On June 3rd, LexFarm will submit our proposal for a community farm!
It’s been over four years since we dared to dream that we could save Busa Farm as a community farm for everyone.
With tremendous community support, a farm was saved.Now it’s time for the community to build its farm:
Add your name as a supporter of our proposal by making a Pledge to Build the Farm
We had a great turnout and great feedback for our “Farming: Then and Now” farm history panel last Sunday. We are hoping to make it available OnDemand through LexMedia for those who missed it. Meanwhile, Carolyn Goldstein reports that the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has launched a new initiative to collect farm history stories from around the country. These stories are part of the development of a new exhibition entitled “American Enterprise,” which will open in a few years. We hope that some Lexington farmers will participate. Spread the word by sharing this link:
americanhistory.si.edu/agheritage
Shown here is the Busa Farmily certificate of Farm War Service from WWII.
The Town of Lexington has posted a draft version of a Request for Proposals for leasing the town-owned Busa property for agricultural use.
You can read the draft RFP here.
The Selectmen are soliciting comments on the RFP until September 21, 2012. Please send comments to selectmen@lexingtonma.gov. LexFarm would also be interested in comments that you send to the Selectmen; If you have comments that you plan to send to the Town regarding the RFP, we would very much appreciate if you would also share them with us at this email: RFP_Comments@lexfarm.org. Thank You!!
After almost three years, hundreds of letters, phone calls and statements, Lexington’s Board of Selectmen finally gave the nod to a community farm tonight. There will be some as-yet-to-be-determined amount of affordable housing along the view of the farm, but there is no longer any doubt that most of the land will remain a farm and benefit of our community for generations to come! THANK YOU to all who have been a part of this extraordinary effort!
Bill McKibben, Lexington native, author, activist and founder of 350.org wrote to the Lexington Minuteman this week in support of a community farm on the Busa Property:
“Since I grew up in Lexington, I’m always pleased to hear about how the town is joining the growing movement away from suburban sterility and towards sustainabiliy and engagement. I was particularly pleased to hear that a committee appointed by the Board of Selectmen recommended that the Busa Farm be left a community farm and not turned into more playing fields.”
“This strikes me as very far-sighted. Since I spend a great deal of my time on various college campuses, I know that there’s a strong move towards engagement with agriculture at most of them, including some of the very best. There are, within the last decade, hundreds of college farms; now, where schools once favored athletes or musicians, there’s at least equal interest in kids who know how to garden and grow. The number of farms in America is on the increase for the first time in 150 years – that’s one of the best statistics I know.”
“It’s exciting to think of Lexington poised to help accelerate this revolution, and of the engaged and involved young people (and old people!) that the farm will produce in the years ahead. I’ll look forward to seeing it in operation, and to seeing the people it inspires move out into the world to do good!”
Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College
Ignoring presentations, petitions, letters, phone calls and statements from hundreds of Lexington citizens for almost three years, Lexington’s Board of Selectmen chose on Monday night to site affordable housing along the only view of the farm, and leave open all options, including ballfields, for the remainder of the property.
While Chairman Hank Manz had set expectations in the previous meeting that all the uses would be decided before any siting decisions, in his absence due to illness, Selectmen Norman Cohen led the discussion and votes in a different direction. With a site plan for recreational ball fields on screen for the entire 1.5 hours of public comment and discussion, the Selectmen had very little to say that would encourage all those expecting their voices for a farm to finally be respected.
If you would like to see the Board of Selectmen’s meeting for yourself, follow this link to LexMedia onDemand. From there, select “Board of Selectmen” from the Categories, then select the the meeting from 3/5/2012. .
Tonight at 7:00 pm, at Cary Hall, Lexington’s Board of Selectman will finally make their decision about the use or use(s) of the Busa Farm property. We are hopeful that they will decide in favor of a community farm, at least in part, and acknowledge the widespread support and desire for this public resource in our community. This will likely be the last opportunity for public comment before the decision is made. If you’d like to be inspired by what others have said (and sung) about this, please click on the picture and watch the video!
Tonight was the 3rd annual “Luminary Night” in Lexington, sponsored by LexFUN and the Lexington Historical Society. The community was asked to “ help us set our historic landmarks and neighborhoods aglow.” Here’s what it looked liked at the viewscape of Busa Farm at dusk.
For those of you who missed our presentation to Lexington’s Board of Selectmen, on Tuesday, September 13, you can watch it “On Demand” at lexmedia.org/ondemand.html . Go to ” Selectmen’s meetings” and choose “September 13, 2011″
Special thanks to Peter Barrer, President of Newton Community Farm,who joined us to help answer questions. And thanks to all those who have continued to support our efforts to bring a community farm to Lexington.
I’ve had a lot of fun the last few days trying to keep up with different kids on farms, as LexFarm organized some education and volunteer programs at two farms.
First, on Thursday we had about 20 kids and their parents visiting Waltham Fields Community Farm for a Kids Farm Tour. We separated into two groups according to age: I decided to hang out with the littlest ones. We learned about the “Fab Five” things that plants need to grow (can you name all five?), made hummous that included fresh-picked cucumbers, and did some 
planting in the Learning Garden.
Today, I met about 35 adults and kids down at Busa Farm and we helped harvest potatoes. There were very few people who knew what a potato plant looked like, so we had a fun time trying to identify all the wonderful vegetables, until Jane led us to the potatoes. For their hard work, everyone got to take home a half-lunchbag of potatoes.