We do not have a traditional farm, in fact if you come to 205 Winter Street in Hopkinton, you will see our home looks nothing like a farm, except for the hoop house in the backyard and the 1800 square foot garden that I have used to grow food for our family. We sought open unused farmland from neighbors to use. In 2011 we started growing vegetables on ¼ acre at the corner of School and Pond Street in Hopkinton. Drs. Love and Karlin own this scenic farm that originated in the mid 1700’s. They were very generous to allow us to grow vegetables on their property. We sold most of our harvest at the Hopkinton Farmers’ Market at the Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton as well as the Whole Foods Farmers’ Market in Bellingham. Our goal that year was to insure we could grow quality food on a deadline. For those of you that supported us at the Farmers’ Market last summer, thank you and I hope that you enjoyed our vegetables. We still have a great deal to learn, but I was very pleased with our first season, despite the three weeks without rain in July, hurricane Irene and excessive rain at the end of the season. We experimented with growing later in the year and harvested Hakurei turnips, broccoli, arugula, red Russian kale, purple top turnips as late as December 8. It is true you can grow food after Labor Day in New England. We hope in the future to be able to expand our food availability in this way.
Most of the farmers I have spoken to or read about who have CSA programs grow for about 40 families on 1 acre of land. In order to feed more families we needed additional acreage. We started calling more neighbors and found that Richard Amato was willing to let us farm on his property for 2012. In addition to the Love Karlin Farm, we lease land at the Amato Farm as well. Richard Amato and his family ran a very successful farm business for many years at 11 East St in Upton, on the Hopkinton border. For 2015 we will had 1 1/2 acres of blueberries and 4 1/2 acres for vegetables. Unfortunately Mr Amato decided to sell some of the land that we were on, so as of 2016 we will only have 2 acres at the Amato Farm and 1/4 acre at the corner of Pond and School.
