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The Newton Farmer
March 2023
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Dear Farm Friends,
If you've driven by the Farm in the past two weeks or if you follow us on social media, you may have already heard our BIG NEWS....We're going solar! In February we saw the culmination of many years of effort by many dedicated individuals with the installation of a solar panel array on the roof of the barn! The panels went up over two glorious days starting on Valentine's Day, and the electrical work to tie the system together is ongoing as I write this message. This project, which was the result of a partnership between NCF, the City of Newton, and the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, is expected to provide 99% of the electricity needed for our agricultural operations. As a community farm built on the principles of teaching and modeling sustainable farming, we are thrilled to "go green." Thank you to everyone—our supporters and volunteers, our Board of Directors, Resonant Energy and Ace Solar—who worked so hard to get us where we are today! Stay tuned for more opportunities to learn about this project, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture at the Farm.
With gratitude,
Sue Bottino
Executive Director
Photo by Rachel Gentile, Resonant Energy
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The new 10.8 kW solar array at Newton Community Farm will provide power to the barn, greenhouses, equipment shed, and farm stand. Each year, the solar project will prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to driving a car nearly 23,000 miles or the carbon dioxide sequestered by 11 acres of forest. The project, which has an expected 25-year lifespan, also includes a 16 kWh battery backup for our greenhouses, heating system for the barn, and refrigeration for our walk-in cooler. | |
First the installers attached three rows of double rails to the barn roof. Bruno from Ace Solar was one of two people who carried and installed 27 solar panels, which weigh 49 pounds each! | |
Once they got the panels up to the roof by climbing a 36' ladder, the installers added the optimizers which track the performance of each module (another name for a solar panel) and affixed them to the rails. | |
All the panels were in place within two days. Now, electricians are connecting the 300-pound back-up battery and the inverter, which converts direct current (DC) electricity from the solar panels to alternating current (AC) electricity. | |
Local Plants and Season-Transitions Program | |
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The Magic of Plants and the Spirit of the Seasons
with Jessica Basile and Mandi Dean
Please note new information below regarding date and price!
Monday, March 13, from 7–9 pm at the Farm, $40
Click here to sign up. Registration closes on March 6.
Join Jessica and Mandi for this educational, interactive workshop on local plants and season transitions and get to know more about using seasonal rituals to integrate the magic of plants into your life.
Jessica Basile
Writer, Ritual Creator, and Season Lover
Jessica believes and teaches that moments of joy and insight are deeply connected to the world around us. We are not separate from the rest of the natural world; remembering and giving thanks for this connection helps repair both the world and ourselves.
Mandi Dean
Healer, Gardener, and Herbalist
Mandi is a bridge between the worlds of plants and humans, bringing people back to the wisdom of the natural world. She blends mission and pleasure to provide people with a solid footing to further their connection with plants. Mandi is also a licensed social worker and constellation therapeutic practitioner.
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NCF is currently accepting applications for summer high school field crew interns. This program offers the experience of working on an intensive market garden (the traditional term for small vegetable farms) for students entering 9th–12th grade in the fall of 2023. These unpaid internships last for four weeks and are three mornings per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), 8 am to noon. Applicants can indicate if they are available for session 1 (July 11–August 3) or session 2 (August 8–August 31). Check out our website for more details and to apply online.
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Join us on Thursday, March 23, on Zoom, 7–8:30 pm, for a group discussion of the book The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander. "Gardening as extreme sport...Engaging, well paced and informative."—The New York Times Book Review. Click here to RSVP so we can send you the Zoom link.
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Thank You, Donors and Volunteers | |
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Thank you to our February donors listed below and to those who wish to remain anonymous. Apologies in advance for any names we inadvertently left off this list. (Please let us know if we made any errors.) We are so lucky to have your support!
Mara Gorden * Jenny Reed * Catherine Chapman * Marie Fredrick * Gerry Caron * Risa Shames * Eileen Chodos * Darrell Gurevitch * Jennifer Hughes * Nyssa Patten * Alexandra Nouel * Julia Harmatz * Allison Burroughs * Lisa Kempler * Rachel White * Constance Angle * Susan Israel * Carlo Traverso * Risa Bressler * Beth Goldbaum * Diana Orenstein * Marie Longo * Lydia Walshin * Martha Heller * Lori Yarvis * Craig Bouchard * George Cooke * Anne Drowns * Lilly Hicks * Susan Heyman * Patricia Rand * Adam Milne * Joan Brandmahl * Patricia Bruno * Judy Jacobson * Dina Goodfriend * Ruby Kang * L.J. Cohen * Zelda and Elkan Gamzu
We also greatly appreciate the extra efforts of volunteers Yael (greenhouse work), Lisa (community partnerships), and Madelyn (administrative work) this past month!
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We have been so fortunate to have interesting recipes to share in our monthly newsletter, courtesy of volunteer Inna Kagan. Originally from Russia, Inna grew up in Ashland, MA and moved to Newton in 2021. She is a registered dietitian and works at the largest eating-disorder hospital in the country—Walden Behavioral Care's Center for Recovery in Dedham, MA. She assists adults and adolescents with eating disorders on a residential unit, helping them re-nourish their bodies while also providing nutrition counseling. Inna always knew she wanted to do something with food as a career, and being a dietitian allows her to use her nutrition and science knowledge, along with her passion for food, to help people heal their relationships with food.
When Inna moved to her apartment in Newton, she realized that she missed gardening tremendously. "There is nothing quite like going out each day to see a new leaf, or the color on a tomato changing as it slowly ripens!" Volunteering with the Farm by contributing recipes is a way for her to incorporate seasonal produce into her own diet and help others do the same, particularly by purchasing CSA shares or buying veggies at farmers' markets. She also loves the creativity that eating seasonally brings in terms of figuring out new recipes to make to reduce food waste. "It's been great getting involved in my local community through volunteering, and I am excited for what opportunities lie ahead in 2023!"
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Flower CSA from Duck Hollow Farm | |
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NCF is partnering with Duck Hollow Farm to bring you fresh, local flowers all summer. Sign up for ten weeks of floral bouquets, organically and lovingly grown in Sherborn, MA. Pick up weekly at NCF on Wednesday or Thursday, 2–7 pm, from the end of June (exact date TBD) through the end of September. Price is $190.
Click here to sign up. Please email laurel@al-freshco.com with any questions.
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The Greatest Table by Michael J. Rosen and Becca Stadtlander is a beautiful, illustrated poem. It describes sharing nature's bounty, across the world. The drawings are amazing and the text is inspiring.
Although this book is classified as a children's picture book, it is definitely enjoyable for adults, too! "The greatest table isn't set inside a single home—oh no, it spans the continents, and no one eats alone."
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Open House, Saturday, May 6, 4–6 pm Join us at the Farm as we dedicate the new Dr. Eugene Rubin Greenhouse, have a ribbon-cutting of the new solar array, and more.
Seedling Sale, Saturday, May 20–Sunday, May 21, Noon–3 pm More than 90 varieties of all your favorite vegetable, herb, and fruit seedlings will be available for sale at the Farm.
Virtual Program with Dr. Walter Willett, Thursday, June 1, 7–8:30 pm Watch online as Dr. Willett, physician, epidemiologist, and Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, gives his presentation "Can We Feed 10 Billion People a Diet That is Both Healthy and Sustainable?"
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Newton Community Farm is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, EIN #20-2482452. If you would prefer to donate by mail, please send a check payable to Newton Community Farm at the address below. Don't forget to ask your employer if matching funds are available. | | | | |
