Explore: Farm Update
May 27, 2022 • Gaining Ground
The 2022 growing season is officially gearing up, which means it’s time to share our first farmer spotlight of the year. Our May newsletter offers us a great opportunity to reintroduce Assistant Grower Kari Bender, who already has a couple months with us under her belt this spring. Kari first farmed with the Gaining Ground […]
• Christine Savage, Communications Manager
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet Mary Oliver once wrote, “I could not be a poet without the natural world.” And it is in this spirit that we are bringing a celebration of art to the farm this year. Throughout our fields this spring, we have set up a self-guided farm tour of […]
April 14, 2022 • Jennifer Johnson, Executive Director
“Wow.” The clerk at my neighborhood grocery store took a pause from scanning the items I’d placed on the conveyor belt, a bit stunned by what he’d seen on the cash register. “These cherries are over $15. Do you still want them?” I looked at the not-very-large bag the clerk was holding and answered that […]
• Anna Kelchlin, Farm Manager
In the life of a farmer, as much as deep winter is for reflection and quiet, it is also a time of intricate planning, preparations, and dreaming. Those long days of summer light are so far off, yet in just a short couple of months a rebirth will be upon us. This season I am […]
• Polly Vanasse, Board President
When I was a volunteer at Gaining Ground, I thought like a volunteer. I watched the seedlings my students planted turn into gorgeous veggies, helped drive them to a local food pantry, and heard the exclamations of recipients about the quality of the produce. Yet this process only revealed to me the surface of hunger […]
• Allison Goodwin, Program Manager
Each season at Gaining Ground brings challenges as well as successes; rewarding reminders of the impact and importance of our hunger-relief mission. Foremost among these in 2021 was the return of our volunteer program after a pandemic-driven hiatus. The joy of those first April volunteers was undeniable in their warm smiles, rolled-up sleeves, and dirt-caked […]
March 3, 2022 • Christine Savage, Communications Manager
This winter has proved to be an especially harsh one for people experiencing food insecurity. Supply chain woes and labor shortages left the shelves at some grocery stores sparsely stocked. Food prices are the highest they’ve been in years, making it more difficult for folks to afford the food they need. As a result, more […]
• Christine Savage, Communications Manager
A common refrain on the farm these past weeks has been how quickly the winter is passing. The cold season in New England can seem to stagger on without end. But with bustling harvests taking place on the farm through November—and continuing at a reduced pace all winter long—even the grizzliest weeks of snow and […]
December 19, 2021 • Anna Kelchlin, Farm Manager
As we approach the winter solstice, time and space feel more expansive in a vegetable grower’s life. With the leaves now resting on the earth there is a sense of physical and mental vastness. I can see more clearly through the woods, the hardy juncos and bluebirds who overwinter suddenly appear on naked branches, and […]
• Gaining Ground
Throughout the harvest season, produce from Gaining Ground goes to meal programs, food pantries, schools, and shelters in Greater Boston and Eastern Massachusetts. Some of these dedicated organizations use our food to prepare and distribute free meals for people who need them. Others give our vegetables, herbs, and fruit away as part of providing free […]
October 25, 2021 • Christine Savage, Communications Manager
Through the hot, dry days of June, soggy gray days of July, and all the way into October, the flowers at Gaining Ground were a feast of color and light. Heaps of zinnias fluttered in the breeze, waving intense blooms of purples, golden yellows, and stunning coral reds. Tall stands of verbena, with bright green […]
• Gaining Ground
Our 2021 farm season is quieting down, which means it’s time to share our final farmer spotlight of the season. It’s a great moment to get to know Education Manager Erin Espinosa a little bit better—especially since she’ll be joining us again on the farm next season! Where is home? How did you find your […]
October 16, 2021 • Gaining Ground
CONCORD, Mass., October 8, 2021—Gaining Ground, a Concord nonprofit farm growing organic produce exclusively for hunger relief, today announced the appointment of long-time supporter and board member Polly Vanasse as board president, and the addition of four new members to its board of directors: Laurie Engdahl, Ashley Perssico, Guillermo Ruiz-Rico, and Kristen Van Damm. These […]
September 27, 2021 • Gaining Ground
Last month, we shared some of the insights and experiences of the incredible women who make up our 2021 farm team. It has been a delight to have such a thoughtful, dedicated, and skilled group of farmers with us at Gaining Ground this growing season. Women farmers can face gender-specific barriers as they navigate their […]
• Gaining Ground
Our 2021 farm crew is flush with knowledgeable, talented, and overall delightful human beings. At Gaining Ground, we believe good things are meant to be shared, so we want to take the opportunity to introduce you to this year’s team, one member at a time. Let’s get to know Assistant Grower Rae Axner. How did […]
• Gaining Ground
Every year, the farm welcomes an amazing team of local high school students who devote themselves—during their precious summer vacation months—to volunteering with us in the fields. They help our farmers—in the searing heat and the pounding rain—with soil preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, and so much more. These weekly efforts of the high school farm […]
• Gaining Ground
Our 2021 farm crew is flush with knowledgeable, talented, and overall delightful human beings. At Gaining Ground, we believe good things are meant to be shared, so we want to take the opportunity to introduce you to this year’s team, one member at a time. Let’s get to know Greenhouse Manager Kim Schmidt. Where are […]
September 3, 2021 • Gaining Ground
This story ran in the September 3 print edition of the Concord Journal. CONCORD, MASS. – This summer has been a season of extremes. It was the hottest June on record for Boston and July was the wettest in Massachusetts history. These conditions have brought unprecedented pressure from diseases and pests to the fields at […]
August 27, 2021 • Gaining Ground
Our 2021 farm crew is flush with knowledgeable, talented, and overall delightful human beings. At Gaining Ground, we believe good things are meant to be shared, so we want to take the opportunity to introduce you to this year’s team, one member at a time. Let’s get to know Assistant Grower Chrissie Edgeworth. Where is […]
• Gaining Ground
In much of the world and through much of history, the face of food has been female—this includes farming. Yet in 2017 (the year of the most recent Census of Agriculture from the USDA), the United States had 1.2 million female farmers, accounting for only 36 percent of the country’s 3.4 million producers. Female farmers […]
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