Cotyledon Farm is located at Oak and Stone Farm, a 60 acre family farm in Leicester Ma. Amanda, owner/operator, leases an acre, and lives in the original farmhouse on the property. There are stone walls, gardens, forests, meadows, wetlands and pasture on the land that make it an ecologically diverse landscape.
Cotyledons are the first leaves that appear after a seed has sprouted. They are distinctly different from a plants true leaves, because they develop in the embryo-and therefore present before germination. The cotyledon contain the stored food reserves in the seed. Some cotyledon begin to photosynthesize and stay with their host plant for a long time, while others shrivel and die after the true leaves take over food production. There is an essence in each of us that makes us who we are-even before we are born. But, it’s how we nourish, care and tend to the seed that truly determines its fate.
As a community farm, the mission is to nourish and enliven a diverse community of members, neighbors and friends with life-sustaining vegetables and herbs.
Vision: To join together in community to create and enjoy a diversified, small-scale, organically-grown vegetable and herb farm. The farm will be a place alive with art, collaboration, organizing and activism with those who share in the labor and love of the land their food is grown on, as well as the community that it brings together. This vision is to foster a sustainable livelihood for the farmer while also fostering and developing an social-justice focused community. In doing that, we must honor the needs of those who both work and benefit from the land for respect, dignity, community and mutual-aid.
Goals: To nourish existing communities of radical, social-justice oriented people in a mutually beneficial way that balances the rights of the both farmer and the community of access to the resources they need to flourish and succeed. Members and participants who work on the farm will experience and co-create a dignified, centered and loving environment.
Values:To mindfully grow means to carry the responsibility of sustaining the land, the people that work on it, and those who consume the produce. There is a dance constantly at play with small-scale farming. This means we must collectively face the reality that in order to foster a sustainable livelihood for a farmer whose produce nourishes you and your family-that farmer must, too, be nourished, valued and sustained.
Cotyledon Vegetable Farm