News

Tales for All Seasons

October 15, 2015
Everyone has a food story. It just seems to take a little talking to learn it. Working with Gaining Ground volunteers over the years, I have heard many stories that I collected like slips of paper. It was just this year that I realized how these food stories come from all types of people. There […]

Barn Raising and You

October 10, 2015
In the spring, we asked our community to help us raise funds to build a barn. New and long-time donors, foundations, and our Board have responded, and a barn is coming. A dedicated group of our Staff, Board, and consultants, led by Board member Jeff Young, has been working on design and siting all summer. […]

Harvest Fest 2015

October 1, 2015
Due to the pending construction of the barn, we celebrated our 22nd growing season a week earlier this year on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in mid-September. With tomatoes still in the hoop house and a large field of fall crops near the pavilion, musicians Ryan Thomson and his son Brennish entertained a welcome group of […]

Scout Projects Benefit Our Volunteers and Recipients

September 20, 2015
With so many volunteers, Gaining Ground has needed an additional picnic table and benches. This spring, high school student Santiago Benoit of Concord’s Troop 132 took on the challenge as his Eagle Scout project. In August, he and a team of Scouts spent the day putting together the many components just in time for September’s […]

A Farm Raised by a Village

September 15, 2015
Hi! My name is Ryan Devlin, and I was one of the apprentices at Gaining Ground for the 2015 growing season. I am from Framingham and have been working on small organic farms for the past seven years. Despite my previous experience, Gaining Ground was the first full-sized farm where I worked for the entire […]

Rosie’s Place: Our Newest Recipient

September 1, 2015
Another record-breaking harvest gave our farmers a problem that was a pleasure to solve: we had to find another group to receive the bounty from our fields. Rosie’s Place in Boston proved to be ideal. It meets our criteria for distribution—it is located within 20 miles of our farm, has a “choice” pantry and refrigeration, […]

Working with NetScout to Improve our Greenhouse

August 31, 2015
“I wouldn’t really call them mice. Definitely rats. House-cat-sized. This is one of the many trapdoors where they enter.” Enough! Gaining Ground Farm Managers Kayleigh Boyle and Doug Wolcik vividly brought to life our rodent-ravaged greenhouse in a video to NetScout employees during the final selection stage of their Heart of Giving Community Program. Westford-based […]

A Warm Welcome to our Newest Board Members

August 20, 2015
  Sue Mildrum I was bicycling down Virginia Road one day five years ago when I noticed the Gaining Ground sign. That very weekend, there was an article in the Boston Globe about the farm and I immediately contacted the office to volunteer. I fell in love with the beautiful surroundings, physical labor, and the […]

Thank You to Our 2015 Season Supporters!

August 15, 2015
he Board and Staff would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those supporters who have given generously and shared their time and talents with Gaining Ground throughout the 2015 season. Special thanks go to: Andrew Brockaway, for reviewing our barn design for building approval Applefield Farm and Nashoba Brook Bakery, for donating delicious […]

Winter’s Work

April 20, 2015
Don’t let anyone tell you that farmers have the winter off. Last year, we were installing our new irrigation system until the 21st of December. And for the first time, we were able to harvest greens in our new hoop house and distribute storage crops into December. Some of my favorite days as a farmer […]

Our 2015 Crew & Staff

April 9, 2015
We are delighted to have the seasoned team of Kayleigh Boyle and Doug Wolcik as our 2015 Farm coordinators. Kayleigh returns with six years of experience developing our farm programs, scheduling our volunteers, and planning our land improvements. Doug brings back two years with Gaining Ground; seven years farming in Massachusetts, California, and South America; […]

Visionaries in Hunger Relief

April 7, 2015
At the end of March at The Fenn School, Gaining Ground hosted a multi-generational panel focused on the issue of hunger relief. In a community like ours, hunger might not be obvious, but here are the numbers: 49 million Americans are hungry, and yet 40% of food in the US is thrown away during the growing, distribution, […]

In Giving, We Receive

March 31, 2015 • Lucy Rosborough, Board Member emeritus
As a long-time Board member and enthusiastic supporter of the Food for families program, I spend many Saturday mornings harvesting and distributing produce and flowers to Concord and Carlisle residents. Through the years, I have received so much joy from this community of recipients. Food naturally generates conversations and memories and has opened the door […]

Gaining Ground is Ready for a Barn

March 27, 2015
Even the old Greeks knew, “It will not always be summer; build barns.” (Hesiod) Over the years, volunteers, generous supporters, Board members, and staff have provided time and capital to help us “dig deeper” at the Virginia Road farm. Our goals have been to make our land more productive and to take good care of […]

Water, Year-round

March 25, 2015
In the summer of 2013, we began digging deeper—645 feet to be exact. There, below the bedrock, we found a main source of water to supply our crops with a sufficient amount of irrigation for each growing season. In the summer of 2014, the well and pump house were built and installed. Later in the […]

Three Times Honored

March 23, 2015
Gaining Ground has recently received recognition for our work by three organizations. We are honored and inspired! In November, Food Tank and the James Beard Foundation launched the first annual Good Food Org Guide. Gaining Ground was identified as one of five groups in Massachusetts and one in 500 in the US who are cultivating a better food system. […]

Thank You to Our Spring 2015 Supporters!

March 6, 2015
The Board and Staff would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those supporters who have given generously and shared their time and talents with Gaining Ground. Special thanks go to: Ken Bassett of Sasaki Associates, for providing barn planning suggestions. Denny Blodget, for helping with the newsletter. John Frumer of Christie Sullivan & Young PC, for […]

Short and Sweet: Sugaring Season 2015

February 16, 2015
Because of this year’s extreme cold combined with 110 inches of record-breaking snow, maple sugaring was late to start and slow-going. For the first time, our open house was cancelled entirely. Spring finally broke through in mid-March with sap flowing irregularly. Kayleigh and Doug collected from 200 buckets in Concord, but the extreme conditions prevented […]

Where do our seeds come from? Ask a reader!

February 10, 2015
We grow about 150 different species of plants at Gaining Ground—vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs. Most of our seeds come from Maine and start arriving at the office in January and February. Always organic, and whenever possible we choose non-GMO (genetically modified organism) seed sources. A special partnership with elementary school readers in Concord and […]

Smoothing the Way

Gaining Ground volunteer David Outerbridge always has an eye open for time-consuming tasks. He wants the farmers to be free to give their full attention to growing produce and working with volunteers. So, after years teaching high school English, followed by a restless retirement teaching continuing education in Newton and tutoring international students at UMass […]
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