Partway around Earth Day All Around Natick

May 2, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

We hit a sampling of the dozens events scattered across town and over the weekend for Earth Day All Around Natick, and we’re feeling all the greener for it.

We swung by the Common to catch town officials providing updates on sustainability efforts, and got a chance to chat with some afterward. Members of Natick’s Sustainability Committee and friends also entertained the crowd with Costa Rican and other tunes in front of the gazebo, while kids played soccer in the background.

2022 gazebo leo alfredo earth day — Leo Ryan and It’s A Mystery performed (Leo Ryan, vocal, guitar, percussion; Alfredo Vargas, vocals, guitar; Mark Dixon, drums; Dave Levesque, bass; Scott Matsumoto, guitar. backup vocals)

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Natick Earth Day, 8 Whispering Lane — Bob and Monica Foley opened up their outdoor space, a Certified Wildlife Habitat, for garden tours. Certified Wildlife Habitat spaces provided the elements for each of the following: food, water, cover, places to raise young, and sustainable practices. “We haven’t mowed yet,” Monica said. “Just this morning I saw a cardinal pecking around in the leaves and the grass, looking for bugs. Those bugs provide the birds with a lot of protein. Mowing too early removes a lot of food for the birds.”

Natick Earth Day, Monica Foley's she-shed — We loved Monica Foley’s she-shed, a working space with plenty artistic touches.

Natick Earth Day, Jack Creeden — The Town of Natick’s newest hire, Jack Creeden, from the Land Facilities & Natural Resources Division, was on hand to pass out Canaan Fir saplings.

Natick Earth Day, Canaan Fir — We went home and planted our Canaan Fir right away. We’ve heard different things about how big they get. It’s either 6-8 feet tall, or up to 50 feet tall. So maybe we’ve made a smart environmental move. Or maybe we will have to move our driveway in a decade or so to accommodate the tree’s spread.

Natick Earth Day, weaving wall — Natick students add to the weaving wall on land where both the Bacon Free Library is located, and the ancestral Praying Indians burial ground.

Natick Earth Day, Rose Huling. Bookmobile & Outreach Services Coordinator — Rose Huling, Bookmobile & Outreach Services Coordinator for the Morse Institute Library, gave out birch tree saplings to Natick kids.

We didn’t get a chance to catch the chainsaw artist in action at the new new Erica Ball Community Garden (72 South Main St.), but did stop by on Monday to see the progress on the tree stump-turned-sculpture. Gotta hand it to the artist…

So many Natick garden-related opportunities

March 31, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Natick is serious about providing plenty of garden-related opportunities to encourage residents’ interest in going green. Whether it’s the popular weekly Farmers Market on Natick Common, an upcoming lecture series, the seed saving program at the Bacon Free Library, or the chance to rent a plot at one of four community gardens in town, there’s a way for everyone to take up a soil-based interest.

Natick Community Gardens Lecture Series

Are you interested in growing a backyard garden or participating in Natick’s Community Gardens Program? You are invited to participate in Natick’s Community Gardens Lecture Series. Hosted in collaboration with the Morse Institute Library and Bacon Free Library, two monthly, public, no-cost lectures will be held through September.

All presentations are related to gardening, with a specific focus on organic vegetable gardening for raised bed containers. Topics will include: “Tomato Growing”, “Lifecycle of Seeds”, “Soil Preparation”, “Companion Planting and Design”, “Organic Gardening”, and more. Lectures are happening both virtually and in-person. Speaker organizations include Massachusetts Master Gardeners, Backyard Growers, and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Residents are invited to sign up for the programs they are interested in.

Thursday, April 7, 6:30pm Companion Planting & Design (virtual event))

Thursday, April 21, 6:30pm TBO (Try to Be Organic) Gardening (virtual event)

More dates here.

The lecture series is made possible by a $2,500 community giving grant the Town of Natick received from Needham Bank. In fact, Natick Report is made possible in part by Needham Bank’s sponsorship. Please join them in helping to bring local news to the community.

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Natick Seed Library program

The Natick Seed Library is now available at the Bacon Free Library (BFL). Here’s how it works: come into the library and select seeds to borrow (limit: two packets per patron); start your seeds indoors or wait until the ground warms up to plant them outside; during the spring and summer, enjoy the bounty of your garden; at the end of the season, allow 1-2 of your plants to go to seed; harvest those seeds and return them to the BFL in a labeled envelope. More details are available at the library.

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Apply for a community garden space

Natick has four community gardens—The J.J. Lane Park Gardens at 185 Speen Street; the Eric Markman Interfaith Community Gardens near A Place to Turn at 99 Hartford Street; Navy Yard Park Community Gardens at 56-48 Washington Avenue; and the Erica Ball Community Gardens, behind the Housing Authority offices at 72 South Main Street.

Natick Community Gardens — Registration information here.

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Natick Report loves to visit gardens

Do you have an interesting garden, or know of one that we should profile? Or maybe you grow champion tomatoes or have created a cool hell strip (if you know what that is, you know what that is—help us educate others). Dig us up at natickreport@gmail.com. When things are really popping, we’d love to come out, take some pics, and interview the gardener(s). A little concerned about that weedy patch in one corner of the yard, or the pile of debris in that area over there? No worries, we know how to crop photos judiciously. You don’t have to be ready for Fine and Falutin’ High Horticulture Magazine. It’s just good ol’ Natick Report here.

We had so much fun learning about these gardens

South Natick garden brings on the drama

This Natick garden is like stepping into a painting

Natick Community Organic Farm’s flower operation

Natick Community Organic Farm barn fire, one year later

March 15, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

In the early morning hours of March 17, 2021, the beloved Natick Organic Community Farm’s (NCOF) 200+ year-old barn burned down. The cause of the conflagration, which completely engulfed the timber framed structure within 20 minutes, was electrical in nature, Chief Michael Lentini of the Natick Fire Department confirmed in an email. Thankfully, there was no loss of human life, but three sows and 13 piglets perished in the 3-alarm fire, which started around 4:30am.

Natick Community Organic Farm barn, July 2020

Everyone connected with the farm agrees that the day the historic barn was lost was one of the most terrible of their lives. But almost before the sun rose, the community was rallying to support the town treasure that is NCOF. “We were so lucky in so many ways. It wasn’t a windy day, thanks to the firefighters there was no spread to the other wooden structures,” said Trish Wesley Umbrell, Assistant Director of Internal Operations, during an interview at the farm. “But it was really dreadful to get here in the dark and see the flames going up in the sky. It was really, really awful.”

The outpouring of support over the past year has included monetary donations from piggybanks and bank accounts; words of kindness; and meals for farmers, staff, and volunteers as they worked through the almost unbearable loss.

Natick Community Organic Farm, barn — Natick Community Organic Farm barn after the fire, March 17, 2021.

The heart of the farm

The NCOF serves Natick and 22 surrounding communities, and the people have spoken. They want the farm to rebuild the barn. It will take about $1.1 million to replace the two-story barn and attached greenhouse, making the farm whole again. Donations have poured in. Over $276K has been raised over the past year via a crowdfunding campaign launched by the farm. Another $400K+ came in through the Natick Community Organic Farm website and through private offline donations. The goal is to raise the barn in its original location, hopefully breaking ground in fall 2022.

The 27-acre NCOF is registered as a 501(c)3 nonprofit entity that is designated for agriculture and conservation purposes in perpetuity. The land is owned by the town and is under a multi-decade long-term lease to the nonprofit.

Regarding the insurance coverage that was carried by the Town of Natick on the barn and greenhouse, capital campaign director Rachel Adjemian said in an email, “The barn that burned was owned by the town. The insurance money was minimal (not near the cost to replace what was lost) and did not come back to the farm for this rebuild but went to the town. The town is giving ownership of the new barn to the nonprofit, and the nonprofit is responsible for funding the build. We will own our own insurance on the new barn.”

Barn raising

Currently an architect is working on plans that will result in a barn with an updated interior that will will serve the way NCOF farms today. “We want to build a barn that has the spirit of the old barn but with some modern aspects to it that will allow us to do our work of youth education and farming better,” Umbrell said. The new structure will look a lot like the old barn in terms of shape, and like the old barn, there will be an attached greenhouse. Changes such as a state-of-the-art irrigation system to replace the tangled tripping hazard of hoses from the past will be put in place.

Another practical wish list item is a concrete slab floor so that farmers can drive heavy equipment in and out of the barn, something that the former barn’s heavy oak floors were unable to support. In a nod to 1815, the year the old barn was built, the new structure will be timber framed to honor the essential character of the place. A surveyor’s report advised the barn be raised on its original site. From a practical standpoint, the farm grew up around the barn, and the farm’s many structures and fields were placed due to the barn’s location. From an environmentally sensitive standpoint, much of the farm abuts wetlands, so an attempt to move the barn to a different location would likely lead to obstacles that can just as easily be avoided by keeping the structure on its original footprint.

“It’s an opportunity to build something that will not only serve our current farmers, but future generations of farmers,” Umbrell said.

After the firefighters left, and the charred remains were safe to sift through, farmers saved what little they could. Although most of the wood went up in smoke, some of the beams were salvaged. In addition, Mark Oteri, a professional timber framer and craftsman, worked with the demolition crew that was brought in by the town and found seven of the eight original door hinges. Oteri has led the farm’s Teen Work Crew that timber framed many of the farm’s structures including the composting toilet building and the market stand, and will have hands-on involvement in construction of the new barn.

“We will definitely incorporate bits of the old barn into the new one. We want to honor the spirit of the old barn but still build something that’s more reflective of the times we’re in,” Umbrell said.

Planning ahead

Every detail about the new barn is being discussed by the Barn Reconstruction Advisory Committee (BRAC), a brainstorming group that includes NCOF executive director Casey Townsend, former executive director Lynda Simkins, some NCOF board members, an architect, a builder, and town officials.

The BRAC group is working with the town to secure a building permit in hopes of breaking ground once the summer programs, which serve 700 kids, have wound down. Plus, the farm could use a little more time to bring an exciting offer to fruition. An anonymous donor has come forth with a challenge grant—if the NCOF can raise an additional $200k by Oct. 31, 2022, the donor will match that.

The Challenge Grant is an all-or-nothing opportunity. NCOF will only receive the full matching $200,000 if they can raise the first $200k by Oct. 31. Here’s how to donate.

“While farmers are very resilient and tough people, it’s very, very difficult to function without a practical facility,” Umbrell said.

With hard work and community help, the NCOF is getting closer to that goal of a practical facility that will keep the heart of the farm beating.

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The Natick Community Organic Farm is a nonprofit, certified-organic farm. The farm provides productive open space, farm products, and hands-on education for all ages, year-round. The Natick Community Organic Farm is about farming in the public eye. Visitors to the farm learn what food looks like before it gets processed, refined, or packaged. Farmers demonstrate how to take good care of the land and the animals, teaching the next generation about stewardship, ecology, and personal responsibility.

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At A Place to Turn in Natick healthy food is for everyone

November 4, 2021 by Deborah Brown 1 Comment

Although there hasn’t been a hard freeze in Natick yet, the kind that turns basil leaves black and makes the last of the tomatoes inedible, the cold temperatures are coming. This much every gardener knows and accepts. Successes are noted—the celery and kale reveled in the 9-inches of rainfall that splashed down in July. Failures are mourned—the peppers moped all season, pining for a sun that remained stubbornly hidden behind clouds for summer days on end.

A Place to Turn, Natick — A Place to Turn, a Natick-based emergency food pantry, serves clients 3 days/week.

Garden plot dramas aside, A Place to Turn, an emergency food pantry in Natick that serves Metrowest community members in need, has given thanks all summer for the fresh produce that has come its way. I stopped by to talk to Joanne Barry, Executive Director of A Place to Turn, to find out how the nonprofit helps its clients meet the healthy-eating US Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines. It’s no easy task. According to the USDA, for optimum health half your plate at each meal should be made up of fruits and vegetables.

“We are a food pantry that has aligned our offerings to the USDA MyPlate. Our clients can leave here so they can eat according to that for a week. That’s a lot of fruits and vegetables. We work hard to provide clients with fresh produce.”

It doesn’t hurt that the food pantry receives donations from a neighbor. A literal stone’s throw from the pantry is The Reverend Eric Markman Community Garden, renamed as such earlier this year in a proclamation put forth by the Natick Conservation Commission. Markman served as the pastor of the Hartford Street Presbyterian Church for ten years. Under his leadership, the church leased a portion of its 8-acre property to the Natick Conservation Commission for the purpose of creating and maintaining a community garden. The garden beds were put together in an interfaith effort involving the congregations of area Presbyterian, Jewish, Muslim, Episcopal and Unitarian houses of worship. A portion of the garden’s 50+ plots have from the start been reserved for the Church’s use. The Church, as part of their mission, donates the bounty to A Place to Turn.

Markman Community Garden, Natick. A Place to Turn is the structure in the back right. The Foxhill Garden Club of Dover takes on harvesting duties with a rotating system among its members for picking, weeding, and general maintenance of the plots set aside for the benefit of the pantry.

Barry speaks in reverent tones of Markman, who recently answered the call to serve an out-of-state parish. “He had the vision, and he made it happen, and I think about what he did all the time.”

It’s a sunny weekday, and the food pantry’s distribution tables are set up outside, farmer’s-market style, under tents. The area has the advantage of privacy. Neither distribution tables, clients, or their cars can be seen from busy Hartford Street. The open-air system allows not only a COVID-safe environment, but a shopping atmosphere in which the pantry’s 1,100 monthly clients (450 families) choose what they want. The fresh fruits and vegetables are always popular. “What we offer, nobody must take if they don’t want it. But everyone loves the fresh produce,” Barry says.

Barry has worked at A Place to Turn for 23 years, first as a volunteer. Back in the 1990s and before, it was the rare food pantry that provided fresh produce to its clients. “We were one of the first, and the Sudbury Foundation was the first organization to fund us. Because what we saw was people not taking the canned non-perishables. And many people would take nothing canned. We didn’t want to be a non-profit that says you’re ‘poor’ you’re ‘hungry,’ this is what you’re getting.”

She says the grant money A Place to Turn receives has had an enormous impact on what kids are eating. Barry gets a little frustrated by those who don’t work in the trenches of food insecurity issues, yet feel free to criticize what others put on their tables.

“So someone says to me, ‘why do all those families feed their kids macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets, that’s ridiculous.’ Well, if our families went out and bought brussels sprouts and pork loin and their kid didn’t eat it, their kid would go hungry,” she explains.

At A Place to Turn, volunteers encourage clients to take unfamiliar food items home, things they might hesitate to spend money on in the grocery store. If a novel item from the food pantry doesn’t work out for a family, it’s not a financial hit. “Our volunteers love hearing about how people are going to use the yucca, plantains, mangoes, kale, and other vegetables that we have, and how kids are trying new things.”

Although the Markman Community Garden plots are an important community initiative, they can’t come close to fully providing the pantry with fresh produce year-round. A Place to Turn purchases much of their produce from wide-ranging sources.

Powisset Farm in Dover, and Stearns Farm in Framingham are two of their local partners. The pantry also purchases from Johnny’s Produce in Brighton, Katsiroubas Produce in Hyde Park, and Boston Area Gleaners, which harvests surplus farm crops. “We have CSAs donated to us. We get that on a weekly basis. We get knocks on the door all the time. People donate stuff from their own private community plots and gardens,” Barry says.

In addition, ready-made meals get dropped off from Village Table, a community food service program managed by members of Wellesley Village Church.

Donations are always welcome. Due to COVID, the need has only increased. “I would say for us, probably an additional 100 families a month,” Barry says. “What we saw was so many retail workers and restaurant workers out of work. Even when people went back to work they’re working in a low-wage job, they haven’t paid their bills for 6 months to a year. It takes a while to come back from that.”

Barry looks back to the economic downturn of 2008. She says it took 2 years for families to get back to their previous levels of independence. She expects to see the same pattern post-COVID.

“We say to people, please don’t skimp on food. Please come here and use us. It’s such an important part of our mission that the clients see that.” She continues, “That they feel good about what they’re receiving, and know that most of it is fresh…it just warms my heart, it really does.”

Help area families with a donation to A Place to Turn.

How to get a community garden plot in Natick

The Town of Natick operates four organic community gardens for residents to grow food recreationally and supplementally during the spring and summer months.