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.

The Grow Food Northampton Community Farm is now full for 2023 but please feel free to fill out an application for us to have on file.

Farmland Lease Request for Applications

Solicitud de Arrendamiento

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

Early GFN fundraising meeting

Founding Board of Grow Food Northampton, March 2010

Our Projects

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.

The Trust for Public Land’s work on the Northampton Community Farm helped to open our minds to the possibilities inherent in community agriculture. In the course of the project, we accepted the risk of partnering with and selling land to a newly formed nonprofit (Grow Food Northampton) rather than selling to individuals who already had financing in place. The result is beyond what any of us could have expected, and it has put us on the lookout for other opportunities like this that stretch the imagination and push our risk tolerance.

Chris LaPointe

Senior Program Manager, Trust for Public Land

A history of the land

As a member of the utopic society, The Northampton Association of Education & Industry, Sojourner Truth co-owned & farmed the land in the 1840's

Bean/Benson Family circa 1900. Courtesy of Larry Bean

Harvesting tobacco on our "Main Field" circa 1890. Photo from the Goodwin Collection, courtesy of the Florence History Museum

The Bean family on the farm. Courtesy of Larry Bean

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.