring Seedling Sale

(Click here and croll to the second event on our events page for all the details.)

Saturday, May 20–Sunday, May 21

Noon–3 pm

We're growing 27,000 seedlings for our annual Spring Seedling Sale. We'll have all your favorites, plus some new varieties this year. The sale will be in person at the Farm on May 20–21, from noon to 3 pm. In addition to seedlings, we will also have Vermont Compost Company soil and soil amendments available in limited supply and NCF T-shirts for sale. And we are thrilled that our local volunteer garden gurus Barney Keezell and Brian Rogan will be back to answer all your garden-related questions.

All seedlings will be $6 per unit that they are started in, either a 6-pack, a 4-pack, or a pot depending on the type of plant. So, for example, a 6-pack of lettuce or a 4-pack of tomatoes or a potted perennial herb are all $6 each. 

We will have more than 90 plant varieties available this year. Categories include:

Basil

Beets

Bok Choi

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Napa Cabbage

Calendula

Cantaloupe

Cauliflower

Centaurea

Chard

Cilantro

Corn

Cosmos

Cucumbers

Cutting Celery

Dill

Eggplant

Fennel

Husk Cherry

Hyssop

Kale

Lavender

Lettuce

Marigold

Mint

Mustard

Nasturtium

Oregano

Parsley

Peppers

Rosemary

Sage

Scallions

Spinach

Squash

Strawflower

Sunflower

Tarragon

Thyme

Tomatillos

Tomatoes

Turnips

Watermelon

Zinnia

New varieties we have this year are: Picnic Orange Peppers (similar to Lunchbox Orange Peppers); Iko Iko Peppers, which start and stay various beautiful colors; Sarah's Choice Cantaloupe; Galine Italian Eggplant, which is a variety we have grown for the field many years in the past; Black Magic Kale (a type of Toscano Kale); Lemon Sun Squash (a type of pattypan squash); new shades of strawflowers; Sun Peach Cherry Tomato, which is a high-yield indeterminate with very large, deep-pink cherry tomatoes; and perennial herbs including Blue Flower Hyssop, Pineapple Sage, Hot and Spicy Oregano, Golden Oregano, Emerald and Gold Mint, and Berries and Cream Mint.

For more information on specific varieties, click here. 

We welcome cash, credit card, check, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/Healthy Incentive Program (SNAP/HIP) benefits! Customers can use SNAP/HIP to pay for seedlings that grow food for their household. To see which seedlings can be purchased with SNAP/HIP, visit our plant list.

The seedling sale is a huge undertaking, and we need your help! Please volunteer to help with setup, the sale, and cleanup. If you live on a busy street and would host a lawn sign, please email sue@newtoncommunityfarm.org.

THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL SPONSORS!

Can We Feed 10 Billion People a Diet That Is Both Healthy and Sustainable?

Virtual Program with Dr. Walter Willett

Thursday, June 1, from 7–8:30 pm

Free, Live streamed online (Register to receive the link to watch this program.)

We all know that what we eat affects our health, but have you thought about how your food choices affect the climate? Dr. Walter Willett, cochair of the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, and Health, will present the findings of leading scientists on how what we eat and how we grow food impacts our planet, both now and in the future. In addition to predicting dietary health outcomes, this team included environmental factors (such as greenhouse gas emissions, food waste, and improved agricultural production practices) to arrive at their recommendations. Dr. Willett will describe how transforming our eating habits can have major benefits for human health and allow us to stay within sustainable, planetary boundaries. He will also identify the strategies to achieve these goals that require the engagement of government at all levels, civil society, and individuals.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Walter Willett is a physician, epidemiologist, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a world-renowned speaker. He served as chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard for 25 years. Much of his work has been on the development of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods starting in 1980 in the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Together, these cohorts that include nearly 300,000 men and women with repeated dietary assessments are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of food choices. Dr. Willett has published over 2,000 research papers, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for heart disease and cancer, and has written the textbook Nutritional Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press. He also has four books for the general public. Dr. Willett is the most-cited nutritional scientist internationally. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the recipient of many national and international awards for his research.

This program is made possible thanks to

The Bard Family Environmental Education Fund.

Thank you, Bard Family!

Sign up to help out at the Farm on Newton Serves Day, Sunday, May 7, 9 am–noon. This year, Newton Serves: Building Community Through Service, is focusing volunteer efforts on cleaning and improving Newton's parks, school grounds, open-space areas, and conservation lands. Volunteers who sign up to spend the morning at NCF will help clean the barn and, weather permitting, move soil/wood chips, pick up litter, and tidy up inside and outside. Sign up here!

Spend a few hours at the Farm on a Saturday morning this summer, helping with field work or projects with our assistant grower. Get your hands dirty and have fun while helping out! Shifts are from 10 to noon and preregistration is required here. Wear comfortable clothes, a sun hat, and closed-toe shoes and be sure to bring a water bottle. Volunteers must be age 12 or older and kids ages 12-15 must be accompanied by an adult who is working along with them. Thank you in advance for your help!

We are so happy to introduce Assistant Grower Andrea Egan. Andrea grew up in Groton, Massachusetts, but just recently returned to this state for the first time since high school. Andrea took a winding path to the Farm, where she started working in March. Before becoming a farmer, Andrea worked as a physicist, then as a software engineer, including a stint working for the City of San Francisco. This is her second full year farming after an apprenticeship at Amber Waves Farm on Long Island, New York, last season. She loves spending long days picking tomatoes and bunching kale, and believes that small farms are an important piece of building community and local food resiliency. Having spent time in West Newton visiting her grandmother as a child, Andrea is excited to be back to help feed the local community. Welcome, Andrea!

NCF is grateful for the wonderful student volunteers helping at the Farm this spring. We're highlighting several this month with more to follow in our next newsletter. These students, all Newton residents, have spent countless hours working on a variety of Farm tasks while learning about how we grow food sustainably and run our successful nonprofit.

Aanika Seth Mohta is in tenth grade at Buckingham Brown and Nichols (BB&N) in Cambridge. Aanika came to the Farm as part of a school service class where students were encouraged to find a local organization with which to partner, and she has continued to stay on at the Farm, helping with research related to renewable energy, marketing, and farming history, educational displays, and other projects. For her most recent work, Aanika researched the purposes of the antique tools found on the Farm property, which are now on display in the barn. Aanika enjoys meeting all the people who help the Farm run and learning about their roles within the organization. She also enjoys getting to see the farm dog, Winston :). "I would like to encourage others to volunteer at the Farm to support their local community and learn more about where their food comes from!" she says. In addition to time spent at the Farm, Aanika loves to hike, read, dance—she studies classical Indian dance called Bharatanatyam—, play soccer, and visit with her family and friends.

Rohan Durfee first learned about the Farm when he became interested in small-scale farming and had time on his hands due to the pandemic. Rohan starting volunteering with the weekly summer weeding crew in 2021. In 2022 he participated in our field crew summer student internship program. This spring, while Rohan is completing twelfth grade at BB&N, he is planting and potting seedlings for the upcoming seedling sale and helping Farmer Greg with various projects around the Farm. Rohan explains, "I keep coming back every year because I really enjoy the community of people that I've met through the Farm, and I've found it very rewarding to be able to do volunteer work that I enjoy in my own community."

In addition to farming, Rohan's interests include music (he plays the accordion), woodworking, fishing, politics/political theory, urbanism, and playing squash. This summer he will be traveling to Japan and visiting his grandparents. Rohan will attend Bowdoin College in Maine in the fall.

Vian Siriwardena is in twelfth grade at Newton South High School. He loves singing and writing songs, and he will be going to Chicago to study music after graduation. Vian says that he heard about a lot of positive experiences from friends who have volunteered at farms over the summer, and so he thought it was something new and exciting to try as part of the W.I.S.E. senior project at his school. He has been helping with seeding and preparing the vegetable plants to be either transferred to the field or sold at the seedling sale. "I would encourage people to visit the Farm or even volunteer because I think it’s so fascinating to see where our vegetables come from." He encourages people to purchase some seedlings from the seedling sale and watch them grow in your backyard.

Farm Stand/Field Crew

NCF is hiring a Farm Stand/Field Crew worker for the 2023 season. This position is split between operating the stand three days a week and working with the crew two days a week. The split position runs June 6 through September 30. The field-work portion ends on October 1, but the farm-stand portion continues through November 18.

Farm-stand work is on Thursdays and Fridays from approximately 12:30 pm to 6:30 pm and on Saturdays from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. The farm-stand worker is responsible for loading and unloading a truck and setting up, staffing, and closing the stand. This portion of the job is community facing and requires good interpersonal skills and a desire to share your knowledge of and interest in fresh, local produce with our customers. It also requires the ability to perform basic math, use calculating scales, and operate (with training) a POS system (Square). The field-crew portion of the job is on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and offers flexibility in both number of hours (up to eight hours/day) and timing. Duties may include: harvesting, washing and packing, transplanting, hand weeding, cultivating, greenhouse work, or other farm tasks. A successful candidate must be able to load and unload boxes weighing up to 50 pounds. A valid driver's license, a good driving record, and the ability to drive a pickup or van (automatic transmission) is also required. Compensation is $16/hour plus a weekly farm-stand credit.

High School Field Crew Intern Program Team Leader

NCF is seeking a team leader for our summer 2023 High School Field Crew Intern program. The intern program runs July 11–August 31 and provides high school students with an opportunity to gain work experience and learn about agriculture. The team leader is responsible for working with the farm manager and assistant grower to integrate the interns into the daily routines of NCF. They are also responsible for facilitating the mid-morning conversations, helping the interns identify their own questions and assumptions about agriculture. 

The ideal candidate will have experience working on a production-oriented vegetable farm and an ability to engage with teenagers. There will be a paid, three-day training period prior to the first intern session. Compensation is $18/hour. 

More information is available online. To apply for either position, email your resume and a brief description of your interest to Greg Maslowe, Farm Manager, at newtoncommunityfarm@gmail.com. Please note the title of the position in the subject line. References may be requested.

NCF is currently accepting applications for summer high school field crew interns, and we have only a few spaces left! This program offers the experience of working on an intensive market garden (the traditional term for small vegetable farms) for students entering 9th–12th grade in the fall of 2023. These unpaid internships last for four weeks and are three mornings a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), 8 am to noon. Applicants can indicate if they are available for session 1 (July 11–August 3) or session 2 (August 8–August 31). Check out our website for more details and to apply online.

Join us in May for a group discussion of the book The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food by Ben Hewitt. We will meet on Tuesday, May 9, 7–8:30 pm at the Farm and we will also have a virtual option so people can attend by Zoom. To be added to our book group email list to get this Zoom link and also notices about what we are reading, email sue@newtoncommunityfarm.org.

Roasted Beet, Red Onion, and Goat-Cheese Salad

Roast a beet in the oven at 400°F for 30 minutes or until fork tender. Once it has cooled, dice it into small chunks. Add the roasted beet chunks to a bowl of your favorite leafy greens, plus sliced red onion (pickled is delicious if you have it), goat cheese, and walnuts or pistachios, followed by a drizzle of poppyseed dressing or your favorite salad dressing (photo at right).

Lemon Ricotta Pasta with Snap Peas

Cook a box of your preferred pasta. Set aside 1/2 cup of pasta water before draining the rest. (This contains starch from the pasta that will help your sauce adhere better to the noodles.) You can prepare the snap peas by either popping the peas out of each pod or chopping each pod into small pieces. In the same pot with the pasta, add 2–3 spoonfuls of ricotta cheese, zest and juice of one lemon, salt and pepper, and the reserved pasta water. Stir until combined. Mix in the snap peas. You can also add any other vegetables you have on hand—such as asparagus and zucchini. 

Recipes and photo by Inna Kagan, local Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

NCF is partnering with Duck Hollow Farm to bring you fresh, local flowers all summer. Sign up for ten weeks of floral bouquets, organically and lovingly grown in Sherborn, MA. Pick up weekly at NCF on Wednesday or Thursday, 2–7 pm, from the end of June (exact date TBD) through the end of September. Price is $190.

Click here to sign up. Please email 

laurel@al-freshco.com with any questions.



NEWTON COMMUNITY FARM

303 Nahanton Street

Newton, MA 02459

617-916-9655

www.newtoncommunityfarm.org

information@newtoncommunityfarm.org