By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Staff Writer
9/24/09
It’s harvest time down on the farm. Farmers at Brookwood Farm, the organic community-farming program located at 11 Blue Hill River Road, are enjoying the fruits of their labor – or vegetables, anyway – as they cultivate lush produce nurtured in the soil of the Blue Hills. The farm sits on an over 70-acre parcel of land in the Blue Hills Reservation, owned by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. It was part of a historic farming area used to produce locally grown food for generations.
Now in its fourth year, the one-acre Brookwood location, along with another swath of land located at nearby Bradley Estate, is a part of a program known as Community Supported Agriculture, with shareholders from the surrounding area. The farm currently has 110 members, the majority from Milton, who share in the abundance of the season. The cost of a share this year was $375.
“It’s a really great system because we have a guaranteed market and people pay up front for the full season so farmers will have cash flow when they normally wouldn’t,” explained Simca Horwitz, an active farmer at Brookwood. “But then we’re able to give people a discount for committing for the season, so it ends up for the customer being really affordable. It’s mutually beneficial.”
Members come to the farm once a week to pick up boxes of nutritious fruits and vegetables. The produce is also sold to the public at the Milton Farmers’ Market on Thursdays from 1 to 6 p.m. through mid-October at the Town Wharf in Lower Mills.
Members are also asked to devote 10 hours of volunteer time in some capacity at the farm. Over the summer, several Milton High School students helped out as part of a seven-week community service program.
This year was a bit of a disappointment for tomato lovers, as blight took hold due to a variety of factors. One possible cause was a fungus that may have come up from nurseries in the South that sold tomato plants to northern distributors. The wet early summer seemed to have exacerbated the situation.
“We estimate probably over $20,000 of lost revenue just from the tomato sales,” Horwitz said. “I think that’s probably low compared to a lot of other farms because we’re not a very big farm but also we’re really diversified. It’s devastating to lose most of a crop but it’s not going to ruin this farm.”
The wet weather was actually good for green crops like broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, Swiss chard and spinach. The farm’s rows seemed to be bursting with various shades of green as the last days of summer pass.
The farmers, including Milton’s Judy Lieberman, are busy harvesting the various bunches while pulling out old tomato vines and preparing the land for winter. Lieberman worked on a recent warm and sunny day, side-by-side with residents Cathy Smith and Beth Schiffmann, who also enjoy getting their hands dirty, helping out. Schiffmann and her daughter recently helped drop off some of the farm’s produce to the Milton Food Pantry.
“A big piece of our mission is just accessibility of good quality food for everybody, not just people who can afford it,” Lieberman said. “We try to donate 10 to 15 percent of what we grow.”
The farmers have started an effort to raise awareness of eating quality food in Mattapan, combining efforts with Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition to start the first farmers’ market in Mattapan. They are also organizing a first-time farmers’ market at Fuller Village this fall, to help ensure some of the town’s elderly residents have easy access to fresh produce.
“We’re nonprofit, so part of our mission is really involving community members, especially people who might not have access to farming, or growing or eating healthy food,” Lieberman said.
She also has been keeping her eye on a hot town issue that could help the farm continue its efforts of seeing locally grown food benefit residents. Because Brookwood farmers would like to expand to grow crops such as berries and other fruits, and DCR has refused to allow the farm to expand where it is, Lieberman has contacted Selectmen about the future use of land at Town Farm on Gov. Stoughton Lane.
The historic farm was originally used as farmland for the town’s poor and officials are attempting to figure out ways to ensure it can live up to Colonial Gov. William Stoughton’s will. Lieberman suggests returning a portion of the land to grow produce for the food pantry, even using the proximity of Milton High School as an advantage.
“Students could easily walk over to that land to do community service work, and it could be a great educational opportunity for the students,” she said.
Additionally, in July the USDA issued a statement allowing school gardens to provide food for school lunch programs, even allowing money from school food service programs to go towards purchasing seeds, part of Farm to School programs sprouting up around the country.
The benefits of locally grown produce are many. And as Brookwood Farm closes this harvest season, the farmers prepare the land for a long winter’s nap. The Farmer’s Market will wrap up its season in mid-October, and locavores will have to wait once again for another season to enjoy the bounties of fresh food, right from the hills in the town’s backyard.
For more information, visit www.brookwoodcommunityfarm.org.