Growing the Next Generation of Farmers

Lots of teaching and learning going on here at Moose Hill Farm!

I hope you enjoyed learning about Moose Hill Farm's three apprentices over the last couple of weeks.  They are out there with me working really hard every day to help grow the best vegetables and eggs that this farm can produce for you!!  Feel free to come talk to us in the fields and ask us about what the project of the day is.  Want even more interaction with us and the chance to experience your farm first hand?  You should come to the volunteer drop-in hours this Saturday!  Moose Hill Farm has drop in hours every first Saturday of the month.  If you love to weed, you will want to stop by anytime from 2-4 pm this Saturday...hope to see you out there!!

The apprentice program here at Moose Hill Farm is just one of many ways we are educating the youth in our community about farming.  We also had a stellar high school student volunteer with us for five weeks in the spring from Newton Country Day School.  And we are so lucky to have one of The Trustees of Reservations' Youth Crews, City Harvest,  work with us 2 days a week for the months of July and August...they have done a lot of weeding and potato harvesting and egg washing and they are such a pleasure to have!!  (You can learn more about this great program here: http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/csa/city-harvest-csa/city-harvest-ycc.html) Just last week we had over 90 kids aged 6-14 come out from the Attleboro YMCA camp to learn about what a CSA is and to learn all about raising chickens.  It was a whirlwind of a day but felt great to have given those kids such a great experience.  I believe the best way to form a new and better food system is to show people (youth and adults) first hand how wonderful and empowering it is to see their food growing with their own eyes. 

On another note, until further notice we will be holding the pick up in the Studio instead of under the tents.  That building provides much better shelter for the vegetables from the heat and thunderstorms that we have been having this summer!  This week in the Studio you will find lettuce mix, choice of herbs, choice of cabbage or kale, cinnamon basil, squash, cucumbers, onions, beets, potatoes, and a mixture of eggplant, specialty peppers and tomatoes.  There are some beans left in the field if you care to take a nice walk out to the fields.  Don't worry...more beans are growing out there and there may be cherry tomatoes for you to pick by next week!

Farmer Molly and the crew

Last, but not least...Nichole!

Meet our third amazing apprentice, Nichole. 

"I grew up in the sprawl of Phoenix, Arizona, a hot and rapidly growing city whose nascent identity can sometimes psychologically strain the eco-friendly mind. I spent most of my weekends on respite from city life in the beautiful, unforgiving desert taking long hikes, discovering dusty trails forgotten by western explorers, and developing a very deep reverence for the environment and nature's intrinsic value.
I incorporated this love of the natural world into my coursework at Arizona State University, where I majored in political science and international studies. I found the courses pertaining to sustainable development, ethics, and food security to be the most valuable and began to fall in love with sustainable agriculture and the local organic food movement. After college, I joined AmeriCorps and served a year working outside on a handful of community garden and conservation projects, including rescuing stranded dolphins, oyster culling, and trail restoration! Longing for city life, I moved to Boston and worked part-time as the Allston Village Farmers Market manager and as a server at a "farm-to-table" restaurant. I quickly found myself engaging in the sustainable food movement on many levels but still longed to work outdoors with my hands, and was fortunate to find an apprenticeship at Moose Hill Farm.

Moose Hill Farm is the first stop on what I hope is a long career in sustainable agriculture. In the future, I hope to continue to research unconventional small scale solutions that can impact sustainable agriculture issues on a global scale, by empowering local economically disadvantaged communities to become food secure, and assist in bridging the gap between theory and what is achievable.  
Apart from being an activist and farmer-in-training, I love to cook, play music, paint and RUN!!! Hope to see you soon and welcome to the farm!!!"

Next week we will introduce you to our incredible volunteers, including the City Harvest Youth Crew, whom we also started donating produce to this week for their farmer's markets in Dorchester and Mattapan.  You will also learn more about how you can volunteer at the farm on Saturday, August 3! 

This week in your share you will still get to pick those delicious beans and you will also find a choice of herbs, cabbage, Swiss chard, summer squash, lettuce, cucumbers, onions, and maybe some other special summer veggies!  Got a great recipe to share with fellow CSA members?  Post it here on this blog as a comment!  Need a recipe suggestion?  Don't forgot about our recipe blog that we share with Powisset Farm...http://powissetfarm.blogspot.com/


Farmer Molly and the crew

Introducing...Tim!

This week you get to learn about another one of Moose Hill Farm's awesome apprentices, Tim. 

"My hopes and goals for this season were to see the production side of farming. My experience so far has been primarily large scale homesteading as base, and different trades within agriculture being the skill set on top. In college, The Audubon Education Institute, we lived simple lives practicing ecological awareness and self-sufficiency; that year our ecological footprint was 1 acre per person...something that there should be an award for. Ultimately, my studies left a heavy influence on me. I am a very passionate activist for living simple, handwork, and ecological awareness.  Before being hired as a Farm Apprentice, I had been working as both an assistant cheese maker, crafting raw milk aged cheese, and as an apiarist, caring for bees within the Boston metro area.  Currently, in my down time I operate several small apiaries within New England. I hope to work in a field where both farming and bee keeping are aspects of my day-to-day job. Self-resiliency, in learning self-sufficiency and homesteading, I became an inspired home brewer.   With my own honey at my feet, in the next few years, I hope to start a mead company. Ethically farming perennials herbs, flowers, and fruits as ingredients to be fermented with the honey, and produce a local, well throughout, craft wine. Till then, I will be just selling honey; maybe you’ll see it at the farm stand? Let’s see what the bees think about that! Stay tuned…"

We are very happy to report that our food pantry donations began last week...we donated 80lbs of produce to the Canton Food Pantry.  This week we will be adding a drop-off to the Produce to Pantries program in Boston; specifically to the Haitian American Public Health Initiative. 

We are hoping to get you back into the PYO fields this week to pick some beans...we'll see how the beans grow in the heat today!  Under the tents you will find dill, sage, cabbage, Swiss chard, fennel, lettuce, summer squash, cucumbers, potatoes, scallions, beets and kale. 

Farmer Molly and the crew

Introducing our "Neighbors!"

This week you will have a taste from The Neighborhood Farm in your share!

Here at The Trustees of Reservations, we try to be very good neighbors in the local farming community.  We love helping small family farms and community farms out in a number of ways; from sending our crews to volunteer on small local farms, to purchasing value-added products from local bee keepers and maple syrup producers to offer to our CSA members, to leasing land to small family farms.  Let me introduce you to one such farm - The Neighborhood Farm from Needham, MA!  The Trustees has been partnering with this farm for several years now, who mission is to grow food in backyards and other small plots of land.  They have been leasing a small plot of land in Medfield from the Trustees for a couple of years now.  They sell their food at farmer's markets in Dedham, Roslindale and Needham.  When Moose Hill Farm was building their greenhouse this past winter, we knew we were going to have some extra space for the first few years.  We have been able to lease half of our greenhouse to The Neighborhood Farm this season and probably will be able to for the next couple of seasons as well.  Having a large enough greenhouse is not an easy feat when you grow in someone's backyard, so we were very happy to help out.  Plus it makes our greenhouse much more energy efficient when it is completely filled with plants.  A win-win for everyone!

Well, it turns out that The Neighborhood Farm is really great at growing garlic.  In fact, they are obsessed with growing garlic and are currently growing dozens and dozens of different varieties.  We were lucky enough to snag some garlic scapes from them this week, because as you recall from a previous blog, we won't have garlic until next year.  Hope you enjoy "meeting" The Neighborhood Farm!

Besides those tasty garlic scapes, you will also find under the tents lettuce, cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, dill, basil, beets, carrots, summer squash and potatoes.  Sorry, but there isn't anything available in the PYO fields this week - turns out fava beans hate being in soggy soil :(  Hopefully the bush beans will be available in the next week or so! 

Farmer Molly and the crew

Say "Hello" to Erika!

Let me introduce you to one of Moose Hill Farm's three apprentices...

"My name is Erika Rumbley and I’m one of the apprentices at Moose Hill Farm. I caught the farming bug nine seasons ago in upstate New York and have been growing food ever since. Before joining the Moose Hill Farm crew, I served as the Garden Educator for Boston Natural Areas Network (an urban open space land trust, affiliated with TTOR). I had the pleasure of sharing the tools for sustainable, urban agriculture with community gardeners from all corners of the city. Previously I served as the founding organizer for the Providence Community Growers Network, a co-op of community gardens, school gardens and urban farms. I may be a North Carolina native, but I have fallen hard for New England and am honored to continue contributing to this incredible food system we are building together. I’m delighted to work alongside such a motivated and kind bunch of staff and work shares. I look forward to chatting with each of you this season about our growing practices here at the farm or how to cook a vegetable that is new to you! Thank you all for supporting our first season at Moose Hill Farm."

Currently you can find Erika working the Thursday CSA pick up and the Saturday Farm Stand at Bird Park.  That's right, our farm stands have started for the season!  Be sure to let your friends and neighbors know that they can now purchase Moose Hill Farm vegetables either on Thursdays from 1:30-6:30 pm at the farm or on Saturdays from 9am-12pm at Bird Park in Walpole. 



A snap shot of the first day of the farm stand at Moose Hill Farm.



The CSA pick-up hours will remain the same this week, even on the 4th of July.  This week in your share you will have lots of sugar snap peas to pick in the PYO fields (don't forget those rain boots!).  Under the tent you will find lettuce, radicchio, kale, cabbage, beets, radishes, cauliflower, summer squash, fresh white onions, lemon basil, parsley, and just in time for Independence Day, red, white and blue potatoes!

Farmer Molly and the crew