More than you really want to know about Natick, Mass.
The big Natick Organic Farm harvest dinner & auction can’t be held in person this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the organization has reworked it as a to-go affair.
The annual fundraiser, which supports the farm’s teen work crew and apprenticeship programs, takes place Sept. 25 and offers vegetarian and omnivore meal options (vegan also available). The meal costs $96 for non-members $80 for members.
The first message you get when driving up to the Natick Community Organic Farm (NCOF) is to slow down. If the sign isn’t enough to convince you, the pot holes should do the trick. They’re deep, wide, and will swallow your vehicle whole if you don’t navigate the driveway just right. So be warned. But don’t let that minor challenge scare you off from visiting the 30-acre certified-organic farm that has operated on Town-owned land since 1975.
The Natick Community Organic Farm’s barn houses animals, supplies, and is a hub for camps and classes.I stopped by recently for a tour of the farm’s quarter-acre flower fields, led by Heather Livingstone, the farm’s flower manager. Although her domain may not be large in size, sales from flowers bring in a sizable income for the non-profit organization. Livingstone, along with assistant Jen Campos and a crew of volunteers, sees to it that the the farm stand is kept stocked daily with bouquets. In addition, they keep running the Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions that range from five-weeks of spring blooms for $100, to a 20-week vase subscription delivered to your home or business for 20 weeks for $600, and other options in between. The NCOF has a table at the Natick Farmers Market every Saturday, and also sells to local Whole Foods markets and specialty grocery stores. Putting together arrangements for weddings and events is a regular part of what they do, as well.
From left: Jennifer Campos, assistant flower manager; Libby Wilkinson; and Heather Livingstone, flower manager take a break from prepping just-harvested flowers.The flower gardens are planted in tidy rows and in full bloom right now with zinnias, dahlias, cosmos, statice, celosia, viburnum, dahlias, rudbeckia, snapdragons, sunflowers, asters, and more, all organic, and all bursting with color. Pollinators such as bees, wasps, and butterflies crowd the gardens throughout the April through late-October growing season, taking advantage of the abundance.
Weeds also compete for space in the rows. Livingstone says they manage to keep unwanted plants at bay by laying down organic weed mats in some spots and humble cardboard in other areas. Still, invasive species do experience a measure of success. In their quest for world domination, weeds creep in and try to crowd out their floral cousins, who prefer to stay in their lanes and focus on looking amazing. Livingstone is philosophical about the realities of gardening without the use of herbicides. “We’re an organic farm, so we use only sustainable farming practices. Sometimes, when you’re farming organically, you have to let go a little.”
A just-harvested section of the NCOF flower gardens.
The snapdragons look ready to be picked.The flower operation is a decidedly low-tech concern. Workers get the job done using trowels, hoes, and other hand tools. No big machinery is used. And although the farm is on town water, the farmers try to use sprinklers sparingly. This year, they’re experimenting with a no-till system in an effort to improve soil structure, reduce erosion, and minimize the compaction of soil in the planting area. At other farms, there have been some reports that using a no-till system makes weed control a losing game. Still, Livingstone is interested in seeing what the results will be at the NCOF.
Flowers in vases on a shelf, ready to go. The snapdragons, below, will be incorporated into other arrangements.The NCOF is open to visitors, but there are several protocols in place right now to keep workers, visitors, and summer camp participants safe from COVID-19. The picnic tables, barn, and buildings are closed, though the outdoor composting toilet is open and the barn-side sink is operational. Bring your own hand sanitizer.
In addition, the outdoor barn-side stand is open for purchases. The stand is stocked with eggs, maple syrup, woolen yarn, vegetables, and floral bouquets. The selection changes throughout the day based on what’s harvested. Note: eggs are in limited supply until the farm get more hens. Meat may be purchased online.
There’s something about a working farm in the middle of a suburban community that brings in people and keeps them coming. “I started volunteering when I was 15-years old,” says Livingstone, a Franklin High School graduate. “I came to work for a summer, and now I’m out of college and I work here. This place fulfills me and makes me happy.”
Over 20,000 visitors that come annually to the farm agree. They find their own happiness and fulfillment whether it’s in picking up a bouquet of flowers, or fresh lettuce for dinner, or dropping off their kids for a Budding Farmers program. In a location where farming has been part of the landscape continuously for over 350 years, agriculture at the NCOF spot feels like it should be a permanent part of South Natick. The town agrees, and in 2009 the NCOF’s acreage was preserved forever as conservation land by the people of Natick.
Its future secured, the NCOF is busy teaching the next generation about stewardship, land use, community service and, of course, organic agriculture.
Natick Community Organic Farm
117 Eliot St, Natick, MA 01760
(508) 655-2204
Admission is free.
The NCOF is open for you to explore on your own from sunup to sundown, every day, year-round.
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The Natick Select Board next week will consider applications from Agostino’s, Oga’s, Hampton Inn/Skybokx and Kells for outdoor seating at which they can serve booze.
Agostino’s bid would be for up to 40 diners at 10 tables placed 6 feet apart as part of the downtown Natick plan to use sidewalks and street space to create an al fresco spectacular complete with lights and art displays.
Oga’s Japanese Cuisine on Rte. 9 west seeks to create a temporary outdoor dining area in the grass area next to the restaurant. The proposal will permit space for up to 24 diners at 6 tables placed 6 feet apart.
Skybokx looks to create a temporary outdoor dining area on the sidewalk/patio area in front of the restaurant. The proposal will permit space for up to 23 diners at 5 tables placed 6 feet apart. But what about the TVs…in case pro sports really do return?
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If approved, these proposals, plus one from the Kells taproom and brewery downtown, will join the likes of Dolphin, Trend and others that have been given the town’s blessing to expand or begin offering outdoor dining service with alcohol.
The Natick Mall in early 2021 seeks to welcome Night Shift Brewing and Level99, which will join forces to offer an interactive “world of challenges” designed to get people off their butts to solve physical and mental games while enjoying food and beverages.
The remnants of Sears, whose 180,000 sq. ft. went dark in Natick Mall at the start of 2019, continue to be erased and replaced with anything but old-fashioned retail businesses. Sports bar/arcade Dave & Busters arrived first, about a year ago. The Natick Planning Board this past week heard a pitch from the mall and its partners about Level99, which looks to take mall amusements to a whole new level (though the meeting was really just about the signage).
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Level99 is spearheaded by Matt DuPlessie, whose work through a company called 5 Wits you might be familiar with if you ever visited the now-defunct TOMB interactive space in the Fenway or the 20,000 Leagues or Espionage adventures at Patriot Place in Foxborough. Now DuPlessie & team, via engineering firm Box Fort of Norwood, are envisioning Level99 in 48,000 sq. ft. on the second level of the Natick Mall, which has been looking for non-apparel-based tenants for that space in re-imagining itself. Box Fort’s clients include museums and theme parks, to give you a sense of what you might be in for with Level99.
Level99 is a plan 4 years and $10 million in the making, according to DuPlessie.
The concept, of which a mock-up was shown at the meeting, would include 43 separate rooms, each clustered into small groups and featuring different games that groups of 2 to 6 people will have a few minutes to try to win. You might have to put black and white tiles together in a certain pattern, avoid stepping on “lava” as you solve a puzzle, or sequence colors and sounds, like with the old Simon game. DuPlessie described a diverse collection of themes, from ancient caves to modern art to a candy factory. The rooms will turn red and a buzzer will sound if you fail (you can try again).
Some games will be more public, or arena-like, with the opportunity to compete vs. others or to just spectate. Seventy-plus pieces of art, including works from local artists, will decorate the space and double as items in a scavenger hunt.
The idea is that you’ll pay $20 for an RFID wristband that will give you access to the game rooms. In all, there’s about 30 hours of play available to people.
Level99 rendering shown at Natick Planning Board meeting
Some Level99 challenges will be physical
DuPlessie, who began his career managing theme park projects in Florida, said that Level99 borrows heavily from video game mechanisms that people love to play on smartphones and computers, and transfers it to the physical world. He emphasized it is not a place to play video games or walk around in virtual reality goggles.
“This is get your rear off the couch, get up, get active, get into the space and play,” he said.
While this all might sound like fun, DuPlessie said partnering with Night Shift, the state’s #2 best-selling craft brewery, is what will help lure more people to the venue, entice them to stay a while, and encourage them to revisit. The target audience is young adults, say ages 21-39, but expect some hours that will allow younger participants, too.
For those of drinking age, a taproom somewhat separated from the fray will be accessible. For those who want to soak in the experience while eating and drinking, tables will be located in the middle of things.
Word of this Night Shift project comes on the heels of the brewery scrapping plans to open its “second ‘forever home'” in Philadelphia, a project that would have cost at least $10 million and was 4 years in planning. “It wasn’t meant to be. The COVID-19 pandemic shook our business to the core, and obviously almost everything outside of it. We’re lucky that we’re still in operation and able to see ourselves coming out of this crisis intact,” the owners wrote on their website in May.
Who needs Philly when you have Natick—plus Everett and Boston—anyway?
Back to the overall Level99 concept. Planning Board member Julian Munnich’s reaction to the plan summed things up nicely: “It was bound to happen, Willy Wonka meets Dungeons & Dragons.”
One proposed signage option shown at Planning Board meeting.To the extent I’m a regular anywhere, I’m one at Lookout Farm in South Natick. In recent years I’ve run around the orchard on Thursday nights with a group that congregates after in the Taproom. And our neighborhood has quarterly-or-so meet-ups at the country-chic spot, sometimes entertained by a neighbor’s band.
So when the COVID-19 crisis hit, Lookout Farm was one of those places I missed. It wasn’t clear when we’d have a chance to visit again given that social distancing rules marked a temporary end to dine-in services (their curbside market shop is up and running).
Now farm management has faced head-on the challenges of running its Taproom and other venues profitably. All it took was a spare field that the farm just happened to have, and a little creative thinking to get The Lookout up and running. The new open-air dining venue sits further back on its 180-acre property than the Taproom. Dozens of picnic tables have been plunked down in a mown field that now serves as the dining room, and what a beautiful dining room it is. Surrounded by up-and-coming summer crops, there’s a view of the iconic red barn. Across the field are rows and rows of over 50,000 espaliered fruit trees over which grape vines are trained on seemingly endless arbors.
Natick town officials quickly approved the outdoor-dining plan, and The Lookout opened on Friday, June 12. We decided to let them work out any kinks that day, and reserved a spot online for our family of four on Saturday, June 13. The reservation system is handled through OpenTable, and works pretty well, though it’s hard to get a view at a glance of which time slots are available (the farm’s website says The Lookout is open Thursday-Sunday, but that’s not entirely clear in the online reservation system. Note: The schedule has since changed since we posted this review, as shown below.).
While I’d been to the farm many times, I still couldn’t quite visualize what we were in for. Though I had prepared enough to know that we’d need to wear masks, tables would be separated more than usual, we’d need to order our food and drinks via our phones once we got there, and that there was some sort of walking path for taking a post-dinner constitutional.
Digging into the steak tips
We drove past the Taproom parking lot and followed signs to a grassy parking area. The Lookout staff, operating at friendliness as high-peak as the June strawberries available at the farm’s market shop right now, gave us a quick rundown of the rules and directed us to a check-in kiosk. We were then escorted to a reddish picnic table under a white tent. A good dinner crowd had already convened, with a mix of friend groups, families, and some familiar faces to us. The tables, including some small, rather romantic-looking set-ups, look out over the farmland. Some tables have umbrellas. All are spread across a large area with wide paths in between tables. The set-up works well during nice weather, and the tented area should still be fun even in a bit of drizzle.
Our server handed us paper menus to help us avoid scrolling hell on our phone, which we’d use to make our selections and put in our contact and payment info. That all worked smoothly, and I was ready to place our order when one of our boys learned his brother would not be sharing his fries. I wasn’t able to backtrack at that point and add anything to our order, so had to put that order through and do a new order for the fries. That turned out to be no big deal.
Super Yellow pilsner, hold the straw
Our drinks, including tasty Super Yellow American Pilsner ($7), and a bottled Raspberry Lime Rickey, arrived first. The farm is known for is excellent cider selection, and our neighbors, seated a few tables away, raved about their choice of strawberry.
Shortly after our drinks came, our meals arrived, each in individual brown boxes accompanied by disposable plastic utensils.
We divided and conquered the menu, which has been orchestrated by executive chef Jason Gorman. The menu has been greatly expanded beyond the flatbreads, cheese plate and chicken tenders that Taproom patrons have come to know, a welcome change.
One of our sons was satisfied with his hearty Impossible Burger ($16) . Our other son made incredibly quick work of a juicy Honey Butter Fried Chicken Sandwich, a good deal for $15 considering its fresh brioche bun and 2 layers of chicken. Having just finished a 12-mile run, he probably could have wolfed down another one or two. My wife predictably went for the lobster roll ($22), her first of what will be many in the coming months. Big spender that I am, I chose the $22 stout grilled beef tips, which had just the right amount of flavor and tenderness. Broccolini made for a nice side, but I foisted the potato salad onto my wife due to my mayo aversion. She gave it thumbs up. The overall bill was a tad hefty, especially with two orders of $7 fries, but we, and probably other diners heading back out to restaurants, are willing enough to tolerate slightly higher prices as these local businesses look to make up for lost time.
The new COVID-19 era dining experience didn’t feel entirely unusual, though not having a server swing by every so often to ask if things were OK or if we wanted another drink takes some getting used to. Up-selling is a thing in the restaurant business, a time-honored way of increasing the total of the tab. My wife commented that under normal circumstances she probably would have ordered a beer when the food order arrived. But the food gets sent out by a runner, and the runner ran away, as was her job. The waitstaff doesn’t make regular appearances, because part of the point of this exercise is to remain distance. Not wanting to send me back to my phone to place a beer order when my food was piping hot and in front of me, she shrugged and decided ordering the beer wasn’t worth the trouble.
We get that things are going to be different out there in restaurant world and have already been thinking of ways to better communicate what it is that we’d like. No surprise that things aren’t exactly what they used to be.
After dinner, we took the staff’s suggestion to take a 1/2 mile stroll in the orchards. In hindsight we’d wished we’d known about the option to order a beverage from the nearby kiosk to take with us on our walk. Learn from our mistake. Good people, know that you’re actually allowed to roam the fruit orchids with drink in hand. It’s almost like we aren’t in Massachusetts anymore. The walking paths are widely spaced and one-way, a la grocery store aisles, and we stopped to chat briefly with friends walking in the opposite direction. The grapevines overhead, the brick path underfoot, blue sky above, and a gentle breeze coming up from across the fields made the night feel something close to magical. For months now we’ve been doing take-out once a week and counting that as “special.” You know what’s really special? Not cleaning up after take-out night. True I didn’t have to cook it, but take-out night isn’t effortless. Spare us dinnertime effort once a week, tell me I don’t have to lift a finger to clean up the kitchen, and I’m happy for days and days.
“I thought the physical set-up was good,” my neighbor texted the next morning. “Tables far apart and open air. I felt safe…wow, I give then a ton of credit for making a go of this and pulling it off. And the french fries were excellent!”
Down the road we can foresee the farm adding some outdoor entertainment, making this an even livelier venue.. For now, The Lookout should be a popular place to take a break from home cooking, and should help the farm sell a few more cider donuts, strawberries, and other curbside pickup items as we phase toward the new normal.
The Lookout
Tuesday – Friday Lunch Menu 12:00pm – 3pm | Dinner Menu 3-8:30pm
Saturday and Sunday 12:00pm – 8:30pm Full Menu All Day.
Last seating 7:15 | Kitchen closes at 7:45pm | Last call 8pm | Walking Path Closes 8pm.
The grill: Where the food gets made
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More: Where to eat in Natick