Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 29, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 9 We buy local food Do you frequent local farm stands and/or belong to a CSA? Spring is on its way, and for gardeners and farmers, that means planting season. As such, community supported agriculture operations, better known as CSAs, are soliciting patrons for the 2021 season. CSAs have become increasingly popular as awareness around food sourcing has increased, with many consumers opting to buy food grown as close to home as possible. When polled online, nearly 9 out of 10 WBJ readers said they buy from local growers as much as possible, or they plan to start doing it more. 9% Yes, I already belong to a CSA. 13% No, but I plan to join a CS in 2021. F L AS H P O L L Zueger, originally from Illinois, met in 2013 in California while doing conservation corps work in the state's national forests and parks. e pair moved around the West and Hawaii taking on different agricultural and farming projects – Zueger's background is in forestry – before working their way back to the East Coast. In 2018, aer training in Maine, the pair dove into their own farm project in Brookfield, where they've been ever since. Together, the pair tend to a one-acre vegetable plot whose produce they sell at the Sturbridge Farmers Market and through their own CSA shares. ey are driven, in large part, by strong beliefs around the importance of providing consumers with natural, healthy food. "I do think there is a movement of young farmers coming in and seeing the potential," Germain, who studied biology and chemistry at Worcester State Uni- versity, said. "ere's an interest. ere's a potential. I feel like farming is no longer looked at as a poor man's job." Still, it's a lot of hard work. With a laugh, Germain remarked they might work as many as 90 hours a week during growing season, with her Saturdays set aside to serve drinks at Timberyard Brewing Co. in East Brookfield – a notably symbiotic relationship, since the brewer both buys their produce and functions as one of their CSA pickup locations. Zueger does forestry, orchard and Christmas tree work as the season calls for. It's not for not. Increased interest in buying local produce combined with a pandemic forcing many to stay as close to home as possible led to a nearly 38% increase in CSA shares last season for Free Living Farm, up to 55 from 40 in 2019. Twelve months later, that growth has been sustained, with the farm retain- ing its new customers year-to-year. Although limited by what two sets of hands can do, the duo are discussing growth plans, with hopes to eventually start working with perennial crops, fruit trees and livestock. Flowers, too Matthew Lavergne, a 32-year-old farmer who grows flowers on a roughly one-acre parcel of land he leases from his grandfather in Charlton, which he grew up working on, said every day he discovers another new farm in the area roughly the size of his. "ey're just sort of cropping up all over the place, at least, you know, in our immediate area in northern Connecticut and in Central Massachusetts," Lavergne said. "I mean, who else is going to follow the 50, 60, 70-year-olds who are starting to move away from farming? Somebody got to pick up the mantle." is is his third season working Black Moon Flower Farm aer spending roughly seven years working at various farms in the Northeast. As with the pair behind Free Living Farm, he went to college – studying photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston – and he picks up side jobs, recently working as a lineman on high-tension power lines. Soon, he will work as part-time help on a vegetable farm in Putnam, Conn. At Black Moon, Lavergne runs flower CSAs and sells vegetable, herb and flower seedlings. e focus, though, is on flowers. "I do flowers mostly because they're what interest me, but next to livestock, flowers are actually the highest grossing agricultural product," he said. It doesn't hurt that they photograph well, either. Moreover, Lavergne said, flowers are less prone to disease and produce more per bed foot, which in turn translates into more money. ey require significantly less turnover throughout the season. Right now, he's in the process of trialing what types of flowers grow best in the region and when, with the goal of increasing his efficiency as his CSA numbers increase. In his view, people his age are being drawn to farming life in Central Massa- chusetts because of growing awareness around flaws in the American societal structure – a conversation growing more mainstream as lights are shone on systemic inequities manifesting around gender, race and income. "e remedy to that in a lot of big ways is smaller, rural, kind of self-sus- tainable living," Lavergne said. No food wasted It's not just Millennials who are con- cerned about food justice and sustainable living, though. Farmer Tim's Vegetables, stationed on a 92-acre farm in Dudley, is owned by Tim Carroll of Belmont, who bought the property in 2014 aer two decades spent dedicated to his own extensive backyard garden. Carroll, who attended college and graduate school in the 1970s and 1980s, turned to farming a bit later in life. "My kids were getting into college, and I was getting older; and I thought, 'What am I going to do?'" Carroll said. "And so I said, you know, I really like this growing food thing." Carroll, who still does financial planning consulting for biotechnology companies when not tending to the property, took a farm business planning course and his hunt for farmland led him to Central Massachusetts His farm is at roughly five acres of active growspace, and he and his team – which peaks at about eight people during the growing season – are adjusting to a massive increase in demand brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, the farm had 110 CSA members. Last year, that number nearly doubled to 200. is year, Carroll said, he and manager Katie Bekel are aiming for 250. e farm also sells its produce at weekly farm stands in Belmont and, newly this year, in Watertown. Carroll joked when he first started, his friends and family were his primary pa- trons because they felt sorry for him. But when his inner circle realized how good the farm's vegetables were, word spread and transactions increased. Last year, he launched a solidarity fund wherein CSA members are given the opportunity to donate into a pool of money helping pay for shares provided, at a deeply discount- ed rate, to low-income customers who are given the option of a payment plan. Full-price CSA members have been exceptionally generous with the fund, said Carroll and Bekel. Bekel said this makes CSA options more accessible to those customers who cannot afford the investment of paying for their produce in bulk at the begin- ning of a season. Farmer Tim's donates any produce it doesn't sell at market to Cambridge non- profit Food For Free, or food pantries in Watertown. If it has an unexpected bumper crop, the farm works with Boston Area Gleaners of Watertown, a nonprofit which harvests surplus food and brings it to people in need. "We grow it. We want someone to eat it," Carroll said. "Because frankly, it's a whole lot of work to grow food. We don't want to throw it away." Cara Germain and Michael Zueger in their greenhouse at Free Living Farm in Brookfield Yes, I make it a priority to shop at local farm stands. 47% I plan to do more shopping at local farm stands. 25% 12% No, neither farm stands nor CSAs are convenient/ affordable for me. W

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