WESTFORD — Bob Waskiewicz and Sandra Habe, who run Westford’s beloved Good Pickin’ Farm, recently donated 100,000 pounds of crops to food pantries across Massachusetts.
This year marked the second consecutive year the farm has done this, which was made possible after residents voted overwhelmingly in support of the initiative last year.
WestfordCAT spoke to Waskiewicz and Habe, and asked them what inspired them to begin this initiative, how the process of growing and harvesting the crops works, and how Westford residents can continue to support the farm and the local food pantries.
“Everybody’s talking about food insecurity and the need for that,” Waskiewicz said. “Sandra and I both grew up without too much and our former partner in the farm Bob Webb and his wife, they didn’t have much food (growing up). We would live on small farms. He in Missouri, myself in Central Massachusetts. We had milk coming straight from the cow, and we had food coming off the land. We were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor, because we had enough to eat. That’s not the truth anymore.”
In the interview, Waskiewicz said Massachusetts is the third wealthiest state in the country, but around 169,000 kids still go hungry.
Waskiewicz said he grew up in Central Massachusetts in a family without much money, and said he felt it was his duty to make even a small difference in combatting hunger.
“In Massachusetts, the third wealthiest state, 169,000 kids go to bed hungry,” Waskiewicz said. “We’re making just a little dent in that. But we’re going to continue to make that dent and it’ll work out. It’s getting better all the time.”
Waskiewicz and Habe said much of the help they get in planting, growing and harvesting the crops comes from the Boston Area Gleaners, who begin planting crops in May, which then grow over the summer and are harvested in September and October. Cover crops are then distributed over the soil, to protect it during the winter, then different crops are planted on the same soil in the spring, as rotating crops helps the soil stay healthy and improve growth.
While many different vegetables, fruits and other crops are harvested at the farm and sent to food pantries, Waskiewicz and Habe said butternut squash was this year’s crop of choice.
“People say ‘well why are you raising 100,000 pounds of butternut squash?’ Well anyone who has had a butternut squash at Thanksgiving, three months later, you still got it and it’s whole and it’s solid. It has a great shelf life to it,” Waskiewicz said.
“Did you know they actually last about a year?” Habe added.
“Somebody said that to me the other day,” Waskiewicz said. “I’m glad you’re saying it because I began to doubt it. Someone said ‘we got one from last Thanksgiving and I said ‘ you can’t'”
“Oh they do, that’s how long they last,” Habe said.
“It’s got a great shelf life,” Waskiewicz said. “It doesn’t have to be refrigerated so to speak, which is fantastic. (Butternut squash) also has a high antioxidant value.”
Waskiewicz and Habe have continued to keep Good Pickin’ Farm an important center of community in Westford.
They hope that through support coming from the Town of Westford and its residents, they can keep the initiative going in the future.
“I always stop to point out that field, and to talk to people about it, and it blows their minds, because they don’t expect to hear that all of that food is given way,” Habe said. “Yes. Every single bit of it. A little tiny bit stays in Westford, because that’s all they can take., but throughout this whole state it hits all kinds of people. And you know, in this world, it’s a really wonderful thing.”
