Published by The Boston Globe
Karen Masterson has been knitting for most of her life, but there are times when she needs help with a project like crafting an afghan for a family friend.
So she is glad that there is a nearby place like the Iron Horse, a yarn store in Natick Center where she can talk to its owner, fellow Sherborn resident Deborah Smith, whenever her knitting projects need untangling.
“Nothing compares,’’ said Masterson. “You don’t get this kind of knowledge anywhere else. You’re in a relationship, you’re not just shopping.’’
This holiday season, Natick is among a number of area communities joining a nation-wide “buy local’’ movement, encouraging consumers to get their holiday gifts in their local downtowns instead of at the mall or online.
Masterson, however, said she has been a longtime supporter of local businesses because as the owner of an independent restaurant in Lexington, she understands the importance of cultivating relationships within a community.
She turned to the Five Crows gallery in downtown Natick for the stained-glass windows decorating her Massachusetts Avenue restaurant, Nourish. “The competitive business model is so destructive,’’ she said. “We’re supporting each other with a cooperative business model.’’
Smith said she has been running her yarn store for 12 years, first from her Sherborn farm and within the last year from the Pond Street store in Natick, where she moved to get more space. Her shop offers yarn spun from animal wool at Smith’s farm, along with knitting lessons and handmade gifts.
Smith said her customers are loyal because even though the high-quality yarn is slightly more expensive, patrons receive attention they won’t get from a chain.
“A lot of people do want to buy and support local,’’ said Smith. “After 9/11, a lot of people wanted to get back to creating basic things for their families and loved ones.’’
Though small businesses have struggled during the economic recession, Natick Center hasn’t lost any storefronts and has welcomed a couple of new businesses to its community, said Margaret Sleeper, administrative assistant at the Natick Center Associates.
The nonprofit community organization is helping promote local holiday shopping by providing free, two-hour parking downtown during December, encouraging shops to stay open later, and helping businesses decorate for the holidays, said Sleeper.
“We want to help our own,’’ she said. “There’s no reason to go to China or somewhere else to get these beautiful gifts.’’
The Natick Merchants Council voted last week to launch a new campaign, “Discover Natick Center,’’ as part of an effort to attract customers, Sleeper said.
Some stores have been successful in the center for years, however, like Five Crows on Court Street. The shop started eight years ago with works from five local artists, and now features 145 from across the area, said Ginger McEachern, one of its owners.
“We could send you out of here with a beautiful holiday gift for $25,’’ said McEachern. “In this day and age, that appeals to people.’’
Natick Center is also hosting a Holiday on the Common event Dec. 5 to bring shoppers downtown, with a tree-lighting ceremony at 5 p.m. Many other communities are hosting similar events, including Holliston, Hudson, Lexington, and Needham.
Mary Jo Bohart, executive director of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce, said her group has arranged for the Lexington Symphony to perform two holiday concerts on Dec. 3, at 4 and 8 p.m., to draw people to shops in the center of town.
Buying local “is certainly something everyone’s focusing on more,’’ said Bohart. “What better time to put it into action other than holiday season?’’
Bohart said the chamber is also promoting “Small Business Saturday,’’ an American Express-organized campaign for this weekend.
American Express Open, which provides credit cards to small-business owners, has designated the day on the biggest shopping weekend of the year, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as a way to boost its member stores, said senior vice president Rosa Sabater.
American Express Open is offering $100 worth of free advertising on Facebook to the first 10,000 small-business owners who sign up. The company is also giving a $25 statement credit to the first 100,000 cardholders who register their card and use it at a local business on Saturday.
“Our customers say, ‘We need more people walking in the door,’ ’’ said Sabater. “The only way to have the confidence to hire that new employee and invest in infrastructure is to see a demand turnaround.’’
Sabater said she thinks people are increasingly shopping local as a way to support job creation. Small businesses account for 60 to 80 percent of new jobs, and for every dollar spent in local stores, 68 cents goes back into the local economy, she said.
The Hudson Business Association is trying to get people to do more shopping downtown with a Buy Local campaign, said D.J. Collins, an administrator with the association. The town has gained 10 new businesses in the past year, but a misconception that small businesses have higher prices than chains has been a challenge to overcome in attracting customers, she said.
Still, many people have responded positively to the campaign, said Collins. Hudson’s annual Holiday Stroll to showcase its downtown will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. Dec. 4, instead of the Friday night schedule of previous years, to accommodate the festival’s growing size, she said.
Holliston is hosting its annual Holiday Stroll this weekend, from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday. Last year, about 1,400 people took part in the event, said John Drohan, president of the Holliston Business Association. Residents are trying to support the local stores to mitigate effects of the recession, he said, and keep businesses in the downtown area.
“Everyone is aware that everything’s not just perpetually going to stick around forever,’’ said Drohan.
A few stores in Wellesley, however, have had to close recently, said Demian Wendrow, director and cofounder of the Wellesley Center Merchants Association. He said local stores have had to intensify promotions and work together to keep up with growing competition.
Still, many customers appreciate local stores and prefer to shop in town centers.
“The mall doesn’t offer me anything,’’ said Marie Caradonna, who lives in Ashland and works in Natick. “I don’t like cookie cutter stuff . . . there’s a moral component to this, too.’’
Caradonna said she is planning to do her holiday shopping at Iron Horse and Five Crows because she thinks the handmade crafts offered there make better gifts than anything she could find at a mall.
“It all looks the same,’’ said Erica Dinerman, a Belmont resident who also works in Natick. “I pride myself on being able to get through the holidays without going to the mall.’’
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
A prosperous turkey day for other local purveyors
Published by The Boston Globe
While some family-owned turkey purveyors are struggling this Thanksgiving season, others are still booming with business.
“We sell out every year,” said Don Owen, who runs Owen’s Poultry Farm in Needham. “We’ve actually done a little better because of the recession. People aren’t going out as much and are entertaining at home more.”
Owen’s, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, sells about 4,000 local turkeys strictly by order every Thanksgiving, he said. The company has two turkey farms in the state, and they expect to attract more customers next year with other nearby farms closing down.
“We’ll pick them up, too, because they’re used to the same type of quality,” said Owen. “During the holidays, people tend to splurge on food.”
Owen said his turkeys taste better than store-bought birds because they are killed the week before they’re delivered, and Owen’s local poultry carries more fat for the cold New England climate than Southern birds sold at grocery stores.
A couple of towns over, Natick Organic Community Farm raises its own turkeys from spring to October and has so far sold about 180 birds, said Trish Wesley Umbrell, farm administrator. Most customers ordered their turkeys in October, which are transported to another site to be slaughtered and frozen, but the farm had a little over a dozen left for sale last week.
Local meat is more expensive—the Natick farm sells turkeys for $4.50 a pound—but customers are happy to pay the price because they taste better and they know where the food is coming from, said Umbrell.
“They see the birds in June and the care and love that go into them,” she said. “It makes you appreciate every bite.”
The farm is certified to sell organic vegetables, but the turkeys aren’t officially organic, said Umbrell. The birds are, however, raised humanely, roam free and are fed organic grain, she said.
“It’s a better flavor because of the meatier texture. They’re naturally moist; our birds don’t have to be brined to be delicious,” said Umbrell.
Lynda Simkins, the farm’s executive director, said she knows families may find local meat expensive in the current economy, but she is encouraging customers to put at least one local product on their Thanksgiving table this year.
“We’re a cranberry state—you don’t have to import those,” she said. “But farms are shutting their doors.”
Indeed, this Thanksgiving season has been a long, tearful goodbye for Gerard Farms Kitchen and Deli as the 80-year-old Framingham institution prepares to close for good.
Though the restaurant’s owner, Michael Gerard, said financial woes have forced him to close the kitchen, customers expressed sadness to hear they can no longer get their Thanksgiving turkeys and favorite sandwiches at Gerard’s.
While some family-owned turkey purveyors are struggling this Thanksgiving season, others are still booming with business.
“We sell out every year,” said Don Owen, who runs Owen’s Poultry Farm in Needham. “We’ve actually done a little better because of the recession. People aren’t going out as much and are entertaining at home more.”
Owen’s, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, sells about 4,000 local turkeys strictly by order every Thanksgiving, he said. The company has two turkey farms in the state, and they expect to attract more customers next year with other nearby farms closing down.
“We’ll pick them up, too, because they’re used to the same type of quality,” said Owen. “During the holidays, people tend to splurge on food.”
Owen said his turkeys taste better than store-bought birds because they are killed the week before they’re delivered, and Owen’s local poultry carries more fat for the cold New England climate than Southern birds sold at grocery stores.
A couple of towns over, Natick Organic Community Farm raises its own turkeys from spring to October and has so far sold about 180 birds, said Trish Wesley Umbrell, farm administrator. Most customers ordered their turkeys in October, which are transported to another site to be slaughtered and frozen, but the farm had a little over a dozen left for sale last week.
Local meat is more expensive—the Natick farm sells turkeys for $4.50 a pound—but customers are happy to pay the price because they taste better and they know where the food is coming from, said Umbrell.
“They see the birds in June and the care and love that go into them,” she said. “It makes you appreciate every bite.”
The farm is certified to sell organic vegetables, but the turkeys aren’t officially organic, said Umbrell. The birds are, however, raised humanely, roam free and are fed organic grain, she said.
“It’s a better flavor because of the meatier texture. They’re naturally moist; our birds don’t have to be brined to be delicious,” said Umbrell.
Lynda Simkins, the farm’s executive director, said she knows families may find local meat expensive in the current economy, but she is encouraging customers to put at least one local product on their Thanksgiving table this year.
“We’re a cranberry state—you don’t have to import those,” she said. “But farms are shutting their doors.”
Indeed, this Thanksgiving season has been a long, tearful goodbye for Gerard Farms Kitchen and Deli as the 80-year-old Framingham institution prepares to close for good.
Though the restaurant’s owner, Michael Gerard, said financial woes have forced him to close the kitchen, customers expressed sadness to hear they can no longer get their Thanksgiving turkeys and favorite sandwiches at Gerard’s.
Last Thanksgiving for Framingham's Gerard Farms
Published by The Boston Globe
This Thanksgiving season has been a long, tearful goodbye for Gerard Farms Kitchen and Deli as the 80-year-old Framingham institution prepares to close for good.
Though the restaurant’s owner, Michael Gerard, said financial woes have forced him to close the kitchen, customers expressed sadness to hear they can no longer get their Thanksgiving turkeys and favorite sandwiches at Gerard’s. Here are photos of of the store's final days.
“The outpouring has just been so sad, people come in not even to buy something, just to say goodbye,” said Gerard. “I’ll maybe make it into the second week of December until they shut my power off.”
Gerard took over the business after his father died 15 years ago, and giving up the store feels like his father’s wake all over again, he said. His uncle, however, will continue to run the Marshfield store, said Gerard.
Jean Teague said Gerard’s has been a family tradition since she was young. Her family lived in Framingham and would visit once a week. She has since moved to Maine, but every time she comes back to visit friends, she always makes a stop at Gerard Farms.
"We’re losing a part of our town’s history," she said. "They’ve been a wonderful family of people."
Dale Gudejko of Framingham said she has been coming to Gerard Farm for 30 years. She said she loves to buy Gerard’s sandwiches for lunch.
"I don’t make turkey gravy all year because of this," said Gudejko after buying a big bag of gravy. "[Gerard Farms] is an icon."
Gerard Farms sells turkeys from a farm in New Oxford, Penn., though when Gerard’s grandparents first opened in 1931, the farm raised its own birds. The deli is also stocked with prepared Thanksgiving favorites like macaroni and cheese, potatoes, pies and even homemade dressing.
The turkey sandwiches are a favorite with customers, and Gerard’s usually sells about 200 a day, said Teri Amle, who has been working for Gerard for four months.
Bruce Stone of Framingham said he discovered Gerard Farms more recently. He visits family in New York for Thanksgiving, and he first brought a turkey from Gerard’s two years ago.
"Everybody loved it," he said. "I’m going to miss it terribly."
Nancy and Bill Koerner of Carlisle and Bill Brown of Chelmsford said they are regulars at the store. Gerard’s special turkey sandwiches are Nancy’s favorite, she said.
"This is a real Mom and Pop organization, and I hate to see it go," she said. "It’s a shame."
This Thanksgiving season has been a long, tearful goodbye for Gerard Farms Kitchen and Deli as the 80-year-old Framingham institution prepares to close for good.
Though the restaurant’s owner, Michael Gerard, said financial woes have forced him to close the kitchen, customers expressed sadness to hear they can no longer get their Thanksgiving turkeys and favorite sandwiches at Gerard’s. Here are photos of of the store's final days.
“The outpouring has just been so sad, people come in not even to buy something, just to say goodbye,” said Gerard. “I’ll maybe make it into the second week of December until they shut my power off.”
Gerard took over the business after his father died 15 years ago, and giving up the store feels like his father’s wake all over again, he said. His uncle, however, will continue to run the Marshfield store, said Gerard.
Jean Teague said Gerard’s has been a family tradition since she was young. Her family lived in Framingham and would visit once a week. She has since moved to Maine, but every time she comes back to visit friends, she always makes a stop at Gerard Farms.
"We’re losing a part of our town’s history," she said. "They’ve been a wonderful family of people."
Dale Gudejko of Framingham said she has been coming to Gerard Farm for 30 years. She said she loves to buy Gerard’s sandwiches for lunch.
"I don’t make turkey gravy all year because of this," said Gudejko after buying a big bag of gravy. "[Gerard Farms] is an icon."
Gerard Farms sells turkeys from a farm in New Oxford, Penn., though when Gerard’s grandparents first opened in 1931, the farm raised its own birds. The deli is also stocked with prepared Thanksgiving favorites like macaroni and cheese, potatoes, pies and even homemade dressing.
The turkey sandwiches are a favorite with customers, and Gerard’s usually sells about 200 a day, said Teri Amle, who has been working for Gerard for four months.
Bruce Stone of Framingham said he discovered Gerard Farms more recently. He visits family in New York for Thanksgiving, and he first brought a turkey from Gerard’s two years ago.
"Everybody loved it," he said. "I’m going to miss it terribly."
Nancy and Bill Koerner of Carlisle and Bill Brown of Chelmsford said they are regulars at the store. Gerard’s special turkey sandwiches are Nancy’s favorite, she said.
"This is a real Mom and Pop organization, and I hate to see it go," she said. "It’s a shame."
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Fireworks float their boats
Published by The Boston Globe
Instead of staking out a spot to watch the fireworks from the Esplanade tonight, about 100 people will view Boston’s Independence Day celebrations from more than four dozen inflatable rafts on the Charles River.
Project Best Idea Ever, an ad hoc group of engineering graduates from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, has been organizing a group, consisting mostly of students, for six years. The group obtains rafts, life jackets, American flags and snacks in bulk and sells them in three packages on its website. The costs range from $15 to $45.
Anthony Roldan and his roommates, who graduated from Olin in 2008, began watching the fireworks while floating on the Charles six years ago. Roldan, who works at Quickware Engineering in Waltham, decided a rental canoe was too expensive, so he went to Target and bought a few inflatable rafts instead.
“The reason why it’s called Project Best Idea Ever is because I had to convince my friends it was a good idea,’’ Roldan said. “Everyone was like, ‘Those are like pool toys; we’re going to get hit by other boats.’ ’’
This year, a few of his friends who have graduated and moved away are flying back to Boston just to help out with the event.
“The first time they made it out to where the fireworks went off, where it feels like the fireworks are right [above] them . . . seeing that awe and happiness expand every year has been the coolest part,’’ he said.
Each year, the group joining Roldan invited more “friends of friends of friends,’’ and Roldan moved from buying rafts at Target to ordering them from a manufacturer, he said. He added life jackets to the package after being questioned by the Coast Guard on on the strength of his eight-person boat, a Craigslist purchase with only one life jacket aboard.
Anyone planning to watch the fireworks from a raft should keep a safe distance from the fireworks, and wear a life jacket, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Connie Terrell. The Coast Guard increases patrols on the night of the fireworks to make sure spectators take safety precautions.
For this evening’s observances, Roldan plans to lead the participants into the water at 7:30 p.m. He and his friends will ride on “mother ships,’’ which are equipped with grills and coolers, to supply everyone with a hot dog dinner while floating near the Massachusetts Avenue bridge before the show begins.
After dinner, the group stops about 50 feet from the designated safety zone, which the state Department of Conservation and Recreation says extends 100 feet from the shore between the Mass. Ave. and Longfellow bridges, and 1,000 feet from the fireworks barges. The most difficult part of the evening is keeping everyone anchored in the same spot, Roldan said.
The rafts seat two people, so participants can sign up in pairs or be matched with someone without a partner, Roldan said. The group, however, always shares the experience en masse.
“Generally, people who want to spend their Fourth of July on an inflatable boat on the Charles tend to be pretty cool,’’ he said.
Those who don’t sign up with Project Best Idea Ever could buy their own raft and join the group on the Charles, but tag-alongs would miss out on dinner and the special instruction booklets that Roldan hands out.
Roldan’s roommate from freshman year, and cofounder of the Somerville Artisan Asylum, Gui Cavalcanti led another group down the Charles last year on an inflatable pool shaped like a pirate ship that he had converted into a boat. This year, he’s working on giant rafts that resemble rubber ducks. Roldan said he’ll share food with the ducks, but they’ll have to figure out the rest on their own.
Anticipating more demand this year, Project Best Idea Ever placed a second order of rafts to open up 35 more spots, and Roldan said he expects they will expand even more next year. He is, however, a bit nervous about liability issues as it gets bigger.
“This year we posted it in a couple of places, and it’s sort of exploded in the last week and a half,’’ he said.
However, he said, he’s not seeking profit and will use extra funding or equipment for next year’s event. Last year, the six organizers walked away with $7.
“It’s about the shared experience of going on the water with your friends in these cute little boats,’’ Roldan said. “It’s a really fun time.’’
Instead of staking out a spot to watch the fireworks from the Esplanade tonight, about 100 people will view Boston’s Independence Day celebrations from more than four dozen inflatable rafts on the Charles River.
Project Best Idea Ever, an ad hoc group of engineering graduates from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, has been organizing a group, consisting mostly of students, for six years. The group obtains rafts, life jackets, American flags and snacks in bulk and sells them in three packages on its website. The costs range from $15 to $45.
Anthony Roldan and his roommates, who graduated from Olin in 2008, began watching the fireworks while floating on the Charles six years ago. Roldan, who works at Quickware Engineering in Waltham, decided a rental canoe was too expensive, so he went to Target and bought a few inflatable rafts instead.
“The reason why it’s called Project Best Idea Ever is because I had to convince my friends it was a good idea,’’ Roldan said. “Everyone was like, ‘Those are like pool toys; we’re going to get hit by other boats.’ ’’
This year, a few of his friends who have graduated and moved away are flying back to Boston just to help out with the event.
“The first time they made it out to where the fireworks went off, where it feels like the fireworks are right [above] them . . . seeing that awe and happiness expand every year has been the coolest part,’’ he said.
Each year, the group joining Roldan invited more “friends of friends of friends,’’ and Roldan moved from buying rafts at Target to ordering them from a manufacturer, he said. He added life jackets to the package after being questioned by the Coast Guard on on the strength of his eight-person boat, a Craigslist purchase with only one life jacket aboard.
Anyone planning to watch the fireworks from a raft should keep a safe distance from the fireworks, and wear a life jacket, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Connie Terrell. The Coast Guard increases patrols on the night of the fireworks to make sure spectators take safety precautions.
For this evening’s observances, Roldan plans to lead the participants into the water at 7:30 p.m. He and his friends will ride on “mother ships,’’ which are equipped with grills and coolers, to supply everyone with a hot dog dinner while floating near the Massachusetts Avenue bridge before the show begins.
After dinner, the group stops about 50 feet from the designated safety zone, which the state Department of Conservation and Recreation says extends 100 feet from the shore between the Mass. Ave. and Longfellow bridges, and 1,000 feet from the fireworks barges. The most difficult part of the evening is keeping everyone anchored in the same spot, Roldan said.
The rafts seat two people, so participants can sign up in pairs or be matched with someone without a partner, Roldan said. The group, however, always shares the experience en masse.
“Generally, people who want to spend their Fourth of July on an inflatable boat on the Charles tend to be pretty cool,’’ he said.
Those who don’t sign up with Project Best Idea Ever could buy their own raft and join the group on the Charles, but tag-alongs would miss out on dinner and the special instruction booklets that Roldan hands out.
Roldan’s roommate from freshman year, and cofounder of the Somerville Artisan Asylum, Gui Cavalcanti led another group down the Charles last year on an inflatable pool shaped like a pirate ship that he had converted into a boat. This year, he’s working on giant rafts that resemble rubber ducks. Roldan said he’ll share food with the ducks, but they’ll have to figure out the rest on their own.
Anticipating more demand this year, Project Best Idea Ever placed a second order of rafts to open up 35 more spots, and Roldan said he expects they will expand even more next year. He is, however, a bit nervous about liability issues as it gets bigger.
“This year we posted it in a couple of places, and it’s sort of exploded in the last week and a half,’’ he said.
However, he said, he’s not seeking profit and will use extra funding or equipment for next year’s event. Last year, the six organizers walked away with $7.
“It’s about the shared experience of going on the water with your friends in these cute little boats,’’ Roldan said. “It’s a really fun time.’’
Independence Day fireworks in Needham
Published by The Boston Globe
Independence Day is right around the corner, but last-minute preparations are still underway for the Needham Fourth of July celebrations, set to take place on July 4 and 5 this year at Memorial Park.
This year’s community donations are ahead of the numbers for this time last year, but the event’s sponsor, the Needham Exchange Club, is still fundraising.
“We hope it’s a sign the economy is getting better. We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Cindy Chasten, a tri-chair of the celebration. “It’s a longstanding tradition in Needham, so local businesses and individuals are very supportive.”
The whole celebration, including fireworks, parades, equipment and police detail, costs $90,000 and is funded mostly by donations and partly by food sales, Chasten said.
The two-day festival includes familiar and favorite events, such as a performance by “Boston’s Best Oldies Band” The Reminisants before the fireworks on Sunday night and the Grande Parade on Monday. New in the lineup is a DJ early Sunday evening as a shout out to the 'tween crowd. There will also be pony rides and balloon animals for the little ones.
“We always get a huge crowd for the fireworks,” Chasten said. “The musicals groups always remark how spirited the crowd is.”
Food and entertainment will begin at 5 p.m. on Sunday, and fireworks are set to blast off at 9.
Monday morning, the children’s parade at Greene’s Field kicks off at 8:30 a.m., followed at 9 a.m. by a flag raising in the Town Common and the Grand Parade in Memorial Park.
Securing floats has been more difficult over the years because the commitment requires a lot of time, Chasten said. Some neighborhood groups, however, return to the parade every year with a float, such as the St. Joseph’s Summer Theater Group students and a group of clowns.
Speaking of circus antics, all local and state politicians have been invited to ride through the parade in convertibles, but campaigning is forbidden. Instead, politicians will promote patriotic themes, like the Needham Republican Town Committee’s float entitled “Voters Celebrate Democracy.”
State Rep. Lida Harkins of Needham, who is not seeking re-election, will ride in her own car as a thank you for her 22 years of service.
Minutemen will march and fire celebratory shots, though at a distance from the Massachusetts National Lancers “so they don’t spook the horses,” Chasten said.
Other floats include the “Book Cart Drill Team” from the Needham Free Public Library, the “Baha Car” from Olin College, “Opera on the Go!” from Longwood Opera and a float celebrating Needham’s 299th birthday.
Aside from patriotic events, the celebration will also include the annual 5K road race starting at Carter Memorial Church at 8:45 a.m., performances by The Centre Streeters and country and bluegrass band Gazebo, food, a craft fair, children’s contests on the football field, a swim meet at Rosemary Pool and the Needham Little League All-Star Game.
Independence Day is right around the corner, but last-minute preparations are still underway for the Needham Fourth of July celebrations, set to take place on July 4 and 5 this year at Memorial Park.
This year’s community donations are ahead of the numbers for this time last year, but the event’s sponsor, the Needham Exchange Club, is still fundraising.
“We hope it’s a sign the economy is getting better. We’re cautiously optimistic,” said Cindy Chasten, a tri-chair of the celebration. “It’s a longstanding tradition in Needham, so local businesses and individuals are very supportive.”
The whole celebration, including fireworks, parades, equipment and police detail, costs $90,000 and is funded mostly by donations and partly by food sales, Chasten said.
The two-day festival includes familiar and favorite events, such as a performance by “Boston’s Best Oldies Band” The Reminisants before the fireworks on Sunday night and the Grande Parade on Monday. New in the lineup is a DJ early Sunday evening as a shout out to the 'tween crowd. There will also be pony rides and balloon animals for the little ones.
“We always get a huge crowd for the fireworks,” Chasten said. “The musicals groups always remark how spirited the crowd is.”
Food and entertainment will begin at 5 p.m. on Sunday, and fireworks are set to blast off at 9.
Monday morning, the children’s parade at Greene’s Field kicks off at 8:30 a.m., followed at 9 a.m. by a flag raising in the Town Common and the Grand Parade in Memorial Park.
Securing floats has been more difficult over the years because the commitment requires a lot of time, Chasten said. Some neighborhood groups, however, return to the parade every year with a float, such as the St. Joseph’s Summer Theater Group students and a group of clowns.
Speaking of circus antics, all local and state politicians have been invited to ride through the parade in convertibles, but campaigning is forbidden. Instead, politicians will promote patriotic themes, like the Needham Republican Town Committee’s float entitled “Voters Celebrate Democracy.”
State Rep. Lida Harkins of Needham, who is not seeking re-election, will ride in her own car as a thank you for her 22 years of service.
Minutemen will march and fire celebratory shots, though at a distance from the Massachusetts National Lancers “so they don’t spook the horses,” Chasten said.
Other floats include the “Book Cart Drill Team” from the Needham Free Public Library, the “Baha Car” from Olin College, “Opera on the Go!” from Longwood Opera and a float celebrating Needham’s 299th birthday.
Aside from patriotic events, the celebration will also include the annual 5K road race starting at Carter Memorial Church at 8:45 a.m., performances by The Centre Streeters and country and bluegrass band Gazebo, food, a craft fair, children’s contests on the football field, a swim meet at Rosemary Pool and the Needham Little League All-Star Game.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Magazine for JO 309: The Greenest Christmas Tree
Three years ago, community churchgoers in Aurora, Ore. were shocked to see real Christmas trees adorning neighborhood homes. One priest told a local newspaper that people thought Christmas was threatening the nation's forests.
“People were confessing their sins against nature. The whole congregation said they sinned against the earth for having real Christmas trees,” said Joe Sharp, owner of nearby Yule Tree Farm. “There was a total lack of honorable information being provided to the consumer of what Christmas trees were about.”
Despite rising consciousness of global warming and the importance of sustainability, the Christmas tree industry still faces public misconceptions about the effect of real trees on the environment.
Christmas tree farms are good for the environment because trees are a renewable resource, and they are often grown on soil that cannot support other crops, said Rick Dungey, spokesperson for the National Christmas Tree Association.. Also, farms ensure that about 3.5 billion oxygen-emitting trees, rather than buildings, occupy the land in the U.S. at any given time.
During a focus group about artificial trees Dungey observed five years ago, one woman said she used a fake tree because she disapproved of cutting down forests. Later in the interview, when asked what the artificial tree company should improve, the same woman said the cardboard boxes holding the trees need to be thicker for easier storage, he said.
“People are so separated from agriculture and nature it dumbfounds me,” Dungey said.
Artificial trees are the least sustainable option, because most people throw them away after using them for only a few years, said Dungey. They are made of polyvinyl chloride, which takes millions of years to break down in a landfill, while real Christmas trees can be recycled, he said.
Real Trees Are Evergreen
To help show consumers that Christmas trees are actually earth-friendly, some farmers are seeking environmental certifications, like those from the Coalition of Environmentally Conscious Growers.
The coalition, which Sharp founded in 2006, is a group of four large-scale farmers based in Oregon. Members must follow certain standards related to soil and water conservation, pest management, biodiversity and fertilizers, Sharp said. All trees the Coalition farms produce carry a tag that lists why the tree is “Certified Environmentally Friendly.”
Tree farmers have been waiting for governments to start a certification process for years, said Mark Rohlfs, who owns Santa and Sons Christmas Trees in Philomath, Ore. Eventually, Rohlfs gave up on the government and joined Sharp in starting the coalition, which evaluates farm practices using an independent company, Freer Consulting Co. in Seattle.
“Farmers care about the land more than environmental critics give us credit for,” Rohlfs said.
After the farmers took on the task of setting green standards, Oregon’s state government began setting up its own certification program. The state version, however, does not include a plan for marketing tactics essential to educating the public.
Some consumers still think tree farmers harvest their pines in the forest by climbing them and chopping their tops off, Rohlfs said. He said his customers in Los Angeles have been relieved to see the environmentally friendly tags.
A Very Organic Christmas
Becoming green certified may be more difficult for smaller farms because the process requires an expensive audit, Rohlfs said. Justamere Tree Farms is one such small, local grower in western Massachusetts. Instead of subscribing to a more rigid standard of qualification offered by the coalition, Justamere is qualified as organic by Certified Naturally Grown.
Owner J.P. Welch said he and his wife do not use pesticides because they kill the helpful insects as well as the harmful ones, and the couple is afraid of contaminating the pond and brooks near their farm. To keep unwanted pests away, Welch started mixing types of trees instead of separating them, which fools the predatory insects.
Customers are not usually aware that most Christmas trees have been sprayed, and they seem to care more about buying locally than organic, Welch said.
“People are really catching on [to buying local], whether they’re doing it because they’re going to get a fresher tree, support the local economy or feel good about what they just did,” he said. “ We’re thrilled about it.”
The Coalition of Environmentally Conscious Growers does use pesticides, but only in the case of a pest outbreak, Rohlfs said.
Their method, widely used with other crops across the country, is called integrated pest management and balances using biological controls such as Welch’s with using chemicals.
“I’m not going to let insects take two weeks to destroy a crop I’ve been growing for eight years,” Rohlfs said.
Because pesticides are a significant expense, farmers will only use the smallest amount of chemicals necessary, Dungey said.
“When you scout your field and you have fungus in soil, you have two choices: let your trees die or do something to protect them,” he said.
Organic and certified green trees aside, all that matters is that consumers choose real trees over fake, said David Newman, chair of the Forest and Natural Resource Management department at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
“The organic question is more made up than anything I can think of,” Newman said. “The amount of pesticides being used is very small.”
Repairing Last Year’s Damage
Artificial trees sure don’t have lives after Christmas. Across the country, real trees have been chipped into mulch, composted, turned into fuel and used to create new animal habitats. In Burlington, Vt., trees are chipped and turned into electricity or heat.
“It doesn’t generate that much, but the bigger thing is that methane doesn’t go into landfills,” said Mary Sullivan, spokesperson for the Burlington Electric Department.
Last year, Boston collected and composted 206 tons of trees, said Matt Bradley, head account clerk at the Boston Department of Pubic Works. The trees are collected for two weeks after Christmas with the regular trash pickup and recycled automatically.
On the coast of Alabama Gulf State Park, old Christmas trees help rebuild sand dunes, said C.J. Jarmon, manager of the park’s Nature Center. Residents drop off about 300 trees every Christmas, and volunteers dig trenches to lay the trees in the sand. The fine sand blows over the trees and begins building new dunes.
Volunteers also plant flowers with lots of roots, like Morning Glories, into the trees to help hold the sand in place. Dunes keep the water from creeping too far onto the shore, and the park on the island of Gulf Shores would completely wash away if tides became too high, Jarmon said.
“If the water comes in to erode the beach, we give them an offering,” she said. “Here are some trees; now, stop taking the sand!”
Christmas trees come just in time after hurricane season every year to restore some of the damage; they were especially useful after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The state park only occupies 200 miles of the beach, but owners of other parts of the shore use the same method to rebuild dunes, Jarmon said. The trees also provide a safe hiding place for the endangered Alabama beach mouse, she said.
Other endangered species use Christmas trees as homes on Baker Lake near Chicago, where great blue herons, great egrets and black-crowned night herons have run out of natural nesting spots. The birds used to nest on an island in the middle of the lake, but the island’s trees died and the birds had no where else to go, said Chris Merenowicz of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Ill.
The district built metal structures onto the shores of the beach that holds about 100 leftover Christmas trees collected from Home Depot every year, said Merenowicz, assistant director for resource management. Volunteers cut holes in the trees so the birds can nest inside, safe from predators.
In several towns in northern California, Boy Scouts collect Christmas trees to help the Department of Water Resources build fish habitats in Lake Oroville. The lake fluctuates about 200 feet each year because of summer droughts, making the lake inhospitable for water vegetation that fish need to reproduce, said Eric See, an environmental scientist for the department.
The Scouts collect anywhere from 1,000 to 1,800 trees every Christmas, and they are all anchored to the bottom of the lake, See said. The trees protect large mouth bass spawning in the lake and reduce wave damage to the eggs, he said.
“There’s definitely been a movement within the counties and local waste management to minimize the amount of waste generated,” See said. “They’ve done a good job of keeping green waste out of landfills.”
Although farmers and consumers may take various approaches to issues like pesticides, Welch said the experts all agree that buying a real tree is a consumer’s more important consideration.
“There’s nothing but benefits from a real tree,” he said. “You’re improving air quality, employing local people and when the tree is used up, you can recycle it.”
“People were confessing their sins against nature. The whole congregation said they sinned against the earth for having real Christmas trees,” said Joe Sharp, owner of nearby Yule Tree Farm. “There was a total lack of honorable information being provided to the consumer of what Christmas trees were about.”
Despite rising consciousness of global warming and the importance of sustainability, the Christmas tree industry still faces public misconceptions about the effect of real trees on the environment.
Christmas tree farms are good for the environment because trees are a renewable resource, and they are often grown on soil that cannot support other crops, said Rick Dungey, spokesperson for the National Christmas Tree Association.. Also, farms ensure that about 3.5 billion oxygen-emitting trees, rather than buildings, occupy the land in the U.S. at any given time.
During a focus group about artificial trees Dungey observed five years ago, one woman said she used a fake tree because she disapproved of cutting down forests. Later in the interview, when asked what the artificial tree company should improve, the same woman said the cardboard boxes holding the trees need to be thicker for easier storage, he said.
“People are so separated from agriculture and nature it dumbfounds me,” Dungey said.
Artificial trees are the least sustainable option, because most people throw them away after using them for only a few years, said Dungey. They are made of polyvinyl chloride, which takes millions of years to break down in a landfill, while real Christmas trees can be recycled, he said.
Real Trees Are Evergreen
To help show consumers that Christmas trees are actually earth-friendly, some farmers are seeking environmental certifications, like those from the Coalition of Environmentally Conscious Growers.
The coalition, which Sharp founded in 2006, is a group of four large-scale farmers based in Oregon. Members must follow certain standards related to soil and water conservation, pest management, biodiversity and fertilizers, Sharp said. All trees the Coalition farms produce carry a tag that lists why the tree is “Certified Environmentally Friendly.”
Tree farmers have been waiting for governments to start a certification process for years, said Mark Rohlfs, who owns Santa and Sons Christmas Trees in Philomath, Ore. Eventually, Rohlfs gave up on the government and joined Sharp in starting the coalition, which evaluates farm practices using an independent company, Freer Consulting Co. in Seattle.
“Farmers care about the land more than environmental critics give us credit for,” Rohlfs said.
After the farmers took on the task of setting green standards, Oregon’s state government began setting up its own certification program. The state version, however, does not include a plan for marketing tactics essential to educating the public.
Some consumers still think tree farmers harvest their pines in the forest by climbing them and chopping their tops off, Rohlfs said. He said his customers in Los Angeles have been relieved to see the environmentally friendly tags.
A Very Organic Christmas
Becoming green certified may be more difficult for smaller farms because the process requires an expensive audit, Rohlfs said. Justamere Tree Farms is one such small, local grower in western Massachusetts. Instead of subscribing to a more rigid standard of qualification offered by the coalition, Justamere is qualified as organic by Certified Naturally Grown.
Owner J.P. Welch said he and his wife do not use pesticides because they kill the helpful insects as well as the harmful ones, and the couple is afraid of contaminating the pond and brooks near their farm. To keep unwanted pests away, Welch started mixing types of trees instead of separating them, which fools the predatory insects.
Customers are not usually aware that most Christmas trees have been sprayed, and they seem to care more about buying locally than organic, Welch said.
“People are really catching on [to buying local], whether they’re doing it because they’re going to get a fresher tree, support the local economy or feel good about what they just did,” he said. “ We’re thrilled about it.”
The Coalition of Environmentally Conscious Growers does use pesticides, but only in the case of a pest outbreak, Rohlfs said.
Their method, widely used with other crops across the country, is called integrated pest management and balances using biological controls such as Welch’s with using chemicals.
“I’m not going to let insects take two weeks to destroy a crop I’ve been growing for eight years,” Rohlfs said.
Because pesticides are a significant expense, farmers will only use the smallest amount of chemicals necessary, Dungey said.
“When you scout your field and you have fungus in soil, you have two choices: let your trees die or do something to protect them,” he said.
Organic and certified green trees aside, all that matters is that consumers choose real trees over fake, said David Newman, chair of the Forest and Natural Resource Management department at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
“The organic question is more made up than anything I can think of,” Newman said. “The amount of pesticides being used is very small.”
Repairing Last Year’s Damage
Artificial trees sure don’t have lives after Christmas. Across the country, real trees have been chipped into mulch, composted, turned into fuel and used to create new animal habitats. In Burlington, Vt., trees are chipped and turned into electricity or heat.
“It doesn’t generate that much, but the bigger thing is that methane doesn’t go into landfills,” said Mary Sullivan, spokesperson for the Burlington Electric Department.
Last year, Boston collected and composted 206 tons of trees, said Matt Bradley, head account clerk at the Boston Department of Pubic Works. The trees are collected for two weeks after Christmas with the regular trash pickup and recycled automatically.
On the coast of Alabama Gulf State Park, old Christmas trees help rebuild sand dunes, said C.J. Jarmon, manager of the park’s Nature Center. Residents drop off about 300 trees every Christmas, and volunteers dig trenches to lay the trees in the sand. The fine sand blows over the trees and begins building new dunes.
Volunteers also plant flowers with lots of roots, like Morning Glories, into the trees to help hold the sand in place. Dunes keep the water from creeping too far onto the shore, and the park on the island of Gulf Shores would completely wash away if tides became too high, Jarmon said.
“If the water comes in to erode the beach, we give them an offering,” she said. “Here are some trees; now, stop taking the sand!”
Christmas trees come just in time after hurricane season every year to restore some of the damage; they were especially useful after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The state park only occupies 200 miles of the beach, but owners of other parts of the shore use the same method to rebuild dunes, Jarmon said. The trees also provide a safe hiding place for the endangered Alabama beach mouse, she said.
Other endangered species use Christmas trees as homes on Baker Lake near Chicago, where great blue herons, great egrets and black-crowned night herons have run out of natural nesting spots. The birds used to nest on an island in the middle of the lake, but the island’s trees died and the birds had no where else to go, said Chris Merenowicz of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Ill.
The district built metal structures onto the shores of the beach that holds about 100 leftover Christmas trees collected from Home Depot every year, said Merenowicz, assistant director for resource management. Volunteers cut holes in the trees so the birds can nest inside, safe from predators.
In several towns in northern California, Boy Scouts collect Christmas trees to help the Department of Water Resources build fish habitats in Lake Oroville. The lake fluctuates about 200 feet each year because of summer droughts, making the lake inhospitable for water vegetation that fish need to reproduce, said Eric See, an environmental scientist for the department.
The Scouts collect anywhere from 1,000 to 1,800 trees every Christmas, and they are all anchored to the bottom of the lake, See said. The trees protect large mouth bass spawning in the lake and reduce wave damage to the eggs, he said.
“There’s definitely been a movement within the counties and local waste management to minimize the amount of waste generated,” See said. “They’ve done a good job of keeping green waste out of landfills.”
Although farmers and consumers may take various approaches to issues like pesticides, Welch said the experts all agree that buying a real tree is a consumer’s more important consideration.
“There’s nothing but benefits from a real tree,” he said. “You’re improving air quality, employing local people and when the tree is used up, you can recycle it.”
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