METHUEN— Locally grown produce tastes better and is better for you.
But for people who rely on public assistance and use electronic benefit transfer cards to buy what they eat, making purchases at farmers markets and farm stands can be a problem.
That’s because the equipment that processes their transactions is often a challenge to operate, which recently led the state to make $95,000 in grants to 65 farmers and farmers markets across Massachusetts, so they can upgrade their technology.
“We have been accepting SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and EBT for a few years now, but the equipment we had came from our point of sale and it was on a rental basis,” said Heather Bonanno Baker of Pleasant Valley Gardens. “It was expensive, and it only worked when you were standing in certain spots because of the WiFi. The new equipment is really nice.”
These devices should also be a help at farmers markets, where some of the participating farmers don’t accept EBT cards.
“A lot of farmers markets will swipe their EBTs at manager’s tents and then give you coupons to use at farms that don’t accept EBT,” Baker said.
She is the fifth generation of her family to run the farm on Merrimack Street, where her mother, LuAnne Bonanno, and 93-year-old grandfather, Angelo Bonanno, still work.
This is her seventh growing season in charge of Pleasant Valley Gardens after her father, Richard Bonanno, took a job in 2016 as an associate dean in the agricultural college at North Carolina State University, where he also runs the extension program.
“He handed the reins off to me,” said Baker, who graduated from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst in 2013.
Pleasant Valley Gardens had a dairy when it was started in 1910 by Baker’s great, great-grandfather. They raised pigs in the years before World War II and sold produce wholesale to the market in Chelsea.
Today, flowers make up 60% of what the farm grows while 40% is produce. Baker sells directly to individuals through a farm stand and a community supported agriculture program, while Market Basket is their biggest wholesale customer.
She grows rhubarb and other produce for the Lowell-based grocery store chain and also provides them with 110,000 potted mums and 10,000 potted tulips for Easter, along with some daffodils and hyacinths.
“Market Basket is great,” Baker said. “They gave us more money on everything this year because of inflation. They help us out. They buy local.”
The tulips are started as bulbs in October before being stored in a completely dark space where the temperature is gradually reduced from 55 degrees to freezing by Thanksgiving. Six weeks before Easter, they are transferred to Baker’s greenhouse to begin sprouting.
“We used to bury them underground and put sand on top and then dig them up,” Baker said. “If Easter was late, it was easy to dig them up because the ground would not be frozen. But if Easter was early, it was miserable.”
The mums take up 7 of the farm’s 52 acres while the rest is planted with peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplants, leeks and other produce. The greenhouse occupies an acre and is used for growing 5,000 hanging baskets and 10,000 geraniums, and for starting field crops for other farmers.
“We start in this greenhouse on Valentine’s day, with everything started from seeds,” Baker said.
They also provide seeds, transplants and expertise to the Essex County Correctional Alternative Center in Lawrence, better known as “The Farm,” where inmates eat some of what they grow and donate the rest.
“We start the field, do all the tractor work, and lay out the plastic for the drip irrigation,” Baker said.
This would have been the fourth year that they sold Christmas trees at Pleasant Valley Garden, but Baker couldn’t find a supply this year and decided to experiment with growing her own red, white and pink poinsettias.
She plans to offer meat and egg programs next year along with her vegetable CSAs, community supported agriculture programs, which are packaged in three different sizes and run for 20 weeks from June to October.
“People like the CSAs because they know where their food comes from,” Baker said. “I think it ends up being cheaper in the end.”
They will begin accepting EBT cards to help pay for CSAs, and Baker said that she will work with SNAP recipients to create a plan that works for their budget.
“We’re not in a very high income area where we are, so I try to keep my prices fair, because I think everyone should have access to healthy, local food,” Baker said. “I think that’s important.”
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