Alprilla Farm in Essex, MA. CSAs on CR farms!

Alprilla Farm - Essex, MA - 70 acres protected by a 1984 CR to The Trustees of Reservations

Alprilla Farm - "Essex Grown" Photo Credit: Alprilla Farm

The rise of CSAs is one of the most exciting phenomena for New England farmers in recent decades.  Equally exciting and absolutely integral to the future of farming in our region is the revived enthusiasm of young people for agricultural careers - where the mid fifties is the average age of farmers statewide and nationwide.  Alprilla farmer Noah Kellerman is a great example of one such young person turning that tide!  Noah grew up on the farm, which his grandfather managed for cattle, and his parents for hay and horse boarding.  After a childhood spent gardening with his family, and a successful summer 2009 market garden, he began to think seriously about starting a CSA.  He successfully launched the CSA just after graduating from Hampshire College in 2011.  He brings his studies and hands-on experience in sustainable, organic agriculture, to provide CSA shares to the North Shore.  His friend Tucker Smith, a Gloucester native and grad of UMass Amherst's Stockbridge School of Agriculture, runs the farm with him. 

Farmers Noah Kellerman (R) and Tucker Smith (L).  Pretty sure Noah is wearing a Trustees of Reservations staff shirt! Photo credit: Alprilla Farm

Noah's connections to The Trustees go deeper than growing up on a farm privately protected by our organization - and he cites his apprenticeship at our nearby Appleton Farms CSA for several summers as one of his main motivations to take up farming!  If you are local, you may just be stuck on the Appleton CSA waiting list.  Just to say - Alprilla Farm is a short 4 miles away on Route 133, and they still have some shares available!  Interested in what they grow?  Click the link to check out just some of some of their crop list.  All produce is grown using organic methods by two very experienced young farmers. 

Act fast to sign up for Alprilla's 2012 CSA - the sixty shares are sure to go fast there as well!  We are excited for this venture, and anticipate Alprilla Farm growing into a great resource in the Essex community!  Keep tabs on their Facebook page to see what they are up to as the 2012 CSA season takes shape.  Congratulations from The Trustees to Noah as he builds his own farm and CSA program!  We are thrilled to help motivate and train future farmers, and protect land for them to build their businesses!     

Alprilla Farm sits directly across the street from the Trustees' Stavros Reservation, with its magnificent views of the Essex River estuary, featuring the dramatic salt marsh and drumlin landscape of the Crane Wildlife Refuge flanking Crane Beach.  The farm is part of the Stavros family legacy of conservation, who donated the CR on the farm in 1984, the bulk of the Stavros Reservation land, and the family's Cape Ann Golf Course, also under Trustees' CR.  Noah Kellerman's family continues this exciting legacy, farming Massachusetts land that has been in agriculture since the 17th century.

Posted by Andrew Bentley - CR Stewardship Assistant