Letter from the President
Friends,
As I sit ensconced in the collection of our farm’s seeds, plotting, planning, and dreaming for the growing season ahead, I am full of hope. Embarking into 2023, Aurelia’s Garden is entering our 4th year as a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing food that we can give away to our communities. Operating at two sites, our home field in Wayland and little sister site at Medway Community Farm, and now delivering food to 5 food pantries, we are grateful to feel the warmth and strength of our all-volunteer farming family grow with each season.
This year, we celebrate our theme ‘Working in Partnership’ and our goals to grow more food and distribute that food to more people. We are immensely thankful for the solid foundation of partnerships that we already have, that are critical to the work we carry out now – growing and distributing 11,000lbs of produce to families struggling with food insecurity. We look forward to deepening these existing relationships with the land, each other, and our existing community partners. We are also excited to connect more deeply with our communities to forge new partnerships, welcome more volunteers to our farm, and strengthen and expand the foundation of our work. Together, we will reach and exceed our goals!
We are excited for the promise that 2023 holds and the work we have set out in front of us! Most of all, we want to pause before the rush of the oncoming growing season to thank everyone that has been a part of our work so far! Without you, this profound and meaningful work would not be possible!
With unbounded gratitude in my heart, I wish you all a healthy and fulfilling year ahead!
In kindness,
Hannah Traggis
President and Farm Manager
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Thank you to Our Annual Appeal Donors!
The whole team from Aurelia’s Garden wants to thank each and every one of our Annual Appeal Donors! With your help we have raised over 80% of our 2023 Annual Appeal goal - over $12,600 of $15,000! THANK YOU! We are so very grateful for the continued support from our growing community - your trust in us is vital. We are already working hard to ensure that 2023 is a great year. With your help, Aurelia’s Garden was able to donate over 5.5 TONS of produce last year to multiple communities in Massachusetts. With your continued support, we will be able to purchase the critical seeds and supplies we need to do even more in 2023! So, once again, THANK YOU!
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Notes from the Field
Winter is a quiet time outside for Aurelia’s Garden. Our Medway site is sleeping for the remainder of the winter, resting until the first spring crops are planted. At Patterson’s Field in Wayland, things are a little busier. On warm, sunny days, our volunteers gather to maintain the forested edges of the field, beating back some of the invasive species common to our area. We focus mainly on eradicating Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and Multiflora Rosa (Rosa multiflora), both of which are widely spread and highly invasive in Massachusetts.
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Betsy Sczymzak and Hannah Traggis battle an enormous bittersweet vine -
Image courtesy C. Wager
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The Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group highlights the dangers of these plants, cautioning against using their attractive winter berries as decoration to prevent the spread of seeds. Oriental bittersweet grows quickly, and can strangle mature trees or shade out low-growing plants. It spreads via seed, clippings, and from the roots. Multiflora rose also grows quickly, and forms dense thickets that out-compete native plants. Multiflora rose will quickly take over abandoned fields, and the seeds can remain viable for nearly twenty years.
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Nancy Kahn and Loring Schwarz add invasive plant debris to our bonfire pile -
Image courtesy C. Wager
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Winter is a great time to address these plants at our Wayland field. The plants are easy to identify by their berries, bark and growth habits. We dig out what we can, or cut the main stems close to the ground to remove as much of the plant as possible. The plant material we collect is burned in a bonfire. This kills any seeds remaining on the plants, and prevents any of the cuttings from re-rooting in the spring. For those of you attempting this at home, we recommend throwing plant material away in the trash - instead of composting where seeds will happily germinate. An annual task, addressing invasive plants remains a continual work in progress. And a great reason to gather together at the field on the sunniest cold winter days!
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Our Sustainability in Action
Winter is the time Aurelia’s Garden takes stock and begins preparations for the season ahead. With a growing number of volunteers, food pantry partners, and a staggering amount of produce being grown, our work space must be organized and tools prepared to kick off the year.
Our new shed is fitted out with heavy-duty shelves filled with containers of irrigation fittings, cover cloth, natural fertilizers, cover crop seeds and more. The field pavilion hosts an array of hooks, pegs, and covered buckets for a variety of tools, neatly arranged for easy access. All of this organization increases our efficiency, making volunteer time in the field more productive. Having the right tool for the right job keeps us working strong and growing gorgeous, nutritious produce without the aid of conventional pesticides, herbicides and heavy machinery.
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Our wonderful shed, organized and ready to go for the new season! -
Image courtesy C. Wager
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While organizing, we take advantage of this time to look over our tools and assess what tools we need more of, and what tools need some tender loving care. Tools with long wooden handles are checked for damage and splintering, and the handles may be sanded and oiled as needed. Cutting tools such as hand pruners, snips, and scissors are assessed for rust, sticky joints, and dull blades. A clean, sharp cutting tool is far less likely to spread diseases during pruning and harvesting, reducing the need for reactive disease control in the field. All tool checks extend the life of our equipment, reducing the need to purchase new items and keeping broken tools out of the waste stream.
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Our sturdy pavilion, lovingly sheltering our field tools! -
Image courtesy C. Wager
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Support Aurelia’s Garden!
- Donate to our Annual Appeal! There is still time to help us reach our $15,000 Appeal Goal!
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- Paypal Favorite Charity: If you are a regular PayPal user, set Aurelia’s Garden as your favorite charity to have the option to donate every time you checkout with PayPal.
- Our Gift Registry: Aurelia’s Garden now has an online registry wishlist! Farming requires a lot of tools and equipment, some obvious and some less so.
- Amazon Smile: This month we wanted to note that Amazon is discontinuing its Smile program on February 20, 2023. If you have been supporting Aurelia’s Garden through AmazonSmile, thank you! Please continue to support us through AmazonSmile until February 20th, every little bit of support is important. Once the program has ended, please continue to support Aurelia’s Garden through other avenues, including our online wishlist at “My Registry.” The registry has a variety of useful things that we would love to have, ranging from storage equipment for our tools to weights for holding down row cover cloth. All of the items on the list will support our efforts to become a more sustainable organization as well, moving away from single use materials and focusing on well-made durable supplies.
- Donation of Spare Equipment: Have something in your garage that you see on the wishlist or think we might need? We welcome donations of used equipment as well! In line with our sustainability mission, we are always looking for used garden tools, old but functional power tools, and old weights no longer in use. Have something that you think we might like but unsure? Email us at aureliaspantrygarden@gmail.com and let us know! We’d love to hear from you!
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Image courtesy H. Traggis
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We deeply value your support. Contributions can be made securely online
or by sending a check to:
Aurelia’s Garden, c/o K. Martin
40 Beaver Pond Road
Lincoln, MA 01773
Donations to Aurelia’s Garden are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
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