In the 1960s, Putnam Farm was home to 14 acres of thriving cropland.
"The Putnam family bought it, I believe, in 1957 and farmed on it for a period of time," explained Rick Francolini. "You know, in-ground farming as well as greenhouse farming. But then at one point along the way, farming fell a little bit of that out of fashion on Cape Cod."
Rick is an Orleans resident and local food activist. He says labor prices rose in the late 1960s and Putnam Farm closed. Jay Putnam, who grew up there, remembers his father balking at workers who demanded 7 cents a pint for picking high bush blueberries. This is a common story on the Cape, where over the past 100 years, we’ve lost 81 percent of our agricultural cropland. Slowly, the land at Putnam turned from an active farm into uncultivated hunting grounds of open grassland and scrubby trees. And until recently, that’s how it stayed.
"In 2010, the town made the decision to buy it as conservation land, but specifically with a management plan that called for agriculture."
Rick says this was a turning point for the town of Orleans in terms of its commitment to local food production. At the time a survey from the Association to Preserve Cape Cod found that Orleans only had 62 acres of active farmland — which made adding 14 acres a big boost. Preparing the land, though, was easier said than done.
"So, you know, they had to provide access. They had to clear the property of derelict buildings," he said. "I mean, there was all there. There was right of way issues. There was a lot that had to happen. And with the conservation department that has a staff of two and spends most of their time, you know, regulating and mitigating, um, they just don't have the bandwidth for this sort of thing."
The town did manage to create five 4,000-foot plots between 2010 and 2020 — amounting to almost half an acre of cropland. But then, when COVID hit, suddenly there was a huge spike in demand for growing space and this is when Rick got involved.
"It was clear to me that there were people who wanted to grow, they just didn't have a place to do it. And here we had this land that was earmarked for it that we hadn't quite gotten there."
So Rick and a group of community advocates pulled together and started working with the town to expand the five plots to seven, and then twelve. Now, they’re working to add eight more to bring the total to twenty.
"The plots are awarded by lottery, it is open to anyone in the state. Obviously, we attract people from the immediate vicinity, but these twelve plots currently are led by growers from seven different towns."
Growers have come to Putnam from all over the Outer and Mid Cape from Truro to Chatham. And the plots are designed to be bigger than those you’d find in a community garden.
"The standard size of these plots is 50 by 70. So they're 3500 square feet each. So these are designed intentionally to grow on a larger scale," Rick explained.
"Right now, in addition to feeding friends and family members, the food being grown at Putnam also can be found at the farmers markets in Orleans and Wellfleet and Truro and Provincetown. It's being distributed through CSAs. It's finding its way into restaurants."
For Rick, this is a dream come true. He isn’t a farmer himself, but he says he’s obsessed with locally grown produce, and he finds it exciting to be part of a communal growing space.
"When you look around you and sometimes you feel as though things are a little bit challenging on a global basis. You come here and you see that, you know, people can grow food organically. You know, ecosystems can thrive in biodiverse settings like this one," he said.
"What’s happening at Putnam Farm is, for me, extremely inspiring."
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Here's the link to learn more about the lottery and Putnam Farm: https://town.orleans.ma.us/1233/Putnam-Farm
