STERLING — This past weekend marked the return of the Sterling Fair for the first time since 2019. The two-and-a-half day, family-oriented, community agricultural fair typically attracts upwards of 40,000 visitors.
agriculture
Monty Tech ‘freight farm’ to host grand opening Sept. 16
FITCHBURG — Just three months after an eight-ton shipping container arrived on the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School campus, the school finds itself busy planning a grand opening celebration.
The Friday, Sept. 16, event represents the official opening of the retrofitted container, a so-called “freight farm” that will produce 1,450 heads of leafy greens each month.
“The hydroponic farm is a collaboration between Leominster’s nonprofit organization Growing Places and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School,” said Julie Blazar, community outreach specialist at Monty Tech. “Purchased with a $176,600 grant from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the shipping container is able to produce the equivalent of an acre’s worth of land.”
The freight farm grows produce for the school’s cafeteria, culinary arts program and the community.
“Over time, farm operations will become part of the school’s curriculum, with opportunities for students to explore business, engineering, and environmental science,” Blazar said.
Freight farms like Monty Tech’s are a growing part of the food system.
To create one, a traditional shipping container is retrofitted with climate-controlled, water-based growing apparatus. The system uses just a small fraction of the water needed to grow produce using conventional methods, according to Monty Tech Nutrition Director Jason Yeagle. The system also eliminates the need for pesticides, uses limited electricity, and reduces the carbon footprint associated with shipping foods across the country.
“Monty Tech and Growing Places are natural partners in innovation,” Monty Tech Principal Dayana Carlson said. “The Food Security Infrastructure Grant program aims to ensure equitable access to locally-grown produce. We are excited to use our campus resources to make this possible here in north central Massachusetts.”
The Sept. 16 grand opening event will feature remarks from Yeagle, as well as from his spouse, Growing Places Executive Director Ayn Yeagle.
“Members of the Monty Tech Foundation Board of Directors, local farm and program partner Pineo Family Farm, and executives from the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts will be in attendance,” Blazar said.
Attendees will have the chance to tour the farm and sample its late summer produce, all of which has been grown since the container arrived in mid-June.
If interested in attending the event, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the school, at 1050 Westminster Road; email Katy Whitaker at whitaker-katy@montytech.net by Sept. 12.
Burning for a second day, Ashby brush fire takes over 20 crews to extinguish
ASHBY — Battling heat and flames, firefighters from more than 20 departments across Massachusetts and New Hampshire continued efforts to extinguish a brush fire at a composting site along Log Cabin Road for a second day on Thursday.
Although countless firefighters had worked since early Wednesday morning, Ashby Fire Chief Mark Bussell said the blaze continued in spite of their efforts. After arriving on scene Wednesday and assessing the extent of the fire, Bussell said the Ashby Fire Department signaled for mutual aid.
“We get here and the brush, mulch, everything was burning — and has continued to burn (Thursday) — so we made the call,” Bussell said.
As of Thursday, Bussell said the cause of the fire was unknown, but an investigation by local authorities and the State Fire Marshal’s Office was underway. He said it would be “at least another few days” until the investigation was complete.
Tanker trucks from Antrim and Rindge, N.H., as well as Paxton, Walpole, Winchester and a dozen other fire departments across Massachusetts, made the back-and-forth trek between Log Cabin Road and a pond behind the nearby Fitchburg Rod & Gun Club Thursday, transporting critical water to fight the blaze.
Bussel said, without them, they would “never get the fire out.”
“We’ve had them back and forth constantly since (Wednesday),” he said. “We need to have enough water up here that we can maintain a stream — we don’t want to start, stop, start, stop over and over again cause then we’ll never get the fire out.”
In a period of severe drought across the state, Bussell estimated his department and those rendering mutual aid used about 1.6 million gallons of water to battle the blaze on Wednesday. He expected similar water usage Thursday and even more by the time their work would be done, which could be as late as the weekend.
“We’ll probably have used upwards of three million gallons by the time we’re done here,” he said.
Fortunately, the fire was contained to the brush pile and damage to a nearby farm, located at 147 Log Cabin Road, and other nearby wooded areas was avoided. But, given the height of the pile — brush, mulch and other vegetation reach as high as 50 feet in some areas — Bussell said the fire could continue to burn for days.
“Fortunately the fire was pretty quick to contain within the pile itself, now we’re just trying to extinguish which can take a lot of time and water,” he said. “Based on what we’ve seen these last two days, I would expect it to burn into the weekend.”
The property at 147 Log Cabin Road has been the cause of friction between the town and the property’s neighbors. In 2019, more than 40 neighbors attended a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting to express concerns for their safety, pertaining to the drinking water. The meeting came after the owners Robert and Tony Ethier were issued a cease and desist order by then Building Commissioner Peter Niall.
According to neighbors, the owners were using the property as a dumping ground for parking lot snow, trash, concrete and compost.
However, at the meeting Jeremy Ethier contended that the site was only handling compost and the operation was following state regulations. Ethier also argued the property was a farm and not a private business, which would have been allowed by town zoning laws.
The Zoning Board of Appeals upheld the decision several days later. The town’s cease and desist order is still in place as of Thursday, according to Town Administrator Christine Lindberg.
Given the fire, Lindberg said the situation has “surpassed anything the town could do” and that the issue had “moved up to the state level.” She also said that representatives of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Department of Conservation and Recreation, Massachusetts Environmental Police and other state agencies had visited the site since Wednesday.
“That’s why everybody has been here — MassDEP, MEMA, DCR — to see the results of what we’ve been trying to enforce and hold (Ethier) accountable for and to see that, despite being told to stop, (Ethier) has continued.”
While Lindberg would not comment on any future action by Ashby or the state, she said the town would continue to work with those state agencies “in order to determine the next steps.”
Lindberg and Bussell praised the men and women on the scene that helped the town fight the blaze. Both also recognized the Leominster Emergency Canteen — a volunteer arm of the city’s Office of Emergency Management — to keep firefighters hydrated and fed.
“I am extremely impressed and grateful for the mutual aid that these towns have provided,” Lindberg said.
“The men and women here, the towns and other departments that are here to help us, I can’t thank them enough,” Bussell said. “Their work has been invaluable and I honestly don’t know where we’d be without them.”
