The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

Governor Patrick digs in with a broadfork to loosen up carrots at Baker Bridge farm. --Photo by Christopher FowlerMassachusetts Governor Deval Patrick visited The Food Project this morning to celebrate Food Day and join us in harvesting food for local hunger relief efforts. TFP Director of Agriculture Tim Laird led the governor, Food Project youth, and a team from the Boston Area Gleaners working in the field to collect carrots and kale that might otherwise have not been harvested this season.

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We'd love to see your smiling face out on the farm. Come and join us at one of these special days or find info about volunteering on other days. Either way, we can't wait to see you on the farm!

James Modi has a unique gardening arrangement at his Lynn home. Through a partnership with the GRO Project (Gardening through Refugee Organizations) and The Food Project, he shares 20 raised beds with almost 20 gardeners from his native Sudan, many of whom were small scale farmers in rural areas back home. Stemming from a need for their ethnic foods (think sweet potato leaf) and a desire to continue their farming tradition, the garden is tended and harvested communally - extra produce is sold at the New American Center in Lynn, providing supplementary income for many.

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As we get ready for another growing season, we’d like to thank and bid a fond farewell to departed staff and welcome new members of The Food Project team.


Miriam and son Zalen on the farm.This past December, former Director of Agriculture and long time Lincoln farmer Miriam Stason left us after eight years helping us grow farm-fresh food. In life off the farm, Miriam will be focused on raising her young family, which will grow to four when she gives birth to her second child in late March. Taking up the reins as our new agriculture director is Tim Laird, who will continue to manage the Baker Bridge farm in Lincoln. Pedro Ghirotti will be joining Tim as our new field manager. We're excited to have Pedro working on a soil fertility plan that should help make our fields more productive in the coming season and for years to come.

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The Food Project is excited to endorse the Boston Tree Party, the first initiative of our friends at Hybrid Vigor Projects. The Boston Tree Party is a collaborative campaign to plant 100 pairs of heirloom apple trees in publicly used spaces across Greater Boston. The tree plantings will be undertaken in partnership with a diverse range of institutions, organizations, businesses, and communities.

The Boston Tree Party is at once an urban agriculture project and a conceptual art project. It aims to create vital gathering places, build community connections, and improve community health while it engages with metaphor and symbolism, and playfully reimagines patriotic and political language, imagery, and forms of association.

For more information about the Boston Tree Party and to learn about ways to participate, visit the project’s website.

Ever wonder how proper pruning of orchard trees can keep them healthy and improve their production of quality fruit? Find out how by attending one of two workshops sponsored in March by the Boston Natural Areas Network’s (BNAN) Boston Orchard Program.

Two sessions are planned. The first, which is being presented by The Food Project as part of our Winter Workshop series, is scheduled for Saturday, March 5, at the Shirley Eustis House Orchard (33 Shirley Street, Roxbury). The second is scheduled for Saturday, March 12, at the Blake House Orchard (735 Columbia Road, Dorchester).

Both programs are free, but you need to register in advance. To do so, contact BNAN at 617-542-7696 or info@bostonnatural.org. For more information, and to spread the word about these important winter learning opportunities, download this flyer.

Shareholders often ask about the kinds of methods we use to control pests around the farm. Pest management on a farm is, of course, much different than in a garden. In a garden, if one rabbit or a whole lot of insects destroy your two chard plants, tragically, your crop is gone. On the farm, farmers like us, who use sustainable methods, need to integrate losses from pests into our planning.

When you have a whole field of onions, even if some pests munch a dozen or two of them, the loss is so marginal it does not affect your crop. Having said that, we are constantly thinking of new ways to minimize the losses around the farm. Pests come in different sizes, from the tiny flea beetles that make holes in the arugula to deer and groundhogs.

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each week two of our Lincoln youth interns will introduce themselves

Hello, my name is Kadeem and I’m 18 years old from Dorchester. I am a senior at Wayland High School through Boston’s METCO program and I play football and run track. This is my second summer working at the Food Project. Now as a Lincoln intern, I hope that working on the farm will expand my knowledge about agriculture. During the Summer Youth Program last year I learned how to be a better farmer by weeding and harvesting. My favorite vegetable is broccoli.

Hello, my name is Amanda Chin. I’m 17 years old and just graduated from Arlington High School. This fall I’m heading over to the University of Vermont. I participated in the Summer Youth Program in 2009 and now am working as a Lincoln intern. For this summer I love being part of The Food Project community and working on the land as well as learning more about the food we eat and harvest. My favorite vegetables are green beans.

Editor's note: North Shore Fellow Mike Syversen sends the following update on how things stand at the beginning of our Summer Youth Program

Hi everyone,
This is an exciting week for us up here on the North Shore. Our summer youth program started this Wednesday. Thirty youth ages 14-17 are starting their work here where they will be farming, participating in farmer’s markets, learning about the food system, social justice, and community development, gaining work experience, and much more. The crew leaders, assistant crew leaders, and staff who lead the youth have created a program that is bound to have an impact on the lives of the youth. We’re excited for the joys and challenges that the youth will bring. We know they will have a great experience!

This Monday was our third Lynn CSA pickup day, and everything on that front is running smoothly. It is great to see the members each week and know the food we provide them with has been harvested from our farm that same day. Getting to chat with the members about the produce and what they do with it is a highlight of the week.

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Tim shows off new gearOver the last few years, The Food Project's stable of farm equipment has been showing its age. Each season we'd spend more money and staff time on maintenance, and suffer through increasingly inefficient operations. Worse, our equipment's limitations made it difficult to maintain the long-term health of our land.

This all changes with our new gear, selected by Lincoln farmers Tim
Laird and Miriam Stason. Tim and Miriam used their knowledge of the state of the art in small-scale sustainable vegetable growing practices to put together a set of farm machinery that should allow our farmers to improve plant and soil health throughout all phases of the season.

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