The humor of a culinary tour by bicycle is that foodies and bike people may not always be cut from the same cheesecloth. That is to say, the belly of a plump gourmand is rarely seen protruding from Day-Glo spandex on cross-county tours. This is how I consoled myself — decidedly a food person — while contemplating my performance on a 15-mile Boston ride called the Tour de Farm.
“There’s a natural affinity between those who want to eat good, fresh food from local farmers and those who like to get outdoors, exercise and bike,” says Mark Smith, the tour’s organizer and the campaign director for Somerville-based Farm Aid. Smith is right, of course, though you’d never come to that conclusion if you saw me suffering up minor inclines on my single-speed Raleigh. Like a cartoon rabbit chasing a carrot, I pedaled on with the promise of warm summer produce ahead. Our course hit up sites in Roxbury, Dorchester and Jamaica Plain; more intrepid riders embarked on a 25-mile version.
It was plain to see, though, that there was more than the indulgence of seasonal produce at the heart of the tour. A friend toughing out the longer leg of the trip reported that one unseemly passerby cracked wise as they rode by: “What is this, the Tour de Ghetto?” As we rode around, people yelled out to ask what we were doing, and they were surprised we were visiting “farms.” The bottom line is that good, fresh food doesn’t necessarily come cheap, and tucked into some of those cramped urban spaces are a lot of people working on hidden farms trying to make access a lot easier for everyone.
Farm Aid picked up the tab for the trip, a slickly run affair with capable cyclists stationed here and there. A van followed the group to assist cyclists with issues, who included (ahem) my own boyfriend: During an irreparable flat, the foodie-biker ambulance actually dropped him off at Ferris Wheels in JP in time for him rejoin the ride while it was still underway. MassBike guides led an early-morning stretch before we set off.
First stop was the Food Project lot on West Cottage Street in Dorchester, which since 1994 has been churning out thousands of pounds of food each year, both for local hunger agencies and their nearby stand at the Dudley Square Farmers’ Market. Rows of greens and tomato plants hedge a hill of mulch where 140 sweaty bikers dipped chips into a fresh, juicy gazpacho made with the farm’s own vegetables (which include crops like kale, collards, spinach, lettuce, eggplant and peppers). “For our youth, it’s an opportunity for them to be involved in real change in a community,” says Danielle Andrews, urban grower at the Food Project. “Setting up sites and growing food and providing it at an affordable cost to local farmers’ markets give them a sense of real purpose.”
The charm of this space lies in part with the people who work there, in the lot we visited and at two neighboring sites. The Food Project combines inner-city youth workers with teens brought in from more sheltered suburban environs; everyone gets about $150 a week for their labor. “For a lot of the youth, it’s important to them to be able to meet people who are different from themselves,” Andrews says. “For a lot of the suburban kids, they don’t have that opportunity, and the opposite is true for the kids from the city; they get the chance to do hard physical labor and to work together as a team.”
Rolling up to reVision House, we explore a square acre maintained by the residents of the women’s shelter based there. A pot of rich green pesto sits on the table, born of the garden’s basil. ReVision House’s community-supported agriculture shares are so popular, they’ve sold out of options for 2007. (A CSA, if you’re not presently one of those people trying to unload your radishes and zucchini on coworkers, means you buy a “share” from a local farm that goes toward the farm’s production and pays for a season’s worth of produce.) Though the project is on a bit of a hiatus, this location also raises tilapia. They complete the ecological cycle when the fish head for Davy Jones’s locker before their time, by fertilizing the soil.
A few miles away, and across the Arnold Arboretum, Allandale Farm on the Boston-Brookline border serves up thick, juicy wedges of melon alongside pitchers of iced tea. Right now, Allandale is basically tomato paradise, but has also been growing Queen Anne’s Pocket, Sugar Baby and Moon and Stars melon varieties. Back at Forest Hills, the 15-mile group finished by eating a picnic lunch while waiting for the 25-milers to arrive.
These farms are local, utterly bikeable and brimming with gorgeous fruits and vegetables. If you’re lucky, you can snag a volunteer slot working in the field. “I saw expressions of awe and delight as riders went from farm to farm,” says Smith, “many, for the first time, realizing that they can be on a farm and buy locally grown food within a short bike ride from their home.”
