Nestled away in an unassuming neighborhood abutting the Cambridge line is Belmont Acres Farm, the town’s last remaining connection to its history as a community of fruit farms and market gardens.
“We’re really, really fortunate,” said Henry Ogilby, whose family has owned the farm on Glenn Road for generations, dating as far back as the town’s incorporation in the late 1800s. “I don’t know another piece of property like this, this close to the city.”
According to Ogilby, many street and road names in town are a nod to farms of previous generations of Belmont residents, including Shaw Road, Hittinger Road, and Bright Road, a farm that previously operated next door to the Ogilby family farm.
“The farms closed one by one,” said farm operator Michael Chase, noting a “variety of forces” that led to the farming community’s demise.
Some of those forces included highway development, the advent of public transit, and a change in food consumption patterns, he said. The Belmont Historical Society also credits the influx of artists, authors, educators, physicians, and scientists who moved to town, doubling its population.
“It’s amazing we’re still here,” Ogilby said.
Located in the Richardson Historic District of Belmont, the farm was protected from development in 2003 when Town Meeting voted to place an Agricultural Preservation Restriction on it, a protection held by the Belmont Land Trust. The protection is also supported by the American Farmland Trust and is a permanent land trust owned by the Ogilby family.
“Other farmers cut the farms up, and that’s how Belmont became … the Town of Homes,” Ogilby said, recalling his mother Lydia’s push in the early 2000s to protect the land from the same fate.
Now, Belmont Acres is home to four Finnsheep, four goats (two were born earlier this spring), about 10 ducks, and several chickens. An original chimney remains part of one of the farm buildings, and the original barn for the wagons that once delivered produce to Faneuil Hall is also on site.
“Keeping this barn together is a real labor of love,” Ogilby said, noting its use of wooden pegs as a testament to its age. “It means a lot to me.”
Chase oversees the farming of peach trees, artichokes, swiss chard, onions, kale, cauliflower, eggplants, peas, potatoes, garlic, and tomatoes, among dozens of other fruits, herbs, and vegetables.
“Growing a wide diversity of crops is part of my fun,” Chase said, estimating he probably grows up to 150 varieties of crops per year. “Each year brings its own yield.”
Belmont Acres wasn’t always quite so diverse in its offerings, according to Ogilby. When Chase came on board in 2011, the land was primarily used to grow corn.
“A one-crop farm … just doesn’t work here,” Chase said. “The diversity is one of the things that makes this farm grow.”
For Chase, a huge part of his work is education. Because it is important to him that people understand where their food is coming from, his produce can only be purchased on site at the farm stand. His regular newsletter often features the produce of the week, and what grew well and what did not.
He regularly welcomes classrooms of students, particularly from the Henry Frost Children’s Program, a pre-school in Belmont.
“I will give people tours,” he added. “A lot of people who come here want to know recipes and how to cook certain crops.”
Chase has three staff members and four volunteers, with a few seasonal additions. For him, the farm is something he does in addition to his day job.
“It’s really a passion,” he said. “And it’s a way of life.”