Farmer Dave’s Uses MFTP Funding to Upgrade Retail Space and Kitchen (Dracut, MA)

Dave Dumaresq grew up on Marsh Hill in Dracut, Massachusetts. At an early age, he began working on the Brox Farm in Dracut, learning the intricacies of New England farming from John Brox who had been tilling that land since the 1920s. After graduating from college, Farmer Dave served in the Peace Corps as a crop extensionist in Ecuador. Upon returning from Ecuador in 1997, he began leasing the Brox Farm, growing vegetables and flowers.

Beginning with the rented farmland in 1997, Farmer Dave’s has had consistent growth over the past 25 years. In 2003 Farmer Dave was asked to offer his fresh products to a neighboring community, so he leased the East Street Farm in Tewksbury plus two other small local farms. In 2006, Dave purchased a 30-acre farm in Dracut, which had been deed-restricted for agricultural use through the MA Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) program. This became known as Farmer Dave Dumaresq’s Farm, or simply “Farmer Dave’s.” He also began renting additional farmland in Dracut, Tewksbury, and Westford, with 90 acres of farmland devoted to fruit and vegetable crops.

Farmer Dave’s now employs nearly 100 seasonal employees during peak growing season. Its crops include vegetables native to Latin America and Africa that are important to cuisine of those regions and the local immigrant communities, but which are harder to find. Farmer Dave came to LEAF to expand and improve the on-farm retail & deli area, build out a full-service commercial kitchen, and install a blast freezer to package and sell frozen produce year-round.

They offer one of the larger (i.e. by number of sites) and more affordable consumer CSA programs in the Greater Boston area.

The Massachusetts Food Trust Program (MFTP) is committed to improving food security in the commonwealth by providing: loans, grants, and business assistance for organizations expanding access to healthy, affordable food in low-income, underserved areas.