Fresh, Local and Organic Food For All

Litchfield, New Hampshire

On one 65 acre farm in Litchfield, New Hampshire, some of the richest and most fertile land in the United States supports the growth of diversified niche food crops — seventy in all, but especially the eagerly awaited pea tendrils and salad greens — that find their way into both high end restaurants and soup kitchens or food pantries alike. The four inch long, kelly green pea tendrils are popular in Asian dishes and “New American” cuisine, fetching $5 to $7 a pound from New England’s finest chefs.

Originally established in 1984 as a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization with the mission to grow food for low income people in Boston, Massachusetts, Nesenkeag Cooperative Farm also solves another problem of agriculture, namely the difficulty of potential farmers locating capital to buy the land they need to grow or raise their products. The farm operates on one of the few land trusts in the U.S. where the lease for the land — and its specified use for farming — is guaranteed long term to whomever is the farmer. As a result, says farm manager Eero Ruuttila, “Nesenkeag Cooperative Farm can focus on our crops.”

Prior to farming, Eero started out on the other side of the counter as a produce buyer for the New England Food Co-op Organization (NEFCO) for seven years, managing sales for three hundred consumer co-op accounts. Leveraging this experience and connectionswhen he joined Nesenkeag Cooperative Farm as farm manager in 1987, Eero landed some of the NEFCO accounts he once managed. His tenure as a produce buyer had allowed him to meet and learn from farmers who sold to the food cooperative. “When I was a produce buyer, we received a USDA-FISMET grant to help organize individual farmers and farmer cooperatives to provide alternative ways to get their products to NEFCO. I was also Massachusetts’ first certified organic farm inspector, working on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association (NOFA).”

His knowledge of organics and of wholesale relationships provided the foundations for the heady task ahead of him when he arrived to Nesenkeag Farm: turning a failing farm around by making it economically viable through the production of niche crops not normally grown in New England. His interest in becoming a farmer was made possible by the fact that he could be one without having to own the land as a result of the land trust arrangement. His operations need only to provide an administrative fee for the Monadnock Community Land Trust, pay applicable taxes (greatly reduced since the development rights were eliminated on the land), and carry liability insurance.

Before Eero’s arrival, Nesenkeag Farm was selling produce to urban farmstands established in low-income Boston housing projects at prices significantly below production costs. The operations required continuous funding support because the pricing structure did not support farm costs. Eero reinvented the farm and diversified the operations to include new crops for urban chefs and brokers who sold to chefs. He filled production gaps with premium, niche crops for a local food broker, also a small scale grower who specialized in herbs and exotic heirloom vegetables. Eero supplied two wholesale accounts — including his former employer (NEFCO) and Deep Root Organic Growers, a Vermont-based organic growers cooperative — and transitioned the farm to organic certification.

Widely known for their delectable and best-selling pea tendrils, Nesenkeag Farm covets a closely held competitive advantage over large-scale Californiagrowers, conventional and certified organic alike, that pushed into his market over the last few years. “Pea tendrils are the tips of the pea plants,” explains Eero. “Besides the green manure benefits of adding biomass and fixing nitrogen in the soil as well as low weed pressure advantages it offers organic growers, pea tendrils offer a long harvest season. Also, they don’t ship well — reducing the ability of distance growers, especially those from California, to effectively compete.” He adds with a smile, “They also have a short shelf life, causing consistent reorders.”

“Our crops are custom harvested,” says Eero about the diversity of vegetables and herbs grown. “We offer farm fresh products, harvested less than twenty-four hours from the field to restaurant kitchen. The executive chef or sous chef, to whom we sell directly, appreciate the freshness they’re getting — and sharing — with their customers. Weekly communication provides a direct feedback loop between farmer and chef, incorporating the chefs’ input into seed planting choices that influence crop variety, color, flavor and harvest-size variations. This is quite different from supplying wholesalers that are more often concerned with unit volume sales, not what’s found inside the boxes.”

As a result, over the last decade Nesenkeag Farm has shifted from supplying less than a handful of wholesale accounts to directly supplying restaurants, a local hospital, and a unique farmer cooperative CSA operation — thirty-five accounts in all and most of which are increasingly closer to his farm. “I enjoy working with the restaurant community,” says Eero. “They’re excited about food and truly appreciate quality.”

During his May to November growing season, Nesenkeag Cooperative Farm harvests six days a week and ships five days, with two deliveries made twice aweek to thirty-five accounts (including two retained wholesale accounts). His professionalism as an operator is reflected in the fact that he’s never missed a delivery. “Whatever we harvest is pre-sold,” comments Eero about the time and cost-effectiveness of his direct sales efforts with chefs and other accounts. “We’re not interested in speculative sales, as farmers’ markets sometimes are. If the weather is bad at the market, you’re left with the harvest.”

During the growing season, Nesenkeag Farm employs five full time harvesters, one part-time mechanic, and two part-time truck drivers (one of whom is his wife, Liana Eastman). “I couldn’t do it without the hard work and highly skilled immigrant workers from Cambodia,” admits Eero, referring to the experienced Cambodian farm workers from nearby Lowell who regularly return to work on the farm, year after year. “They have worked on farms their whole life and I benefit by their knowledge and farming traditions. Their quality of work is what allows us to provide our restaurants with produce of exceptional taste and appearance.”

Fortunately for all, including the common ninety-hour-plus weeks Eero works during the season, there’s a five month winter hiatus, before things get underway for another season. Not content to stay put for long, Eero takes to the road to share his farm’s success with others by speaking at conferences or in other ways following through on the educational mission of Nesenkeag Cooperative Farm. The book Holding Ground: A Guide to Northeast Land Tenure and Stewardship from the New England Small Farm Institute details the creative land use approach adopted at Nesenkeag.

As proof to diversified niche crop profit potential, Nesenkeag Farm grossed over $200,000 in 2003 while still continuing its original mission of supplying various food pantries and soup kitchens in Boston and surrounding communities with produce for low income residents. Growing for the New Hampshire Food Bank and Project Foodshare, both of which pay wholesale prices for Nesenkeag Farm’s vegetables and herbs, about $7,000 in funding support provides roughly 3,000 pounds of vegetables (three-quarters of a pound per meal portion) to low income residents. About 2,000 people a year who might never afford a plate at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New England can still enjoy Nesenkeag’s salad greens, organic heirloom tomatoes, baby carrots, fingerling potatoes and, of course, pea tendrils.