Visiting Local Farms

Cheryl Bowen-DiTommaso of Dalby Farm introduces students from Marshfield's Pudding Hill Preschool to Stella the chicken. Photo by Kezia Bacon-Bernstein.

This past spring, I accompanied my son’s preschool class on a field trip to Dalby Farm in Scituate. We enjoyed a tour of the premises, meeting all of the animals that reside there – goats, sheep, rabbits and swine, plus chickens, roosters, geese and ducks, and even a pair of peacocks! We learned about the eggs, wool, and other products of the farm, and got to touch and smell various kinds of animal feed. The kids each had an opportunity to pet Stella the chicken, whose feathers were surprisingly soft. We also learned about the importance of recycling and composting.

There are a number of farms on the South Shore that welcome visitors. Many also offer classes and workshops for adults and children, as well as other opportunities for hands-on learning about agriculture, science, ecology, history, and plenty more. Recent columns have highlighted Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset and Weir River Farm in Hingham; you can read them in my nature column blog at http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com. In the meantime, let’s learn about a few more.

Located at 59 Grove Street in Scituate, Dalby Farm was founded in the mid-1800s. Originally a chicken farm that sold eggs to local merchants, it now focuses on rare and heirloom breeds of poultry and livestock. A satellite of the Plimoth Plantation Rare Breeds Department, and a member of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Dalby is actively involved in teaching awareness of animals and nature. It is open to the public from May through October, ideal for field trips, birthday parties, and small group visits. The material is tailored to fit the age of the group. The farm also runs seasonal events such as Spring Hatch Eggs-travaganza, Rare Breeds Discovery Program, The Dalby Farm Experience Summer Program, and the Country Christmas Fair. For more information, visit www.dalbyfarm.com or call 781-545-4952.

Another education-based farm is the Soule Homestead at 46 Soule Street in Middleboro, where the primary focus is “teaching children about the web of life.” Part of Soule Homestead’s mission is to show people where their food comes from and to promote sustainable agricultural practices. The farm has large fields for crops and grazing, which makes it scenic as well as educational. Many visitors go there just to enjoy the open space. George Soule, a Pilgrim, began farming this parcel in 1662, when he purchased it from the Wampanoag tribe. In 1988, the Town Of Middleboro bought the 120-acre property, intent on saving it from development and maintaining it for agricultural use. In 1993 a group of citizens began leasing it from the town to use as an organic farm and education center.

Now the Soule Homestead is open to the public, Tuesday through Sunday from 9-5, with free admission. It offers a variety of programs for hands-on learning, including school field trips and vacation programs, children's birthday parties and adult workshops. While there, you might meet the animals, spin wool or make butter, learn to identify different parts of a plant, experiment with centuries-old farm tools, or study how farming and the landscape have changed over the years. Plus there are several annual events such as Sheep Day, a summer concert series, The Harvest Fair, and the Unscary Halloween Party. For more information, visit www.soulehomestead.org or call (508) 947-6744.

I was surprised to learn that the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department runs its own farm, in Plymouth. Located on Obery Street, near the new courthouse, the farm’s summer hours are 9 am to 5 pm, seven days a week (After Labor Day, it closes at 3 pm). The Sheriff’s Farm features a free petting zoo, with cows, chickens, goats, sheep, pigs and even a tortoise! The farm staff is made up of six correction officers who are also trained horticulturalists; these officers supervise an inmate crew who raise plants and care for the animals on the 90-acre farm. The hard daily work that the farm requires serves as rehabilitation for the inmates. The farm also hosts a Harvest Festival in the fall, and sells Christmas trees and other holiday décor in December. For more information, visit http://www.pcsdma.org/Farm_And_Petting_Zoo.asp.

One of the most important things you can learn while visiting these farms is the concept of sustainability. Especially since the end of World War II, agriculture in the United States has changed dramatically. While productivity has soared, so have the use of chemicals and practices that ultimately harm not just the soil, but the people and animals that live nearby. This affects not only the farm itself, but the surrounding lands, as well as the rivers, streams and other bodies of water downstream.

However, farms that employ sustainable practices strive to protect and enhance the land. While growing crops or raising livestock, these farms make use of on-site resources wherever possible, and limit the use of non-renewable resources. Some common methods include rotating crops, recycling crop waste, treating and composting manure, replenishing the soil without chemicals, and avoiding excess tillage and poorly managed irrigation. These practices not only sustain the economic viability of the farm, they improve the quality of life for the farm’s workers, as well as the flora and fauna both on and downstream of the farm.

By Kezia Bacon-Bernstein
June 2010

Kezia Bacon-Bernstein's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to the preservation, restoration, maintenance and conservation of the North and South Rivers and their watershed. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 13 years of Nature (Human and Otherwise) columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com.

Visiting Holly Hill Farm

photos by Kezia Bacon-Bernstein

Looking for a fun outdoor excursion to enjoy with your family? Head over to Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset, where you can visit for free, any time during the day.

The setting, with rustic barns and assorted antique farm equipment, will interest young and old. While you’re there, see what’s for sale at the farm stand, and meet the animals that live on the premises – hens and roosters, rabbits, goats, a horse and a pony. Wander through the education garden, and find out what students and workshop attendees have planted. If you’re lucky, you‘ll see the farm consultants, Ben and Hannah Wolbach, in action. On a recent visit, my son and I watched Ben plow a field with a large tractor (Major excitement for a 4-year old)! There are several different walking trails too, up to a mile in length.

Located at 236 Jerusalem Road, Holly Hill Farm has been in the White family for five generations. In 2000, its most recent residents, Jean and the late Frank White, launched a commercial organic farming venture there. The property itself comprises 140 acres. Ten acres of that is open fields, and right now there are five acres in production. That’s a lot of land for an operation that employs only a handful of people!

The land, which is surrounded by an additional 120 acres of salt marsh and conservation woodland, has been farmed since the early 17th century. Incarnations over the years have included homestead, summer residence, saw mill, and truck farm, among others. Two post and beam barns on the property date back to 1785. There is also a classic pole beam barn, built in the Civil War era. Today there are also a few small, more modern greenhouses – one of which was donated by Annie’s, the famous purveyor of mac & cheese.



Holly Hill now grows over 75 varieties of organic vegetables, herbs and flowers, and sells eggs produced by its resident chickens. There are annual plant sales in the spring -- there were 15,000 plants for sale this year -- and from June through the end of the harvest, the farm stand, located in a 19th century barn near the entrance of the property, is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11-6.

Frank White, who grew up at Holly Hill, spent his life as an educator. When he returned to his family’s land in 2000, his goal was to develop the farm so that it could promote sustainable agricultural practices, serve as an environmental resource, and provide educational programs for local schools and the larger community. Frank passed away in 2009, but his legacy lives on.

The Friends of Holly Hill Farm, Inc., established in 2002, is a non-profit educational organization that is dedicated to making the farm’s resources available to the South Shore Community. The Friends offer programs for adults and children, including lectures, movies, workshops, field trips, and summer programs. Part of the group’s mission is to teach how organically grown food is important for our own health, as well as the health of the environment.

Holly Hill has quickly become one of the South Shore’s leading sources of farm-based programs for school children. Education Director Jon Belber, a former classroom teacher and last year’s winner of the Farm-Based Education Association’s Teacher Farmer of the Year award, has been developing and expanding the farm’s education programs for several years now. He co-authored, “A Growing Relationship,” a curriculum guide, with Frank White, which integrates hands-on farm projects with a classroom-based science curriculum.

Belber wants people to know that a local farm can be a great learning spot. “The fields are our classroom,” he says. Many area schools have sponsored 2-hour field trips to Holly Hill, during which the children enjoy a number of hands-on experiences -- tasting foods, digging compost, and learning and seeing how things grow in the farm garden. The programs are an excellent way to help children develop a real-world understanding of basic science.



Belber now works closely with several area schools. For example, under his tutelage, fourth graders from Marshfield’s South River Elementary, along with their teachers Bruce Frost and Jeff Dunn, constructed six raised beds at their school, in which they established a garden, planting garlic in the fall and spinach and peas in the spring. Students from the South Shore Charter School in Norwell have made weekly visits to Holly Hill Farm throughout much of the academic year. Over the course of the 20-week program (fall and spring), they have turned the earth, planted and harvested crops, saved seeds, and made compost – plus learned about crop rotation and natural fertilization methods. All of the Cohasset public schools and most of those in Scituate have participated in farm-based programs too.

This summer, Holly Hill Farm will offer programs for children ages 3-16. Participants will learn about growing healthy organic food and have fun outdoors, doing farm chores like planting seeds, caring for plants, making compost, caring for animals. Plus, they will use food grown on the farm to prepare a meal.

For adults, there will be a film series and the ever-popular workshops; past topics have included: Growing Great Tomatoes Organically, Organic Landscaping and Lawn Care, Cooking a Harvest Meal, Cutting and Arranging Flowers, and Making Compost. Private farm tours – for groups such as garden clubs and scout troops – easily can be arranged.

For more information about Holly Hill Farm, call 781-383-6565, or visit www.hollyhillfarm.org.

By Kezia Bacon-Bernstein, Correspondent
May 2010

Kezia Bacon-Bernstein's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to the preservation, restoration, maintenance and conservation of the North and South Rivers and their watershed. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 13 years of Nature (Human and Otherwise) columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com.