winchester

August 7, 2017 by Kimberly Kneeland

The Helping Hands behind Wright-Locke Farm

August 2017

Written by Community Engagement Manager, Kim Kneeland

I came to this farm in 2014, and now that I’m in my fourth season, it is interesting to look back at my first impressions of Wright-Locke Farm. Hired as a field assistant, and having no familiarity with the area (I’m from Central Mass originally), I came in knowing very little about its recent acquisition by the town and its transformation into a community farm. To the farm’s credit, you could have told me that the farm was in its 20th or 30th year of operation as a non-profit, working and educational farm, and I would have believed you readily. When I came in, the education programs were already thriving, the fields abundant and markets plentiful, the organization had so many strong and passionate leaders, and everyone seemed to plug in with their own unique role. The truth is that, at that point, our farmer had only been there for three years, and she was the first staff member to be hired. Before Adrienne came on board, the entire operation was run by Wright-Locke Conservancy’s board and many other dedicated volunteers. Of course, the day-to-day was very different than it is now, but they still grew some organic veggies, hosted events for the community, and managed the U-Pick Raspberry crop.

By the time I was hired, Adrienne had cultivated a fully-functional, small organic farm. Rebekah, our Education Director, had a complete line up of adult workshops and youth programs that always seemed to be full of excited participants and Archie, our Executive Director seemed to be effectively pushing the farm envelope. It took me a while to realize how new this was to everyone, and it was astounding to think of how far everything had come in such short amount of time. As I see it, much of the success of the farm came from the early and loving support of many volunteers who were dedicated to preserving Wright-Locke Farm.

Now in its 10th year of operation, the farm has a strong and passionate staff base manning the helm. And while we still have a lot of volunteer interest and assistance from our board members, the nature of the farm’s volunteer needs have changed. Instead of needing volunteers to plow our fields, plan crop rotation, and fill managerial roles, we need people who can readily plug in under the skilled guidance of our staff and to assist with specific seasonal farm needs. Every year, with more and more interest from the public in our programs, free events, raspberry picking, and farm tours, it is vital that we do have a professional staff to coordinate and manage all of the logistics of welcoming larger crowds to the farm safely and so visitors get the most out of their experience. Each year we continue to explore the balance between staff and volunteers because it is really important to us that we keep a strong volunteer presence on the farm. However, dedicating the time and labor to train and manage so many new volunteers can be very tricky (and sometimes even counterproductive) . So far, even with our small staff, we’ve been able to meet our volunteer interest, and it is so rewarding, especially when we get people who come back every week (even every day!) all season. We’ve had volunteers who have consistently come to help out each week for four years, and besides creating lasting relationships with those volunteers, they end up functioning like trained staff members and are invaluable to our efforts. It’s a great partnership, really. We are dedicated to the education of our community and, while workshops, classes, and youth programs are a great way to learn, volunteering is another avenue for experiential learning at the farm.

Two great examples of where volunteers plug-in well to the farm are our U-pick Raspberry Operations and our Chicken Chore Volunteer program. While they are no longer being coordinated by volunteers (many thanks to Donna Wainwright, Susan Ampe, and Berit Ahmad for all of your hard work over the years), all of the day-to-day work is done by volunteers – and that’s no small feat. Once raspberries are ripe and ready to be picked, we open our fields to the public for 5 – 6 days a week. This means we need a constant presence on the farm to greet pickers, tell them where and how to pick the best berries (and what to avoid), help weigh and pack their berries, wash and dry all of the red-stained buckets, as well as setting up, and breaking down the raspberry station. That’s a lot of volunteer hours over two months! It ends up being a fun time – it’s a great way to enjoy some time outside, interact with other community members, and participate at the farm during the excitement of harvest time. Volunteering with U-Pick Raspberries is a great starter opportunity, with its flexibility and easier time commitments.

Our Chicken Chore program, while requiring more responsibility and time overall, has been very successful over the years and is such a great way to immerse oneself in “farm-life.” Chicken chores at the farm started about six years back when a local middle schooler suggested keeping chickens. Much like parents say to their children after they’ve asked to get a puppy, we asked “who’s going to take care of them?” She said “We will” – and that they did. The program started with school children caring for baby chicks and then, after they brought them up to the farm once they were old enough, volunteers (some of the same families who raised them) continued to care for the hens daily. The system continues to this day. Of course, it’s not perfect – there are a lot of moving pieces and it’s hard to coordinate between so many people and sometimes we don’t have enough people to cover all slots, then staff members have to cover on top of their already full-plates. But overall, this is a program that thrives because of our volunteers and their dedication to taking care of these farm animals. Many of our chicken chore volunteers are families who do chores together – it’s a great way for children (and adults!) to learn about farming, interacting with animals, working hard, and managing responsibilities. Unless you grew up on a farm or have a couple of your own backyard birds, it’s not an experience that many people get.

We are so lucky to have such an involved community and we are excited to keep harnessing the ideas and efforts of our wonderful volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering at the Farm, check out our Volunteer Opportunities page or contact me at kkneeland@WLFarm.org. We’d love to have you up at the farm!

July 7, 2017 by Kimberly Kneeland

Dietetics Meets Farming

July 2017

Guest post written by: Brianna Trainor, MPH coordinated dietetics student at UMass Lowell

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Brianna and I am in my third and final year at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell for my masters of public health with a concentration in dietetics. As we enter the month of July, my community nutrition rotation at Wright-Locke Farm is coming to an end. I had the pleasure of working with some great people and had the opportunity to learn so much about the farm and agriculture.

Here is some insight as to what my community nutrition rotation encompassed at Wright-Locke Farm. My days at the farm consisted of a variety of the following activities : farm work, after-school child education programs, assisting with adult education workshops, youth summer education programs, the Jenk’s Center Gardening Club, involvement in the first speaker series, visiting the farm animals, and working at farmers’ markets.

The most valuable lesson that I am leaving Wright-Locke Farm with is the relationship between nutrition education and preparing foods specifically with children. When children are involved in the planting, harvesting, and cooking processes, children retain more nutrition knowledge than they would without being involved in the processes. Children retain nutrition knowledge while they are performing tasks. One of the days at the youth ed program, the kids made a berry kale smoothie. The children groomed the garden, harvested the kale, and put all the ingredients in the blender. We talked about the health benefits of the smoothie and the children happily (!) enjoyed their healthy snack.

I am leaving this internship with more knowledge and experience than I could have asked for and I am very grateful for everyone at Wright-Locke Farm for giving me this opportunity.

Postscript by Wright-Locke Farm Staff: Thank you Brianna for your energy, hard work, and willingness to learn from what we do at the farm. Like you, we believe that good, fresh food, cooking, nutrition, farming, and animal management are all important puzzle pieces in being a heathly individual. We know that you’ll do good things for your community whereever you go!

If you’d like to hear more of Brianna’s thoughts, she was also part of this interview with Renee Barrile.

April 18, 2017 by Kimberly Kneeland

From Field to Vase

~April 2017~

Written by Ruth Trimarchi, Manager of Flower Operations

We Start Anew

As a nor’easter bears down on our small greenhouse, it is hard to imagine that these dozens of trays of inch-high flowers will soon fill those snow-covered fields outside. But this is how flower season at Wright-Locke Farm starts. In February the first seeds of eucalyptus, straw flowers, delphinium, celosia and others are carefully started in our tiny incubator, nurtured through dozens of labor-intensive ‘bottom-watering’ cycles so that light-sensitive seeds are not disturbed, graduated to our gently-heated greenhouse, and then finally transferred outside for a week of hardening off before being planted into solid earth starting in May.

Poor Man’s Fertilizer

Meanwhile in the fields outside, these late spring snows truly are a “poor man’s fertilizer” as my grandparents farming in Vermont were fond of saying. Only recently did I learn that not only does snow serve as a source of water and insulation, but it also captures nitrogen when snowflakes crystallize in the atmosphere, and brings this important nutrient back down into the soil. Exploring this passion for growing flowers is made so much easier today than farming was for them, in no small part due to the ability to investigate information like nitrogen-capturing snowflakes online. My grandparents would have been astounded at how much you can learn about farming with the click of a button!

Teeny Packets of DNA

Fortunately for all of us, I have real-people resources in addition to the internet. Adrienne Altstatt, our Farm Manager gave us “A Glimpse of the Life of a Farmer” in her terrific blog last month. Though I’ve been gardening for decades, last year was my first season growing flowers at Wright-Locke Farm, and Adrienne’s matter-of-fact “It’ll all be fine” was a welcome response to my frequent “oops”! Flowers have their own rhythm and are more fragile than many veggies, but they are subject to fewer pests – and like veggies, growing flowers also takes faith and a great deal of patience. Planting thousands of near-microscopic dark colored seeds into black potting soil requires focus, deep breathing and frequently, tweezers. It never fails to amaze me that these teeny packets of DNA and requisite foodstuffs respond to our gentle nurturing, some air, some water and a little organic fertilizer, and transform themselves into colorful plants as tall as ten feet within a few months.

Gosh this is hard work!

It is a challenge bringing an interesting selection of fresh flowers to market each week, and requires successional plantings of many of our dozens of flower species. Trying to keep a changing array of colors, textures and blossom sizes that work well together in bouquets, all blooming throughout each week of the season, requires pouring over multiple spreadsheets during the winter months. Strategizing how to rotate beds so that recurring pests like cut worms and powdery mildew are minimized leaves me cross-eyed. As does clustering species with similar netting needs, maximizing sun placement within our small field and creating shade and moisture microenvironments that hopefully provide ideal conditions for each species. Balancing these factors with the field life of each species, vase life, irrigation options, harvesting time, and cost often leaves me feeling like a pretzel!

WebImage_Volunteers

Thank Goodness for Volunteers!

Fortunately I don’t do all of this alone. In addition to our Farm Manager, the flower operations are blessed with an amazing team of volunteers. Last year dozens of volunteers, from pre-teens to folks with decades of life experience, showed up to seed, weed, water, plant, harvest and generally help out in myriad ways. The Farm is especially lucky to have a loyal team of highly talented floral designers who help us bring those beautiful flowers directly from our fields to vases for you.

Why do local flowers matter?

I grow flowers because I love flowers. And because it is very satisfying to grow flowers for this beloved community Farm. Locally grown flowers offer community residents the opportunity to:

buy local
support sustainable agriculture
add variety to their flower species
purchase flowers that have longer shelf-life
purchase flowers that have a reduced carbon footprint
purchase flowers that are grown without herbicide or pesticide exposure for farm workers growing the flowers
provide biodiversity for bees, birds and other animals
provide beauty without endangering the environment

I never envisioned myself following in my grandparents’ footsteps, but I am so grateful for this amazing journey and opportunity to bring beauty to our community. Stop by and visit our ever-changing beautiful flower fields throughout the season!

March 23, 2017 by Kimberly Kneeland

A Glimpse of the Life of a Farmer

~March 2017~

Written by: Adrienne Altstatt, Farm Manager

As the first employee of the Wright-Locke Farm Conservancy, I came to the farm in April of 2011 thinking I would be here for just a year. But now, six years later and about to start my seventh growing season, one might say I’ve settled in. I grew up in Minnesota and, before Wright-Locke, I managed a farm in Maryland for six years, so acclimatizing to the culture of New England and becoming familiar with the local farm community has taken some time. Nonetheless, it has slowly grown on me.

Here’s a little insight as to what it’s like being the farmer at Wright-Locke Farm.

My work begins in March when I start seeding in the greenhouse, hiring staff and organizing our sales outlets (CSA and farmers markets). March is when I spend the most time at my desk. After that, I’m rarely here and my desk is more a repository for my papers and the occasional perch for the farm cat. As the weather changes and becomes more inviting to young plants, my crew and I begin the long process of transplanting and seeding the fields. We also prep our barn work space for efficiency and ease during the season and set the animals (goats, sheep and chickens) up in their warm season quarters. Especially in the early part of the season, farming is often a “watch-the-weather” game and patience is one of the most important virtues for a farmer to have.

The end of May is when the season truly kicks into high gear for us. On top of planting seeds and transplants, we begin harvesting three days a week for our markets and CSA and, now that the weeds have started to grow like…well…weeds, we also have to add weeding to our ever-growing “To-Do” list. With so much needing to get done, balancing the daily demands of the farm is key and knowing when to let something go from your list sometimes takes courage.

For the next five months (June—October), our days are fairly similar in terms of tasks, but as most farmers will tell you, there is always a monkey wrench in there. Tractors break, droughts or deluges happen, someone accidentally weeds the wrong plants out, animals or insects decimate a crop, someone finds a bug in their salad, four-foot-tall weeds take over, you twist your ankle playing soccer, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Farming is a test of flexibility and adaptability, and sometimes that can be trying. However, in the quiet evening hours when I have the farm to myself and the dog and I are wandering the fields, I can’t help but delight in the beauty and magnitude of this small farm.

All of that peak-season “go-go-go” can be exhausting, but sooner than you can say zucchini with an Italian accent, the season is wrapping up. However, just because the temperature drops and we stop harvesting veggies doesn’t mean the season is over—it is time to plan for next year. A great deal of a farm’s success comes from the pre-planning for the following year—cleaning, tallying, mapping, organizing—all so that you’re ready to hit the ground running when the next season starts. It can take years to understand trends and realize that nobody wants to buy your okra in New England (at least not enough people to make it worthwhile), or that your soil grows potatoes poorly, or that people are over kale. So, it’s important to take that accumulated knowledge and apply it to your plan for next season; because you can always make it better next season. But most excitingly, when seed catalogs come out in December, it’s time to dream again!

The take away? Farming is about patience, balance, letting go, a little bit of planning, and a lot of faith. I would say that farming is inherently about faith: faith that if you put a seed in the ground, it will grow; faith that people will buy your product; faith that the weather will be favorable; faith that you can continue to do this work and it will be appreciated and successful. Much like life one might say.

Be well and happy growing!