Wellesley to pilot food waste drop-off program

September 21, 2017 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

I haven’t been this excited about household trash in some time. I knew that when Jeff Azano-Brown started as the new RDF Superintendent in 2016 (replacing Gordon Martin, who held the post for 37 years) he wanted to join the Department of Public Works, the Natural Resources Commission, and the Sustainable Energy Committee — which make up the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) Working Group — in helping to pilot a food-waste program in town. Now, that program is about to become a reality.

The 3R Working Group invites you to participate in a three month pilot program to assess the viability of a food waste drop-off program at the RDF. After signing up, you will be given a free starter kit (paid for by Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection grants) including a counter top bucket, compostable bag liners, and a container for transporting your food waste to the RDF. You will also be provided with a brief tutorial on how to use the starter kit and what items to include or not include. During the pilot program you will drop your filled bags into a container located in the trash drop-off area. From there, the food waste will go to a farm or an anaerobic digester to turn into compost or biogas. As a pilot program participant you will be asked to complete follow up surveys to see how things are working and to get any recommendations you may have.

The Starter Kits will be available for pick-up and the area will be open for drop-off starting Tuesday, October 10th. A limited number of starter kits are available and they will be issued on a first-come, first-serve basis. I’ve already submitted my application and am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be one of the lucky 300 who get to do this (it’s a first-come, first-served system). Yes, I filled out my application before I let this post go live.

To enroll in the pilot and obtain a starter kit, complete this sign up form, and click the ‘Submit’ button.

For a list of acceptable items and frequently asked questions, click here for the program flyer. If you have additional questions, please call the RDF at 781 235 7600 x3345.

Here are some FAQs:

HOW DO I SIGN UP?
COMPLETE THE SIGN UP FORM ON THE RDF’S WEBSITE OR STOP BY THE RDF OFFICE FOR ASSISTANCE.

HOW DOES THE PROGRAM WORK?
AFTER YOU REGISTER, YOU’LL RECEIVE EMAIL CONFIRMATION AND INFORMATION ON HOW TO OBTAIN A FREE STARTER KIT WITH A FOOD SCRAP BIN, COMPOSTABLE BAGS AND A 3.5 GALLON BUCKET TO HELP WITH STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION TO THE RDF. A DESIGNATED DROP-OFF AREA WILL BE LOCATED NEXT TO THE TRASH COMPACTORS.

WHERE IS THE FOOD WASTE GOING?
THE FOOD WASTE WILL BE PICKED UP BY A PRIVATE HAULER AND BROUGHT TO AN ANAEROBIC DIGESTER TO BE TURNED INTO BIOGAS OR TO A FARM TO BE TURNED INTO COMPOST.

HOW IS THIS BEING PAID FOR?
ALL COSTS OF THIS PROGRAM ARE BEING FUNDED THROUGH A MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION GRANT.

WILL THIS ATTRACT PESTS AT THE RDF?
NO. THE FOOD WASTE WILL BE STORED IN A LOCKED CONTAINER, LINED WITH COMPOSTABLE BAGS, TOPPED OFF WITH PINE SHAVINGS, AND PICKED UP REGULARLY.

HOW DO I KEEP THE BIN AND BUCKET CLEAN?
ALWAYS USE THE COMPOSTABLE LINERS AND TIE THEM OFF BEFORE PLACING THEM IN THE 3.5 GALLON BUCKET. THE FOOD SCRAP BIN IS DISHWASHER SAFE AND THE 3.5 GALLON BUCKET CAN BE CLEANED WITH SOAP AND WATER.

WHAT ARE THE ACCEPTABLE ITEMS?
Food scraps; fruits and vegetables; tea bags and coffee grounds; Meats (cooked and raw); eggs, dairy, and baked goods; paper towels and napkins

WHAT ITEMS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE?
Recyclables; boxes, cups, and cartons; cooking oil; yard waste

I’ve posted in the past about my backyard composting operation. I’ll keep up the good work there behind my shed, but what’s exciting to me about the Town’s pilot program is all the food items that will no longer go down my disposal. My compost tumbler is a nifty double-chamber operation and I love it, but I limit the additions to my composter to fresh fruit and vegetable scraps, leaves, and grass. I consider it inadvisable in a small-scale composting concern like mine to include meats and cooked items due to concerns about stinking things up in the neighborhood and the real possibility of attracting pests. Large-scale operations, however, are set up to avoid such problems and I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about outsourcing my leftover rotisserie chicken carcasses, stale bread, and moldy brie (hey, this is Wellesley) to a company that can make good use of it.

Wellesley Quebrada getting bigger

September 16, 2017 by bbrown 1 Comment

Some locals got worried when they first saw papered-over windows at Quebrada Baking Co., in Wellesley Hills, but it soon became apparent that this wasn’t another case of a business shutting down but rather of one expanding.

“We did not mean to alarm anybody with the paper over our windows! ” writes Quebrada’s Schulyer Wiggin. “When the space next door became available over the summer, we took the opportunity to expand our facility and to undergo a full scale renovation. We are updating our retail area, adding more seating and increasing our production space and capacity. We are so grateful and fortunate to have had such an amazing and loyal customer base over the past 30+ years! With this expansion and renovation we hope to be able to provide great baked goods, great coffee, and great service for the next 30 years!”

Quebrada hopes to stay open throughout the project, though there could be a brief closure. We’re trying to get a few more details on the size of the expansion and will update this post if we do.

MORE: Wellesley’s high profile empty storefronts

Today’s the day for the Wellesley Theatre Project Cone Crawl

September 10, 2017 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley Farmers’ Market relaunched

September 9, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

Wellesley Farmers Market Relaunches — Wellesley Farmers Market relaunched on Thursday, Sept. 7, partnering with Vermont-based Farmers-to-You with a new model for bringing farm products to Wellesley. (Photo by Kim Maire, Harvard Extension School Journalism student.)

Special to Swellesley by Kim Maire

After taking the summer off, Wellesley Farmers’ Market relaunched operations on Thursday in the parking lot at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills on Washington Street. The relaunch brings with it a new partnership with Vermont-based Farmers To You (FTY), which has a stable of about sixty New England farms providing a variety of food products.

One of the organizers, Phyllis Theermann, said the Wellesley Farmers’ Market was held in the Whole Foods parking lot for the first two years, and then moved to the UU church. “I thought it worked ….I think all the vendors were reasonably happy in Wellesley but the three or four of us volunteers making it happen, we just knew we could do something better, try something different.”

That something different became the connection to Farmers to You. FTY has built an innovative model that may be more akin to the Amazon part of the new Whole Foods alliance, bringing new technology to buying farm fresh food.

According to the FTY website, the group offers online ordering of food direct from local farmers, coupled with a delivery/drop-off service. Food products include organic and specialty meats, Jasper Hill and Grafton Village cheeses and other dairy products, baked items as well as fruits and vegetables direct from their partner farms.

Emails are sent out to customers, or “partner families,” as FTY calls them, on Friday to let them know what products are available. Orders are then placed by partner families by Sunday, farms receive orders on Monday, food is packed on Tuesday to be delivered to the Boston area on Wednesday and Thursday. There are over 20 drop-off locations in the metropolitan area.

Twelve partner families signed up for groceries this week in Wellesley. But Greg Georgaklis, founder of FTY, said that Lexington Waldorf School is their largest group right now with roughly 80 partner families, and he is optimistic that Wellesley can grow significantly from the modest start.

POSSIBLE CHANGES AHEAD

Also looking to the future, John Spencer, one of the Wellesley Farmers’ Market organizers, and president of the Weston Road community gardens, said, “The plan is to see how this model works, and then bring in other vendors who could use this model and add in outside sales” and other things.

Theermann said the group has maintained good relationships with the farmers who participated in earlier years, and they could go back to them in a couple of months. The market is currently online, pre-order only, but that could change later.

Another big change is the fall startup. Theermann said, “Wellesley is pretty quiet in the summer, when a lot of these markets are running, so we thought, what if we could do it all year round – or at least, do it in the fall or winter when there’s still stuff available.”

She said, “And for those people who are working and can’t pick up their orders, there’s also this delivery service from this cool company that’s a female-owned company. They deliver everything by bicycle, no matter what weather. So they pay a small surcharge to have the food delivered to their homes.”

Spencer is working with Town zoning and planning department officials to continue the farmers’ market next year. Their current permit allows them to run until Dec. 31, and they expect to be at the UU church every Thursday up to the holidays from 12:30-2:30pm.

“So that’s our goal, to continue to bring local, fresh, mostly pesticide-free food to our community,” said Theermann.

My favorite urban garden in Wellesley

September 6, 2017 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The green thumbs at Wellesley Auto Lab have done it again. They grow but one crop every summer — cherry tomatoes — but what a crop it is. The full sun placement combined with the warmth of the wall ensures a plentiful harvest year after year. I always look, but never touch. That bounty deserves to go to the gardener.

Follow The Swellesley Report on Instagram and see more great shots as we wander around town.

Auto Lab harvest, Wellesley — Auto Lab cherry tomato harvest, Wellesley.

Linden Square garden celebrates its first harvest

Sculpture exhibit pops up at Elm Bank gardens

A tour of a very secret garden in Wellesley