Needham Community Farm is Giving Back

Donations to the Needham Community Farm can help feed families in need, they also hope to offer workshops on cooking the food produced.

The following press release was sent by the Needham Community Farm: The Needham Community Farm (NCF) is offering a new way to give back to the community. In an effort to increase their fresh produce donations to local food pantries, the NCF has begun a garden bed sponsorship program. Residents, local organizations and businesses can sponsor 1/4, 1/2 or an entire bed, and all the produce harvested will be donated to families in need. Garden signs will be placed at each bed to recognize the sponsors’ generosity. Food access has been a priority for the Needham Community Farm since the organization began running educational programs and growing produce in 2008. Each season, the NCF has donated a portion of their harvest to the Needham …

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Needham Farmers Market Taking Shape

Vendors and artisans are set for the market's first season, which opens June 10.

The opening of the first Needham Farmers Market is just over one month away, and organizers have been busy getting ready—finding vendors, gathering sponsors and drawing attention to the upcoming venture by posting videos, recipes and photos of Needham’s agricultural past online at needhamfarmersmarket.org. “We expect that the Needham Farmers Market, right in the heart of Needham Center, will bring a good amount of visitors, from Needham and surrounding towns, into the Center on what otherwise may have been quiet times for Needham businesses, especially during July and August,” said Jill Kahn, a member of the Needham Farmers Market Board of Directors. The Farmers Market, to be held on the front lawn of First Parish in Needham, will open on …

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Patch Chats with Debbie Schmill

Needham Community Farm president looks forward to another growing season.

On Saturday, Feb. 11, the Needham Community Farm will hold its first benefit dinner to raise funds for the all-volunteer nonprofit organization, which provides educational opportunities in the community and fresh produce for the Needham Food Pantry. The dinner will be held at First Parish Church and will be catered by Sweet Basil Restaurant, with desserts donated by Bakers' Best Catering and Dancing Deer Baking Co. There will be live music and a silent and online auction. Individuals can begin participating in the auction now at biddingforgood.com, with the final bids to be held at the dinner. Patch talked with Needham Community Farm president Debbie Schmill this week about how the organization is doing, what proceeds from the dinner will …

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Gardeners Grow at Community Farm

Summer class helps residents develop their green thumbs.

Several area residents have been honing their growing skills this summer at the new Needham Community Farm site on Pine Street. Every Tuesday morning and Thursday evening, the two groups of gardeners meet at the old nike missile sit borderingRidge Hill Reservation and learn about soil, planting, the benefits of different vegetables and more.  “It’s supposed to take the fear out of starting a garden at your house,” said Debbie Schmill, Needham Community Farm president. “We’re going through it all together.” Participants range from first-time gardeners to those who have been gardening for years but maybe don’t have the space or a sunny enough spot at home. Each gardener received an individual garden plot in one of the raised beds that were …

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Week in Review

Week in Review: A Wet Week and a Busy Weekend

A look back at the top stories on Needham Patch the week of May 16-22.

It was a wet week in Needham, forcing sports games to be rescheduled and fields to close, but the rain finally held off on Saturday, allowing for several big events to go forward as planned. Crowds descended on Ridge Hill Reservation to watch the Battle of Needham (photos from the event to post soon). At Newman Elementary School, residents gathered for the second annual Bike Fair sponsored by Needham Bikes. The sun stuck around, making for an enjoyable, well-attended Tour de Needham ride around town. Also this weekend, volunteers with the Needham Community Farm planned to break ground at their newly acquired garden plot on the former nike missile site. Read all about their plans here. In police news: a naked man was seen walking in the …

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Needham Community Farm Ready to Break Ground

Volunteers invited to help build garden beds this weekend on school-owned site off Pine Street.

Since it came into being four years ago, the Needham Community Farm has helped create gardens on the grounds of four Needham elementary schools, cultivated a dozen different types of herbs and vegetables and donated the glut of its harvest to the Needham Community Council Food Pantry. But up until now, the farm has been missing a critical element: an actual farm. “It’s been a four-year search for a piece of land,” said farm president Debbie Schmill. The hunt is finally over. In early May, the nonprofit farm announced it had been awarded a license by the Needham Public Schools to start an environmental-education initiative at the Nike missile site off Pine Street in Needham. Schmill said the farm had been looking for a home for two years …

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