Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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72 MARCH 2018 Many of us associate e Trustees of Reservations with land conservation and stewardship—for good rea- son. Since 1890, the nonprot has protected over 12,000 acres of Massachusetts farmland. Its 116 properties are beloved for their natural beauty and cultural and educational oerings. Today, we have reason to think of it as a local food source, too, as ve of their seven working farms now operate a meat CSA (community-supported agriculture) program. Farmers at Moose Hill Farm in Sharon, Powisset Farm in Dover, Weir River Farm in Hingham, e FARM Institute in Edgartown, and, new this year, Appleton Farms in Ipswich are raising cattle, pigs, chickens, and lambs in a variety of open, natural settings using sustainable practices. e idea for the new meat CSA is twofold. First, it diversies e Trustees' food distribution outlets. "We decided a CSA model would work very well for us," says statewide livestock manager Connor Young, noting that the two-year-old program experienced over 100 percent growth in membership in just one year. Second, their sustainable farming practices preserve both agricultural land and natural wildlife habitat. For example, Appleton's Great Pasture is both grazing ground for cattle and a nesting habitat for birds; to manage the bird habitat, they might hold cattle o a eld and leave it fallow from April through July. "We try, as much as possible, to overlap with our ecology department to encourage a sustain- / I N D E P T H / PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS Statewide livestock manager Connor Young at Appleton Farms.