Lindentree Farm is a certified organic produce farm created in 1991, when Ari Kurtz received a license from the Town to farm 5 acres of land adjacent to his house and barn, purchased in 1985. The house was in rough shape. He was told the abutting land had been farmed for a long time, and the house had been a shed used to process asparagus.
During farm renovations, Mr. Kurtz attended a Bemis Lecture by Robyn Van En, one of the founders of the Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, which inspired his business model. The system helps small, diverse organic farms like Lindentree manage expenses and create a sense of community by selling harvest shares to people before the farming season begins. Lindentree also sells to local businesses and at the farmer’s market, where Mr. Kurtz’s wife, Moira Donnell, helps. She also does CSA work and grows flowers and herbs.
In 2003, the Town licensed to Lindentree 5 more acres, and 3 more in 2010, in part because beavers had moved in and taken a few acres out of production. The beavers are still there, busy to the point that the trail that connects St. Anne’s Church to the farm fields is under water.
Lindentree Farm got its name for three reasons: First, Mr. Kurtz attended the Linden School in Pennsylvania as a child. Second, the farm has two American Linden trees along the property’s frontage with Old Concord Road. Third, hoping to avoid being mistaken for a tree farm, the owners chose to make it one word, “Lindentree.” Even so, people occasionally ask what kind of trees the farm sells.
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