Natick Report

More than you really want to know about Natick, Mass.

So many Natick garden-related opportunities

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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.

Navy Yard Field community garden

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

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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

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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

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

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.

Natick Community Organic Farm

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.

Please send tips, photos, ideas to natickreport@gmail.com

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

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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

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

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.

Markman Community Garden, Natick

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.

Markman Community Garden, Natick

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.

A Place to Turn, Natick

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.

Registration is open through Nov. 30 for those who currently have a plot.

New gardeners can register Dec. 1, 2021-Jan. 31,2022.

More information here.

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Beyond Natick: Ribbit the Exhibit at Elm Bank Reservation

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Things have really started hopping over at Massachusetts Horticultural Society with the installation of Ribbit the Exhibit, running through Sept. 7 at The Gardens at Elm Bank.  Nineteen whimsical 4 – 7 foot copper frog sculptures depicted by North Carolina artist J.A. Cobb have been placed throughout the 36-acre property. There’s Cora the Local Garden Enthusiast in the Bressingham Garden, gleaming metal watering can in hand; Emerson, A Morning Person, relaxing on a bench with a cup of coffee; Edward the Treefrog, perched in a tree, of course; and the rest of the engaging and amusing crew. Each frog comes with a backstory—just look for the nearby signs.

Elm Bank Reservation at Mass Hort

Every large-scale sculpture in the traveling exhibit takes the metalworker up to 4 weeks to complete, and he crafts them one at a time. The work on Ribbit The Exhibit starts in the studio, but it doesn’t end there. Once a public garden books the frogs for an exhibit, Cobb personally delivers the pieces by truck, loading, unpacking, and supervising the installation of each sculpture. Don’t take him to be a micro-manager, though. Cobb leaves it to the staff at each garden to decide where to place his sculptures. Early on he found trying to site each frog perfectly in a garden he didn’t know was a waste of time when there was already a group of people on hand with strong artistic opinions. “The staff already knows these gardens like the back of their hands, and they do a great job with placement. They nail it every time,” he said.

Cobb’s artistic ability lay dormant until he was 42. The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill graduate had majored in business and did not take any art-related classes beyond the most basic UNC requirements. Graduation led to a job in corporate sales, where he worked for 21 years until burnout set in. But from the ashes of burnout came the rays of an epiphany—the artist’s life would be his path forward. Once Cobb traded in his three-piece suits and starched shirts for jeans and a t-shirt, he never glanced back.

Elm Bank, Andy Cobb, artist

What started as an exhausted former exec fiddling around with some clay and copper has led to a vibrant dream career that keeps Cobb in the studio six days a week. He and his wife JoEtta and their rescue pup Charlie live in a small village on the Atlantic Ocean. The waterfront location with its natural habitat for herons, shorebirds, and other coastal creatures provides Cobb with plenty of inspiration. Although his amphibians are pure fantasy, Cobb says, “I hear over and over at gardens ‘it looks like they belong here.'”

“Ribbit the Exhibit has been a massive hit with families this summer” Mass Hort President, James Hearsum said. “There are 19 sculptures altogether and in every area of the Garden, so just finding the complete set is a fun challenge. Each one has a unique personality and shares important information about the garden, the importance of our local ecology and global environmental issues. It is important to visit soon – they are all hopping back home after Labor Day, so don’t delay your garden visit.”

It’s looking like Mass Hort simply can’t do without Cora. The organization has been in talks with Cobb to leave her behind when the exhibit ends. Cobb only has a hard time letting go “…if if I think they won’t be taken good care of. Then I won’t let go of them. But I know Cora will be taken care of.”

Elm Bank Reservation at Mass Hort

Hundreds of his frogs and other creatures have found permanent homes in pubic and private gardens throughout the United States, England, and Canada. “Not only do I do the exhibits,” he says, “but I have yet to be able to turn down a commission. After 25 years, the greatest thing to me is making people happy. If I can work with someone to produce something that makes them happy every single day, then that’s as good as it gets. I’ve got five commissions going right now.”

Cobb’s first large, whimsical frog was patterned after Toad from Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book, The Wind in the Willows. Other famous figures he’s frog-ified are Degas’ Little Dancer sculpture; ballroom dancing greats Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; Grant Wood’s American Gothic; and more.

Cobb hand draws each sculpture, then cuts out the pieces from 16-ounce flat sheets of copper. After the cut lines are drawn on the copper, he hammers and folds the sheet into the 3-dimensional image he has planned, much like origami. The pieces are then assembled by using a metal-joining process in which two or more pieces are joined together by melting and flowing copper into each joint. This brazing process, along with assembling the pieces around a steel armature, gives the sculptures the strength to last for decades. Cobb says all of his sculptures are built to last and, once completed, require little to no further maintenance.

Elm Bank Reservation at Mass Hort

“My first Ribbit Exhibit show was in 2008,” he says. I was trying to make a living selling sculpture, but in 2008 the economy had tanked. Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville had seen some of my sculptures and asked if I could do an exhibit in the garden. I was looking for exposure. They said I should bulk up the size of the show and bring sculptures to other gardens.”

Cobb took that advice and now typically has exhibits going at two gardens at any given time. Some of the gardens his frogs have appeared in are Dow Gardens in Michigan; Reiman Gardens in Iowa; The Morton Arboretum in Illinois; Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina; Harry P. Leu Gardens in Florida; Airlie Gardens in North Carolina; and Mounts Botanical Gardens in Florida.

At 68 years of age, Cobb has no plans to retire. He just enjoys what he does too much to let it all go. His artist’s creed: “Whatever you’re doing, have fun. If it’s not fun, I will quit.”

Ribbit Exhibit is included with daily admission to The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA. $10 for adults, free for ages 12 and under. Free for Massachusetts Horticultural Society members.

More at Mass Hort:

  • In September Mass Hort will unveil a “Virtual Reality Contemporary Art Experience” as part of a global consortium of 12 top botanical gardens, led by Jerusalem Botanic Garden.
  • As a little extra, Mass Hort knows that many families missed out on their annual tradition of visiting the Festival of Trees last year. The Festival will return in November 2021, but for all the little (and not so little) boys and girls who cannot wait to see the model trains, the train room will be opened for “Christmas in July” from Sunday, July 25 through Saturday, July 31. The train room will be operating 10am-5pm and is free after normal garden entry fees.

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