The Neighborhood Farm
A collection of market gardens in and around Needham, MA
About The Farm
2008 was our first growing season. We grew produce at six locations around Needham. In 2009 we expanded and added three more gardens. We are always collecting information about potential garden sites, even when we aren't actively developing new gardens. If you're interested in hosting a garden, please contact us and we'll add your site to our list.
Our gardens range in size from 400 square feet to 8,000 square feet. We try to find the best mix of crops to grow in each garden.
We grow all our crops without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, although we have not applied for organic certification. We are trying to develop sustainable, low input systems for all our operations. Organic certification is a multi-year process, and is something we may pursue over the next several years.
A number of factors motivated us to start The Neighborhood Farm. The increasing demand for local, healthy food demonstrated the need for more local agriculture. However, the lack of undeveloped, reasonably priced land in the Boston suburbs forced us to think of different ways to farm. We were inspired by the victory gardens of WWII and felt that many market gardens might be the most practical way to bring a new “farm” to the suburbs. We are committed to educating people about farming and gardening. We hope to inspire people to think about where their food comes from.
In addition to farming, we have a floral design business, Empress Josephine Florals. Many of the flowers that we grow are used for our flower arrangements. We specialize in flowers for "green" events as we try to use either our own naturally grown flowers, or other flowers that are grown locally with as few synthetic inputs as possible. You can see pictures of our flowers on our website: www.empressjosephine.com
Kate Canney is the primary grower for The Neighborhood Farm. Trained in sustainable agriculture, organic farming, and education, Kate has been looking for ways to bring more local food and farms into suburban areas.
