Tucked away in a flowery corner of Seekonk, Massachusetts, Osamequin Farm is an oasis of cooperative, sustainable farming practices that doubles as a community space for educational events, seasonal gatherings, and so much more. Since 2021, Hope’s Harvest has contracted with Osamequin Farm, purchasing their produce and distributing it to food pantries around Rhode Island. This summer, we interviewed the team at Osamequin Farm to learn more about them and share their incredible work with you all.
How long have you been farming?
Osamequin Farm, Inc. is a non-profit run by executive director, Sarah Newkirk, who has been farming for over ten years. Our flower field manager, Emily Shapiro, has been farming for over four years and also runs her own medicinal and culinary herb garden as a resident farmer at Osamequin (called The Night Garden). Our three farm hands have been farming for about two years!
What do you love about farming?
Emily Leeser, our resident farm hand and leader of our internship program for youth, loves the effect that farming has on her nervous system, as it calms her body and mind.
Why do you partner with Hope’s Harvest?
We partner with Hope’s Harvest to donate the food our interns grow! Our internship program employs seven youth from the greater Providence area, ages 12-15, for eight weeks during the summer. So far this year, we have donated over 300 lb. of food!
What is your favorite part about your local community?
We enjoy the connection that Osamequin Farm has fostered with the Pokanoket Nation, on whose land we occupy. The Pokanoket Nation has held many traditional ceremonies on the land, and we hope that we can continue to engage indigenous and otherwise overlooked communities in the future.
What is your favorite thing to grow? What’s your most popular item?
Our most popular items sold in our farm stand are our blueberries! We have over 700 blueberry bushes on our farm that we invite our community to pick from early July through August.
What challenges has your farm faced this season?
The drought this summer has hit our farm hardest. We lost a whole row of eggplants!
What exciting news or upcoming events does your farm have?
We have a fun Halloween celebration coming up on Saturday, October 29, and then things will quiet down until we host our big annual Community Wreathing event the weekend of December 3-4. Everyone is invited to come build their own wreath out of foraged greenery and dried flowers from the farm!
What is something you want people to know about farming?
People should know that anyone who stewards the land and has a relationship with plants engages with the most fundamental part of the practice of farming. We all have a relationship with the natural world, and farming is just a way to categorize people who practice land stewardship for a living.
How can people support your farm?
Find us on Instagram at @osamequinfarm, stop by our farmstand on the weekends in Seekonk at Walnut and Prospect St, and sign up for our upcoming events or flower CSA at osamequinfarm.org.
You can check out all of Osamequin’s upcoming events on their event calendar!
