Waltham Fields Community Farm

When we first moved to Massachusetts, I was scouring Unilocal a lot to get familiar with the restaurants and stores in Waltham. I stumbled on the review for Waltham Fields Community Farm and was interested in their mission. In Michigan, our closest CSA was about a 25 minute drive away and this place was practically in our backyard. We thought we would try it this year and if it didn’t work out, we would switch back to buying our produce at the grocery store.
You pay for the 20 weeks up front and come in one of the three pick-​up days each week to get your produce. It may seem like a large sum of money, but when it’s all divided out, you’re getting a very good deal for a good amount of organic fruits and vegetables. On Mondays, I get an email with a general idea of what crops to probably expect. This is when I make a menu for the week based on the crops. When you get there, you check in and fill your bags up with beautiful vegetables. Usually the number of items range from 8 – 10 that you can choose from approximately 15 so it doesn’t mean that everyone gets the same thing. Additionally, 1 item really means 1 type of fruit or vegetable. So in some cases, 5 lbs. of tomatoes or three large zucchini is considered 1 item. They have separate shares for the winter and a fruit share during the fall so you can break it up however you want. You can also go to the fields to pick from a selected number of crops each week. Not only are these fruits and vegetables, but this includes herbs and flowers. This is perfect for those times where a recipe calls for only a small amount of herbs. I just cut what I need and I don’t feel like I have to find other recipes with that herb so I have to use up the rest of a bunch. For the first few weeks, I loved cutting some flowers and putting them out on our counter… until one week where I didn’t notice a cluster of tiny worms and I woke up to find them covering my counter. My fault. Having organic stuff straight from the farm also means you might see a bug or two.
This whole experience has been wonderful for my son. He’s almost three years old and understands now where vegetables actually come from. We don’t pick crops very often, but when we do, it’s so much fun for him. He’s just walk down the line and stuff his face full of grape tomatoes or raspberries. He is excited to try raw snow peas and will pick a flower or two. When he comes home, he’ll grab a leaf off of my porch basil plant and just chews on it before coming in. I feel like he didn’t make that connection until we started going to the farm.
We also love how much better we’re eating. Doing a CSA is a great way to try things we probably would have passed by on the grocery shelves. We end up getting very creative and making new recipes. In the Midwest, our meals were based on our protein. Now, the vegetables are the main attraction. My only complaint (if you can call it a complaint) is we have slightly too much every week. We were told that the amount was good for a family of four or a couple who eats a very vegetable heavy diet. We’re kind of in the middle with a family of three. We have given some of our produce away or scramble at the end of the week to find ways to make a large amount of what we have left. We went out of town for a weekend and when we got back, it looked like our refrigerator exploded with vegetables. It gets overwhelming sometimes. For example, I want to make a recipe that uses eggplant. Well, my 1 item of eggplant last week was actually five eggplants. So I either have to double or triple the recipe or figure out what to do with the rest of the eggplants. When this recipe calls for a head of napa cabbage, they don’t expect that the head is twice the normal size. This really isn’t a big problem… if we have a bigger fridge or freezer, we would be fine. We just don’t really have the space to freeze or can the large quantity of produce that we get. They DO have ½ share options where you and another person can split a share. Obviously with us being new to the area and this being our first time, we really didn’t have the option to share. I see people doing it and that’s great, but I feel like there’s always an awkwardness when I hear people discussing their half shares, «Do YOU want the corn today? If you don’t want it, can I have a few? Should we split the lettuce? Oh, you need the whole head this week? Then can I get it next week?» In a perfect world, my partner would just need everything I don’t want, right?
This review is mostly about the CSA. This doesn’t even include the workshops they have (I was excited that they had a baby making one because I loved making my son’s baby food and think that a farm share is a perfect way to introduce solid foods), the field trips that they hold for kids, and the donations and partnerships they have with the various organizations all over Waltham. They are obviously a very solid part of this community.

This is my first year with a CSA share and I absolutely love the whole experience. In addition to offering really wonderful vegetables, they also have some community outreach programs. I also love that they have gatherings like the community potluck and farm breakfast.
I’ve been in another CSA program and this one blows it out of the water. The amount of vegetables and the quality is amazing. The weekly newsletter always has some great recipes and info too.
Definitely worth the money and makes me feel even more a part of my community!

In addition to offering CSA shares they do community outreach and education programs. A great nonprofit to support. Waltham Rec. offers preschool and school age farm programs at Waltham Fields each season.
We have subscribed to five different CSAs over the past 15 years and will be returning to Waltham Fields this year. We originally let our Waltham Fields share lapse because it was just too much food. Although we shared it with another couple we just couldn’t eat as much as we needed to. Once we felt ready to embrace the CSA again– Waltham Fields was sold out and has been on a waiting list for CSA shares for years. After buying different CSAs in the intervening years we are psyched to score a Waltham Fields CSA share this year, we won’t be letting it go again.

Great CSA. We’ve been members for two years and split our share with another couple — often still too much produce! Very friendly staff and nice to be able to pick your own things at times — strawberries, beans, peppers, etc. Check out their website for more info.

Outstandingly fresh vegetables will make you a homebody all summer. It’s a crime to eat out when your pantry is full of such delicious produce.
Shares seem a bit pricey when you write the check at the beginning of the season, but they are more than fair if you make the pick up every week, and are true bargains if you fully avail yourself to the abundance of herbs, beans, tomatoes, peppers and flowers that you pick yourself in the fields.
Management bends over backwards to satisfy diverse shareholder preferences and has struck a fine balance between the need for sufficient quantities of staples and a wide variety of choices for the foodies.
One share will easily feed a family of four, but a share can be split, making it work well for couples, too.
Sign up early. Shares sell out fast.

I am not a member of this place, but my sister is. I’ve been here a couple times now. When you sign up, you get to go on certain days and you’re allowed to take a certain number of different types of fruits and vegetables. Then, on top of that, you may be allowed to go pick your own stuff. It’s kinda nice. Great way to spend the day and show your kids LOOK food comes from places other than Stop and Shop!

This is my third year doing a farm share but my first with Waltham Fields and so far it’s been a great experience. We just collected our first share of the season and it was far bigger than I was expecting. I’m glad my wife and I decided to team up with another couple this year instead of doing it on our own. I believe our first haul amounted to:
2 heads of lettuce
2 bok choy
one bunch swiss chard
one bunch kale
one bunch radishes
one HUGE bunch of tatsoi (an Asian green that can be cooked or eaten raw)
one pound of spinach
one HUGE Napa cabbage.
And this doesn’t count the pick your own snap peas and strawberries (which introduced me to a new bird, the killdeer, which nests in the middle of the fields.)
The people at the farm have been great and are very responsive to questions and suggestions. I can’t wait to see what other types of produce we get throughout the summer.

We’ve had a farm share for 2 years now. The vegetables are so fresh and delicious that we felt sad going away on vacation. Their produce tastes better than anything I’ve ever found at a farmer’s market, and is of course totally organic.
You pay ahead when you reserve your summer share in January. It seems like a hefty sum, but you get a lot of produce, so it actually works out to be quite reasonable — we split the share among 5 adults and still end up not eating everything. You pick veggies up every week, which we look forward to doing because you get to say hello to the cheery farmers and go into the fields yourself to pick certain items. There’s nothing better than a tomato warmed by the sun and eaten right off the vine!
You get to learn about new veggies you didn’t know you liked (hakurai radishes??) and for us city kids, it’s cool to see what a familiar veg looks like when it’s growing out of the ground (when I started going here I couldn’t tell a carrot from a broccoli plant).
We’ve done all three share programs they offer: summer, fruit, and winter. You have to join for the summer to be eligible for the other two. I recommend both the summer and winter shares, but I wouldn’t do the fruit share again. That’s because they partner with another farm for the fruit and so it’s not organic — also they don’t give you much fruit and generally it’s not as high quality as their veggies. But the summer and winter shares are excellent!
Extra bonus points for being a community farm and for their work helping the hungry.

Actually you can’t buy the crops like at a farmer’s market, it’s a commuity farm where people pay for a share of the harvest. A good part of it also goes to local food charities. It’s a good cause. My experience is from volunteering there for a couple hours to help harvest. We had a big group and the work went fast, but it was a rewarding and excellent day in the dirt. The staff was super friendly, and they’re always looking for help. There’s more info on the website, but you might give it a try if you’re looking to do something good in the community.

If I remember correctly, this is a great little organic farm near Waltham. You can drive up and buy whatever’s fresh that day.