A Woman-owned Farm in the Neighborhood!

We’re excited to introduce you to our newest vendor, The Neighborhood Farm! The wonderful women farmers at The Neighborhood Farm have been growing for 10 years, first spreading out across various plots and properties, until finally consolidating on their current land in Wayland. You can read about their fascinating history on their website.

Last week, we stopped by to visit their farm and see how they were doing since the start of the pandemic. Farms have had a lot of challenges in adapting to this cultural and economic shift, including trouble sourcing seeds and getting protective equipment for employees. These tough women said they reorganized all their workspaces to accommodate social distance and safety, completely changing the footprint of their farm. At the same time, they added new systems for online sales and changed their procedures for their farmstand to keep customers safe.

The Market 2day app is able to help add a new avenue for sales while providing an existing infrastructure that they did not have to build themselves. Based in Wayland, the Neighborhood Farm is as local as you can get.

When we asked Farmer Kate where her drive comes from and what motivates her to keep going through such difficult circumstances, she said “In March we had to decide, do we give up or do we double down? We felt like with people out of work, scarcity in grocery stores, not planting what we can felt like the wrong way to go. We planted every inch of the fields we could, growing new stuff and coming back to old produce we haven’t grown for a while. We felt like we could really make a difference through the short supply chain.”

The Neighborhood Farm specializes in heirloom garlic varieties, and trust us they have a ton of it! Keeping checking in on the app for the latest varieties as they become available. If you’re new to heirloom garlic, Farmer Kate recommends starting with a hard neck variety. Garlic you find in the grocery store is usually imported from China, and often treated to make the garlic last longer. The locally grown stuff is juicier and more flavorful. Individual heads will come with labels so you can keep them straight and experiment at home with different flavors.

When the current drought clears up, more produce will be added, and they are excited about fun potatoes and spaghetti squash coming up this fall.

Be sure to check out offerings from this new, inspiring, women-owned farmer, and place your orders now for delivery on market day!

#womenfarmer #smallfarm #heirloomgarlic