Clem

Clem remembers rising early in the morning as a youth, hours before school began to work with his brother to carry the banana and cacao from his family's farm, bringing it to the local wholesale depot. He knows farming; he has always known farming.

Throughout his youth and his adult life Clem has been drawn to working with his hands, and working to cultivate and grow food. He's had experiences of working both in Jamaica, and through the H2A program began working in the US in apple orchards in Maine and sugar cane fields in Florida. More recently he was a part of the team at Simone Farms in nearby Methuen, MA. For the past four years we have been fortunate to work with Clem at Farmer Dave's.

As the field manager at Farmer Dave's, Clem works with Dave and the rest of the team in the preparation of the fields, planting, harvesting, weeding and making sure the vegetables and fruit are growing well. He says the thing he enjoys most is watching the lettuce grow and size up. 'It makes me feel good to see the food grow'. He also says there is nothing that compares to being able to work in the fields and have a snack harvested right from the ground. 'Just pick it and wipe off the dirt a little and you've got breakfast.'

While he has had the opportunity to work in other professions, Clem knows he wouldn't enjoy anything as much as he enjoys farming. He believes it doesn't make sense to have work that you don't enjoy doing. With Farmer Dave's he has a great sense of satisfaction with his work, and says those he works with are like family.

Clem's favorite vegetable is romaine lettuce and loves it steamed with garlic, scallions, onions and pepper. He insists it cooks just like spinach. He'll also eat it in salad, but forgoes the traditional ceasar dressing for Italian dressing; "It's the best one to use."

Jen W.

The question is not exactly what does Jen do at Farmer Dave's, but rather what doesn't she do. Jen's main passion is garden design and working in the greenhouses on our flower nursery. Growing up in Dracut, she and her grandfather would work in his garden together, competing against each other for the best looking tomatoes. This childhood activity developed into a career when she began working for nurseries and greenhouses and then went on to study floraculture. She was hired four years ago to help manage all the seeding and growing done on the farm.

However, her job description also includes almost every area of the farm business: organizing and running some of the farmer's markets, packing the CSA shares, and running the farm stands. Jen says that the thing she loves most about this job is that it is always changing; with each new part of the season comes a new set of tasks and challenges. And she always meets those challenges with plenty of energy and a smile. When I asked about her favorite vegetable, she didn't even blink: "Hands down, broccoli."

Samuel

Everything always seems to be "muy bien" with Samuel.Born in San Marcos, Guatemala, Samuel worked his own farm, raising horses, sheep, and goats and growings lots of vegetables.

This is Samuel's third season working for Farmer Dave. He is another important part of the team that helps the CSA program run smoothly, bringing to you the freshest vegetables possible. While manning the wash station at the farm stand, Samuel coordinates with the field manager, Clem, and Heidi to make sure that all the vegetables needed for the CSA are harvested, washed, and brought to the packing station. Samuel enjoys the farm because he likes being outside. He especially enjoys the potatoes.

Bethany

Bethany, our CSA Manager, joined the Farmer Dave's crew in February of 2010. She comes to us having experienced CSA operations in western Colorado and central Massachusetts.

After graduating from Oberlin College in Ohio with a degree in saxophone performance and spending two years as a CSA member and farmers market shopper in Chicago, she decided to leave her office job and turn her passion for CSA and growing great food into a career. She spent the 2007 season as an intern at the Cameron Place CSA in Palisade, Colorado, where she planted seeds, grew vegetables, staffed distribution sites and wrote the CSA newsletter. Then, in the spring of 2008, she moved to Westborough, Massachusetts where she served as the Assistant Farm Manager for Heirloom Harvest CSA.

After spending 2009 in the office at a wholesale greenhouse in Sudbury, she is delighted to join the crew at Farmer Dave's. She loves the feeling of coming to a job that is so much in line with her values: fresh local healthy food, building community, and helping the planet. Bethany loves to cook with fresh produce and looks forward to sharing ideas and recipes with all of you and with the membership. Her favorite vegetables depend on the time of year. Lettuce, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and kabocha squash are amongst her top picks.

Farmer Dave

Farmer Dave was raised on Marsh Hill in Dracut, Massachusetts. He grew up working on the Brox Farm in Dracut learning the intricacies of New England farming from John Brox who had been tilling that land since the 1920s.

After graduating from college Farmer Dave served in the Peace Corps as a crop extensionist in Ecuador. In the Andes he taught organic agriculture and worked with farmers to improve their soil health, crop yields, irrigation systems, crop storage, animal health, and marketing methods. All these efforts bettered their families' nutrition and livelihood. Since returning from Ecuador in 1997 he has been leasing the Brox Farm, growing a wider and wider array of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

In 2003 he was asked to offer his fresh products to a neighboring community and began also leasing the East Street Farm in Tewksbury. Working closely with those trying to preserve farmland for future agriculture, in 2006 he finally purchased his own farm in Dracut from the Leczynski family. This became known as Farmer Dave's Dumaresq Farm, or simply Farmer Daves.

Danala

Danala was born in St. Thomas, Jamaica. Since coming to the United States about three years ago, he has worked in Alabama, Cape Cod, Florida, and New York City. After marrying the daughter of our field manager (Clem), he moved up here to work for Farmer Dave's. Danala works hard out in the field, in the greenhouses and on the CSA crew. You can also find him delivering shares to Lanesville, Lawrence, and occasionally Boston Medical Center.

Although he grew up farming and enjoys it, his passion is building furniture. You should see how excited he gets around woodworking machinery! His favorite vegetable is amaranth (or "Callaloo," as they call it in Jamaica).

Fabio

Fabio comes from Brazil, but to be more precise, Fabio hails from Juazeiro, Bahia, which is located in the northeastern part of the country. In Brazil, Fabio studied agricultural engineering at the University of Bahia, where he learned the fine art of agriculture with courses such as landscape design and soil chemistry. Although Fabio comes to Farmer Dave's with experience working with fruit farmers, this is Fabio's first time working on a farm that grows vegetables and so far, Fabio has enjoyed the experience, especially when he is at the farmer's market and CSA pickups sites. This gives him the opportunity to interact with members and improve his English.

Some of the vegetables Fabio helps cultivate are not available in Brazil, so each day is a learning and gastronomical experience. Through working with Farmer Dave's, Fabio is putting into practice what he has learned from his studies and is also learning about the farming technology and practices in the United States.

When Fabio is not watching the World Cup (he is disappointed the Brazilian team didn't make it to the finals), Fabio enjoys playing soccer and being out in the water wakeboarding and water skimming. The next time you see Fabio, say "olá," which is hello in Portuguese.

The Farm Stand Crew

If you have ever been to either of our two farm stands, the Brox Farm Stand in Dracut and the East Street Farm Stand in Tewksbury, then you have probably met some of our hard working farm stand crew. At the peek of the season, we have around 10 people helping throughout the week. Some of these folks have been working for Farmer Dave's every summer for years and others are with us for just here for their school break.

Dianne, Jen, and Jenny are the old standbys who help keep operations running throughout the season each year. Each day (we're open seven days a week!) the crew is here early to open the stand and stay late to close it down. They run the cash registers, stock the shelves, and husk the corn. And, of course, like most people on the farm, they aren't always stuck in the stand. They work at the farmers markets, help out with the CSA, work in the greenhouses, and help out wherever else they're needed.

I wish we had the time to highlight them all, but please feel free to come visit them and ask them personally what their favorite vegetables happens to be. And don't forget to thank them for all their hard work this summer!

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