December 2010  

Waltham Fields Community Farm
Farm Friends Newsletter
Table of Contents
Upcoming Events
Donate to our Annual Appeal
Children's Farm Library Underway
Erinn Accepted into Women in Agriculture Program
Preserving the Flavors of Fall
Elephant Walk Donates $3,500
UPCOMING
EVENTS:
 
Flatbread Pizza Fundraiser for WFCF!
 
Tuesday, Dec. 14
5pm-close
45 Day St.
Davis Sq., Somerville

A portion of the evening's pizza sales will be donated to us.  Bring your friends and family out for some oven-baked pies.  Stop by our table to pick up some farm merchandise and a raffle ticket for a chance to win a beautiful farm basket.  And check out the bowling lanes too!  Click here to preview their menu!

NOFA Mass 
Winter Conference
 
Saturday, Jan. 15th
9am-5pm
Worcester Tech High School, Worcester
 
The annual winter conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association's Massachusetts Chapter offers educational workshops, a great marketplace for food and gardening supplies and resources, and the best potluck lunch on the planet!  For more details, go to the NOFA conference webpage.  Early bird discounts are available until January 1st.


DONATIONS NEEDED!

Our annual appeal is in progress. Please make a generous contribution today to support our charitable programs  and help us meet our year-end goals.

OneThirdOfTheWayToOurGoal

Checks and on-line donations accepted. 
Join our new Facebook PAGE
 
We've switched from a facebook group to a fan page, which will allow us to communicate with you all in a much more interactive way.

Find us on Facebook 

   

Click the tab above to check out our page.  Once there, click the "like" tab to stay involved!

WISH LIST

General
Mail scale
8.5x11 Paper used on only one side - for our printer
 

Education
Ceramic mugs & bowls
Watering cans
Dish towels
Wheelbarrow

Farm
Small air compressor
Picnic tables
Clean, food grade, 5-gallon buckets
Clean, 55-gallon drums w/ lids

 
acorn squash celery
    
 
HELP BUILD THE
CHILDREN'S FARM LIBRARY!

Do your holiday shopping at

Back Pages Books this year and help raise money for a Children's Farm Library at Waltham Fields Community Farm!


From now until December 31st in-store or on-line purchases of any of the following three items at Back Pages Books will help to support the purchase of children's books for the WFCF education program: 

  • Signed copies of Bill McKibben's new book, Earth
  • WFCF's new Perpetual Calendar
  • All books published by Back Pages Publishers, including "The State of the Union 2009" by Howard Zinn, and the first in their History of Waltham Series "The Shaking Tent: Ralph Waldo Emerson's First Sermons from the First Industrial Town in America"
With the funds raised, Back Pages will purchase books at cost (a discount of 40-70%) to be donated to WFCF! For more information, go to www.backpagesbooks.com
 

Farmer Erinn Roberts Accepted into Whole Farm Planning program!
 

As I anticipate my fourth year with WFCF, I'm honored to be participating in the year-long Whole Farm Management course for beginning women farmers offered by CISA (Communities Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) in conjunction with Holistic Management.  Along with fourteen other beginning women farmers and three mentor farmers from across the state, I'll be working intensively on topics ranging from business planning to labor management and land stewardship.  The course includes one-on-one mentorships, on-farm field days, workshops, and networking opportunities. 

 

From the course, I hope to gain tools in creating more clarity with both large-scale management decisions and the small daily judgment calls made day-to-day on a farm. Within the framework of Holistic Management, quality of life is inevitably tied to the quality of the land we work and thus, the two are under serious consideration in all decision-making.  Under the duress of a farm season, these two important issues can often be overlooked for the sake of convenience and time pressure.  I look forward to a year of better integrating a holistic view of the work done at Waltham Fields Community Farm while learning with a group of inspiring and ambitious women farmers.

Preserving the Flavors of Fall:
Making Pear-Cranberry Jam
with Bonnie Shershow

This past Tuesday evening, a group of locals enthusiastic about eating and preserving farm-fresh food gathered at Waltham Fields Community Farm to take part in our holiday jam workshop.  Bonnie Shershow, of Bonnie's Jams, explained her process for making delicious jams using only fresh fruit, water, and much less sugar than many commercial jams out there. She then led workshop participants step-by-step through that process and sent them home with the fruits of their labor: a lovely jar of pear-cranberry jam that can be eaten in mid-winter to remind us of this more bountiful season...or perhaps to have on toast tommorrow. If you would like to try your hand at making this jam, you can find the recipe on our WFCF Blog!!
The Elephant Walk Benefit Restaurant Program Raises $3,500

Elephant Walk check

Thanks to Bob Perry and The Elephant Walk crew in Waltham for designating Waltham Fields Community Farm as their October beneficiary for the Benefit Restaurant program.  We were thrilled to have Bob stop by the farm recently to hand-deliver a check for $3,497 and talk about opportunities for future partnerships.  The donation includes 3% of sales for the month, as well as $200 in additional donations from customers and an employee! 

 

Please join us in welcoming The Elephant Walk

as our newest Local Business Hero.

 

Pictured above (from left to right):

Farmer Andy Scherer, Farmer Erinn Roberts, The Elephant Walk Restaurant Group President Robert Perry, Executive Director Claire Kozower, Farmer Amanda with little Sadie, and Farmer Dan Roberts.

Waltham Fields Community Farm Staff

Claire Kozower, Executive Director 
Jericho Bicknell, Education and Outreach Coordinator
Marla Rhodes, Development Coordinator
Amanda Cather, Special Projects Coordinator   
Deb Guttormsen, Bookkeeper & Tech Coordinator
Andy Scherer, Farm Manager  
Erinn Roberts, Assistant Farm Manager
Dan Roberts, Assistant Grower
Amy Cook, Assistant Grower

240 Beaver St. Waltham, MA 02452 www.communityfarms.org
 
781-899-2403
Waltham Fields Community Farm | 240 Beaver Street | Waltham | MA | 02452