Connecting With a Local Farm

I was sorting through my mail today, thinking about how I might complete this particular mission, when I came across a newsletter from the Waltham Fields Community Farm. I'd never received mail from that organization before (it took me a while to remember that I'd gone to a benefit concert supporting them a few months ago), so it was a startling moment of synchronicity.

Unfortunately, their morning volunteer hours conflict with my work schedule, so I won't be able to go out there personally until Saturday volunteer hours start next month. However, I did a few things to strengthen my connection with that organization starting immediately:
1. I made a donation to support their efforts.
2. I read through their newsletter and added information about events to my calendar.
3. I figured out where they were in relation to me and how to get there (non-trivial for me since I use public transit). The farm is about an hour's trip by bus from where I live.

A few interesting things about the farm:

The farm's property was donated by Cornelia Warren to Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1921 (as of 1947, the Agricultural College of the University of Massachusetts Amherst) to be used for agricultural and educational purposes. The Waltham Fields Community Farm was established on some fallow acres of that parcel in 1995. In 2004 Budget Cuts at the Agricultural College meant financial challenges for WFCF. Simultaneously, the retirement of a local farmer gave WFCF some land more in their own control, but reduced the number of working farms in the municipality to a single player. So far, the organization has managed to pull through hard times, supported by charitable donations and supplemental volunteer labor.

The farm's mission involves not only access to food, but access to farming, the ability to participate in the growing of one's food, to visit the farm setting, and to learn how one's food is grown. That's about getting people into farming as a profession, but they also seem to view the occasional participation of non-farmers as important (and not just because they need the extra hands). The farm both provides better options for those purchasing food (CSA shares) and better quality food for those relying on food assistance (donations of produce).

Reading a bit of the weekly community newsletter that comes with their CSA shares got me thinking about the consequences of entirely (or almost entirely) excluding farms from the social context of our food culture. It also got me thinking about the role sustainable agriculture could play in rebuilding American food culture.