Planting Seeds for Farming’s Future
By Bridget Scrimenti, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
Dec. 9–LITTLETON — Paula Robinson scooped up a shivering white and brown bundle, and brought him in the kitchen.
“He was a bottle baby,” Robinson said while Buddy eagerly slurped up milk.
She nurtured the goat, which is blind, back to health when he wouldn’t take milk from his mother.
Nestled off Route 119, Springdell Farm is home to goats, chickens, black Angus cows, a wild mustang named Ranger and a burrow named Jack, both rescued from Nevada.
Paula runs the farm with her husband, Bob Robinson, and daughter, Jamie Cruz. It’s been in her family since the 1930s.
Behind the white farmhouse, seeds are planted to grow pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries, zucchini, sweet corn and other crops. The produce is sold to farmers’ markets, a few small pizza shops and at the family’s roadside stand.
Cruz, 20, will chair the town’s new Agricultural Commission, which aims to promote and preserve farming.
“A lot of towns have lost their rural character,” Cruz said. “We want to educate the community on what
it’s like to be a farmer in today’s times.”
During the past 20 years, the state has lost about 400 farms and 120,000 acres of farmland, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The average farm once covered 100 acres; now it’s 80 acres.
Rising energy prices have placed a financial burden on farmers, especially dairy farmers who received $3.6 million in taxpayer subsidies last May to underwrite costs and pay off debt.
Large agri-businesses in the South and Midwest are forcing prices down, making it tempting for some New England farmers to sell their land.
“For many farmers it’s tough to pass up the money when developers come around passing up big dollar amounts,” said Sen. Pamela Resor, D-Acton, chairman of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. Her district includes many communities with long farming histories: Acton, Boxboro, Littleton, Maynard, Stow.
Lawmakers have filed 25 bills on farming, many of which aim to protect farm viability.
At Springdell, the family spent more money to plant crops this year because of higher energy costs.
“Farms are struggling every day,” said Bob Robinson.
James and Maria Theodoros, Paula Robinson’s grandparents, bought Springdell Farm in 1931. He came from Greece; she grew up in Tewksbury.
During the Depression, James put the farm up for sale, but couldn’t bear to lose the land he loved.
“People would come out to look at the farm and he (James) would tell them it was a lousy place,” Paula Robinson said.
His brother, Tasso, a Greek merchant sailor, also came to work on the farm. He accidentally missed his ship back to Greece, and the ship sank. Tasso lived until almost 102, picking sweet corn at Springdell until he was 100.
Paula Robinson left her job as an automotive machinist in 1981 to work full-time on the farm. Now, mother, father and daughter work as a team, planting, harvesting and tending to the animals.
As the next generation, Cruz plans on continuing the tradition passed down by her grandparents and great-grandparents. “Knowing what they’ve have gone through makes me value it even more,” she said. “You don’t want to ever lose it.”
Littleton is known for its rural character, which includes farms, apple orchards and open space.
“I love the way the farmland looks when you enter our town — it’s the gateway to Littleton,” said Linda Cantillon, a member of the Agricultural Commission.
Residents at Town Meeting voted last year to create the commission, and adopt the Right to Farm bylaw, both to promote agriculture. Members include Cruz, Cantillon, residents Kenneth Banks and John Mitchell, and alternate members Janet Dutcher and Amanda DeFreest.
The commission is looking for three more members, preferably farmers, and plans on implementing a “buy local” campaign and creating an education component for Littleton schools.
“We have to make a conscientious effort to include agriculture as part of our economic package,” said Selectman Alex McCurdy, who spent many years working on farms. “If a farm is lost today, the chances are it will no longer be farm land or open land. It will become developed land and never go back to being agricultural.”
Paula Robinson and her family hope residents continue to support local farmers.
“Farming is a rewarding job,” she said. “We need customers to come make a special trip.”
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