The Northampton Community Farm sits on 121 acres of once Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Nonotuck Indigenous land, and the former Bean and Allard Farms — land that is now permanently protected as farmland.
As the largest community farm in Massachusetts, we lease most of our land to small farms in amounts of less than an acre to as much as 60 acres, and for time periods from 1 to 99 years. We prioritize leasing land to farmers from communities marginalized and harmed by the conventional food system and industrial agriculture. Using a flexible and innovative approach to leases on land and infrastructure, we seek to address well-documented challenges in land access for farmers while striving for a mix of economically and environmentally compatible and sustainable farm operations.
What is a community farm?
A community farm strives to meet both the interests of the community in which it resides as well as the interests of the farmers who steward its land.
Community’s Interests
- Preservation of affordable & just access to land for diverse farmers & gardeners who are growing food for our community
- Increased contact with how our food is grown and harvested
- Access to fresh, nutrient-dense food
- Open space & habitat preservation
- Agricultural & gardening practices that improve our region’s climate resilience
- Increased carbon sequestration, biodiversity, & pollinator well-being
- Chemical-free stewardship of natural resources like soil, air & water
- Opportunities for education and celebration
- Support for a new generation of farmers
Farmers’ Interests
- Long-term security of tenure
- The opportunity to build equity
- Shared tools, equipment, resources, & mutual aid & learning opportunities
- Pathways to commercial success and access to markets
- Opportunity to participate in feeding our community healthy local foods
- Opportunity to leave a legacy
- Ability to provide stewardship of the land and improve climate resilience
The Grow Food Northampton Community Farm has become a permanent asset to our community by:
- Protecting our prime soils, water, and food quality by employing sustainable, organic practices
- Providing access to land for farmers, particularly those harmed and marginalized by the conventional food and farming system, to grow food for our community
- Growing an abundant supply of healthy food for local markets
- Leasing organic community garden plots to hundreds of residents
- Offering agricultural learning opportunities at our community garden and farm through garden workshops and programs for all ages.
- Inviting public celebration, events, workshops, and strolls on our farmland.
How Grow Food Northampton came to own this land
Thanks to a collaborative preservation effort of The Trust for Public Land (TPL) and the City of Northampton, both the Bean and Allard Farms are forever protected from development. In 2010, TPL purchased both farms, a total of 180 acres for $2.5 million, then sold 60 of these acres to the City of Northampton to establish a recreational complex and a river greenway. Furthermore, The City and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources purchased an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) on the remaining 121 acres of farmland, ensuring that they would be forever farmed.
Citizens stepped up to the opportunity to buy this farmland by forming the non-profit organization, Grow Food Northampton. In six months, Grow Food Northampton raised over $670,000 to buy all 121 acres. On February 25, 2011, Grow Food Northampton purchased the APR farmland from TPL and the Northampton Community Farm was born.
A history of the land
Located on the fertile floodplains of the Mill River, our farmland consists of prime agricultural soils (Winooski and Pootatuck loam) and has been tilled continuously since well before Northampton was established. Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Nonotuck Indigenous peoples stewarded and farmed the land for centuries until they were dispossessed of their lands.
In the 1840s, it was owned by the famous abolitionist community, the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, and grew diverse crops that sustained local heroes like Sojourner Truth and David Ruggles as they worked to fight slavery and gender inequality.
When an earthenwork dam breached on the Mill River in 1874, sending 600 million gallons of water through Williamsburgh, Skinnerville and Leeds, much of the debris carried by the flood (factories, homes, bridges and river stone) was strewn on these farm fields.
In 1902, Henry Bean purchased 47 acres of the land and thereafter, five generations of Beans raised fruits, vegetables, hogs, and chickens for local markets. Due to residential encroachment and competition from industrial agriculture, however, the Valley’s family farming culture declined during the 20th century. By the 1970s, the Bean Farm was one of the last family farms in Florence.
Meanwhile, the adjoining farmland (owned most recently by Allard Farm based in Hadley, MA) grew tobacco from the late 1800s through the 1960s, then single crops such as corn, hay, and pumpkins during most of the remaining 20th century. In recent years, this land was leased by Swaz Farm and grew potatoes.
The Bean and Allard families are pleased to know that this land is now a permanent agricultural resource for our community.
Some other regional community farms
Waltham Fields Community Farm
Waltham, MA
Intervale Community Farm
Burlington, VT
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