NCOF Receives Grant for Farming Equipment

Natick Community Organic Farm (NCOF) recently announced it received a $16,500 grant from the Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation for the 2016 fiscal year. This support will allow NCOF to purchase efficient and time-saving farming equipment, including a hand-held mechanical lettuce harvester, a dump attachment for the farm truck, and a new vegetable washing station.
“We’ve already saved a lot of time by using the mechanical lettuce harvester,” Casey Townsend, NCOF’s Assistant Director, said. “We can pick five bags of mesclun [salad mix] with it in minutes, versus hours. And we can use the harvester in the fields and in the greenhouse.”
Likewise, the dump attachment allows farmers to dump hundreds of pounds of materials in one fell swoop. “Farmers spend a lot of time moving around compost and soil amendments. They’re super heavy.” Townsend noted. “As we move towards no-till growing methods, which require more compost, it’ll be nice not to have to move so much of it around by hand with wheelbarrows.”
The new vegetable washing station is a better height, making it easier for staff and volunteers to use to clean vegetables. It is also Good Agricultural Practices, or GAP-compliant, meaning that it meets federal guidelines governing facilities that process food.
“Having better equipment helps to make the Farm more productive, which makes our entire operation more sustainable,” Executive Director Lynda Simkins said. “It’s also important for teaching purposes, since young people, like our apprentices in our Mentoring Teens through Agriculture program, who are training to become our future farmers, need to know how to use this equipment. We’re grateful to Middlesex Saving Banks for this sort of help.”