Green Newton

The Newton Community Farm is a nonprofit organization and working farm that provides locally grown produce through a CSA program, the Newton Farmers Market, and local food pantries. NCF also educates the public about sustainable growing practices, land use, and stewardship. A visit to the Farm is always an inspiring experience, but there’s so much to their sustainable practices that isn’t obvious to the eye. Below is a description of NCF’s deep commitment to the environment from their website.

Soil Health

In the fall we plant a cover crop that is a combination of rye and vetch to protect the soil from erosion and hold nutrients so they don’t leach through into the groundwater in the spring. Soil is a living ecosystem so this keeps the existing ecosystem alive. Vetch is a legume that captures nitrogen. When it decomposes it makes this nitrogen available for crops. We keep as much of the field as possible covered over the winter. In practice, we usually achieve about 70-80% of the field cover cropped over the winter.

We minimize plowing. We have 140 beds. Some don’t get plowed at all and we let the cover crop grow to maturity (flowering). Then the beds are mowed and we plant tomatoes in them to attempt “no till.” Sometimes we plant zucchini or summer squash too. All spring peas are no-till to minimize the amount of overall tillage we are doing. We attempt to reduce tillage to give some of the soil a chance to go more than a few months without being plowed and this system works great. A small fraction of our beds have no soil disruption for 1.5 years unlike other beds which are disrupted 3-10 times per season.

We only use fertilizer that is certified organic from a chicken farm in NY. We use this in the spring through June because soil nitrogen requires the activity of microorganisms to release it to plants and in the spring the soil is too cold for this activity so we need to add a water soluble source of nitrogen. After that we rely solely on the fertility we have built up in the soil and don’t add extra fertilizer.

Our field is designed to maximize solar gain with the size of our beds and their spacing and paths.

We do our best to try to rotate crops. It is difficult with the intensive growing that we do. We try to plant crops in areas that they haven’t been in a while and try not to repeat the same crop families right after each other in the same beds. Otherwise, issues with pests, nutrient loss and disease become more prevalent.

We used to use straw mulch on tomatoes, eggplants and peppers which are in the ground for a long time. Now we use biodegradable mulch made from corn gluten. This is a European product that is GMO free. Unlike plastic sheeting, which breaks down into pieces of petroleum, this is healthy and goes right back into the soil. It is cheaper than straw and much less work to spread out and also to deal with when the crop is done for the season.

We use occultation, the process of weeding with tarps. With this method, recycled material from billboards with black backs is used to reduce weed pressure. We cover the soil with the black sides up to trap heat and moisture from the sun underneath the tarps which causes seeds in the soil to germinate and then die due to lack of light. We also use this method on debris in beds to accelerate decomposition.

Equipment

When Newton Community Farm originated, we bought a spader and a walk-behind tractor instead of a ride-on. Although a spader costs four times as much as a rototiller and is much slower, we made this decision and use it for the majority of our beds because it is much less damaging to soil and is the least destructive way to till a large number of beds. A spader lifts, breaks and drops the soil unlike a rototiller which mixes and can pulverize soil, breaking down its structure and therefore its striated ecosystem. Because it doesn’t pulverize or smear, a spader can also be used in dry or wet soil.

Our tractors are diesel powered so the engines last longer and we have greater fuel economy. When biodiesel was available from Newton North High School, we ran our tractors on recycled vegetable oil rather than petroleum. (Newton North no longer makes biodiesel.)

Pest Control

For pest control we rely primarily on physical barriers such as row cover, which we have used over brassicas to protect against flea beetles for example. We also use Protectnet for cover. While both traditional row cover and Protectnet are made of polyester, Protectnet is a tougher, woven polyester which lasts longer than spun polyester row cover. Because it is significantly more durable than traditional row cover of a similar weight and lasts much longer, we are able to reduce the amount of row cover we dispose of as trash. It also does not get blown around as much in the wind. We try to minimize spraying by covering but when we do feel we need to spray to keep from losing a crop, we only use pesticides approved for use on organic farms. In general, we spray extremely little and some seasons we are able not to spray at all.

Water

We have a shallow well rather than an artesian well that uses an aquifer. Our entire field acts as a giant cistern. We are not depleting an aquifer and we have lots of water which is great during a drought. We have groundwater equilibrium with the Charles River.

Energy

Newton Community Farm has opted up to 100% renewable electricity through Newton Power Choice. This electricity aggregation program enables Newton residents and businesses to purchase renewable electricity from New England-based projects to offset demand.

Waste Minimization

REDUCE

We put as much of our produce waste as possible back into the soil by using a flail mower to pulverize crop debris. The debris is then plowed back into the soil. Waste from the washing and packing area is fed to the chickens. Anything the chickens won’t or can’t eat is composted.

REUSE

We have fitted our barn kitchen with durable dishes, drink ware and silverware for up to 50 people. Most of these items were donated or purchased second- hand.

RECYCLE

We compost all our barn kitchen waste, including citrus, meat and dairy, and we recycle whenever possible.