Customers are drawn to the fresh produce at Crimson and Clover Farm as iron filings to a magnet. There are between 500 and 550 CSA members that range from western Massachusetts to 12 distribution sites in Boston.

A crew of eight people work the farm. Two of the crew drive to Boston twice a week to deliver the produce, at eight distribution sites one day and four sites during the next trip.

The farm has been owned and managed by Nathan Frigard, better known as Nate, since 2011.

The 45 acres that comprise the farm are leased from Grow Food Northampton Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of farmers and local farming.

According to Frigard, when the family that previously owned the land sold it to Grow Food Northampton, they received full market value, but part of the purchase proceeds were provided by putting the land under agricultural preservation restrictions and thereby preserving the land from development. Inside the busy town of Florence, MA, and situated just a mile from the Northampton Country Club, it is in a prime location.

Frigard is dedicated to organic farming and preserving the land by improving the soil, using no pesticides and farming with organic practices, although they are not certified organic. How he does that is “to make sure we don’t spray pesticides. We really try to build up our soil. It’s very sandy loam – it doesn’t retain organic matter as much as a clay soil. We mix into the loam as much mulch with organic matter as possible.”

They reduce tillage as much as they can. “The center of my soil fertility cure is cover cropping and crop rotation using organic fertilizer,” said Frigard.

They plant rye, clover, vetch, peas, oats and buckwheat and till them under to nourish and aerate the soil.

A first-generation farmer, Frigard became interested in farming while he was in college. He has been farming for nearly 23 years. His children Noah, 11, and Asher, 3, follow in his footsteps.

“When I first got into it, I liked the work, being outside, lifting things, being part of a team, the environment. The camaraderie was something I really enjoyed,” he said. At the time, he worked on a farm with a crew of 16 people.

Nathan Frigard, owner of Crimson and Clover Farm, with a melon and watermelon grown at his operation. Photo by Laura Rodley

Over time, he learned the science behind farming as well as business skills.

Then, “my ex-wife and I were given this land opportunity in 2010 through Grow Food Northampton,” Frigard said, and they started leasing the current 45 acres.

He brought that sense of camaraderie with him to his own farm. As people enter and leave the property with their arms overflowing with CSA shares, watermelons or fresh-cut flowers, he gives them a big smile.

He’s renovated the barn and recently had an extension built onto it using a farm grant that allows there to be a sale space year-round, with a washing station for produce and more refrigeration. The roof of the barn is lined with solar panels.

Inside the farm store, there are rows of their crops – melons, watermelons, basil, tomatoes and other produce that can also be found as part of a member’s CSA. Members love and always ask for the basic crops too – lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and squash.

They also offer other farms’ produce. There are three refrigerators inside the main store. One holds two shelves of eggs from Cream of the Crop Farm (Russell, MA), Elmhurst oat and cashew milk (Elmhurst, NY), milk from Mapleline Farm (Hadley, MA) and buttermilk from Hawthorne Valley (Ghent, NY).

There are wooden shelves full of Northampton, MA’s Red Barn honey, coffee, Sweet Babu’s granola and other sundries. A freezer holds beef and meat from Hettie Belle Farm (Warwick, MA).

What is new? “Nothing crop-specific, but this year and last year, we started a winter share CSA that lasts 20 weeks starting November,” answered Frigard. The ongoing spring/summer CSA lasts 20 weeks.

He has advertisements that began at the end of August on a local radio station, WRSI, to highlight the winter CSAs.

What has he learned over the years? “The biggest thing is to try to listen to people. CSA members give the best feedback,” he said. “Try to listen to your crew, what they have to say about what’s going on in the fields. Don’t just have them do things in a certain way that would be how I would want them to be. Try to be flexible.”

In case you were wondering, the farm is named after the famous 1968 song “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells.

For more information, access crimsonandcloverfarm.com or growfoodnorthampton.org.

by Laura Rodley