‘Small Farm with a Mighty Heart’: Summer Growth at Needham Community Farm
August 21, 2024
• Driven to support the greater good, the local not-for-profit farming operation grows more than just produce.
During an inordinately hot summer, Needham Community Farm is making it work. Rows and rows of crops line the property, where a small team of employees, interns and volunteers cultivate food and community. The dirt under their fingernails tells the story: They’ve been hard at work.
Now, the farm is harvesting fresh onions, Swiss chard, lettuce, zucchini, hot peppers and more.
That followed months of planning and preparation. In November, as the farm’s newest manager, Avery Westa mapped out crop rotations before creating seeding plans, starting in the greenhouse. By early spring, the planting began, starting with peas. It only “ramped up from there,” Westa said, and they now get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Half of the farm’s produce goes toward a farm share, in which people sign up and pay to receive a weekly supply of fresh food, while the other half goes to Needham Housing Authority properties via a free mobile market for residents, as well as to the food pantry at the Needham Community Council.
“It’s completely free to the people that live there or other folks in the community that come that wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford fresh, organic food otherwise,” Westa said.
Animals and insects, however, prove to be menaces for some gardeners at the farm. The farmers employ ProtekNet, a meshy netting covering some plants to prevent pests from getting to the seedlings. Brassica plants — like turnips, rutabaga and cauliflower — are particularly vulnerable to flea beetles and cabbage worms, said Sasha Fraser, the assistant farm manager.
When temperatures drop in the fall and winter, a thicker row cover keeps some beds warm, helping the farm extend its season, Westa added.
Susan Shaver, president of the farm’s board of directors, said “moles are having a blast on the farm this year,” in part due to climate change. With warmer winters, fewer moles die off, which in turn leads them to wreak havoc on crops.
Climate change also presents weather-related challenges. Extreme rain, heat and drought are increasingly common, Westa said, and the market often is unable to respond. With the high temperatures this summer, Westa said their peas declined quickly, and lettuce tends to bolt, basically meaning it goes bad and gets bitter.
In her own youth, Shaver worked on an organic vegetable farm with her sister, and she remembers spending time in a field filled with acres of tomatoes. “There was nothing like pulling it off the vine and eating it,” she recalled.
“Our goal in what we do is we grow sustainably,” Shaver said of the Needham Community Farm. “We do not put any harmful chemicals on anything. We keep everything that we grow and produce safe for human consumption, and as such, it’s a little bit more challenging.”
Walking through the farm, Fraser and Westa said they often pluck fresh crops for a quick snack. Westa’s favorite crop at the moment is garlic, while Fraser said she enjoys kohlrabi in the spring and cucumber this season.
“I feel like the ones at the grocery store don’t really have any flavor to me,” Fraser said of cucumbers, “but when you eat it immediately after harvesting, it’s unbelievably sweet.”
Needham Community Farm is also home to 150 community gardening beds, available to locals growing their own plants. The space — adjacent to the farm — is a relatively new one, thanks to a $200,000 grant from the Community Preservation Committee back in 2022.
Fraser also manages her own gardening bed, where she’s currently growing tomatoes, carrots and beans, which she said are “out of control.” She uprooted some carrots and tried out other farmers’ husk cherries and edamame, discarding whatever remained over the nine-foot fence dividing the crops from prowling wildlife. During a recent trip to the farm, a deer grazed on the high grass beyond, perhaps expecting those scraps to appear.
Two fixtures at the garden beds are Deb Spielman and Cathy Summa, who together manage 27 beds solely to donate their contents to local food pantries. Just a couple weekends ago, the pair donated nearly 200 pounds of food of which they themselves grew, Spielman said.
Each bed costs $100 for Needham residents and $125 for non-Needham residents to rent for the season. The farm also offers scholarships for free-to-use beds.
On a recent afternoon, Spielman and Summa checked on their plants, harvesting tomatoes in a big wagon. They’re growing 40 different tomato varieties, including a dark variety called Black Beauty, so needless to say, they’re “tomato-obsessed,” Spielman said.
Also growing in their beds are leafy greens, watermelon, Thai eggplant and trumpet squash, an elongated squash variety that grows and twists around itself and other plants. They also deal with their fair share of pests, and despite the fence, Summa said she recently chased out a bunny sitting in one garden bed.
Before the birth of the community beds, Spielman took several gardening classes through the farm, which gave her the confidence to start a farm at her home in Needham. For Spielman, who now lives in Dover, there’s nothing better than making something with only the ingredients from your garden.
“I love the fact that I can be so self-sufficient and also that I can help people get healthy food,” Spielman said. “I own my own company, I have more than a full-time job, but in the summertime, I prioritize this.”
Summa, also a board member for the farm, directs the Wellesley College Science Center and has grown food at a community garden in Medfield for several years now. A geoscientist by training, Summa loves being outside and getting her hands dirty, making gardening the perfect outlet.
She prides herself on relying on her own produce and avoids grocery stores when she can. To Summa, gardening is therapy.
“When you’re here, all you think about is here,” Summa said. “It’s more solitary. I go to the garden typically in the morning when it’s quiet. It’s me and the birds and the coyotes.”
Their mission is to “feed the community,” Summa said, and the food pantries they support serve more than 100 families each time. Fresh produce is a luxury that some just cannot afford, so to donate those goods to the pantry is important, Summa said. They often grow so much that it’s in excess of what Needham organizations can use, she added.
Both Summa and Spielman see the community beds becoming its own network in which gardeners water for each other and revel in the hobby. Summa said they’re grateful for the opportunity to keep the beds nutrient-rich while trying to “serve a greater good.”
“Being able to share your harvest to help alleviate food insecurity is really something,” Summa said. “It’s nice to know what your food is.”
Over the last few decades, younger generations have become more “environmentally minded” and have expressed a growing interest in farming, specifically on smaller, organic operations, Westa said. This summer, their usual one intern increased to three, which may be indicative of that trend.
Needham Community Farm also stays connected to other farms in Eastern Massachusetts, Westa said, and they get involved in events such as farmer soccer, music jams and workshops.
“It’s nice when you’re in the thick of a really busy season to have people who get it, know what’s going on,” Westa said.
Shaver traces her family roots back to farming — her mother was raised on a farm in North Dakota, where she experienced food insecurity. Having access to healthy food is “near and dear to my heart,” Shaver said, motivating her to join the board of directors and fight for that cause.
After acquiring a new electric van, the farm is eyeing additional enhancements, like harnessing solar power for the greenhouse and expanding their wash station, Shaver said. Thanks to fundraising and community partners — as well as a healthy group of volunteers — Needham Community Farm is well-loved and supported.
“It’s a small farm with a mighty heart,” Shaver said, “and it’s important to them that we have a strong social mission.”
