Boston Nature Center Food Forest
500 Walk Hill Street, Mattapan MA 02126
Some of the Boston Nature Center Food Forest volunteer stewards in Summer, 2022.
BFFC’s flagship site is located at Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center (BNC) in Mattapan. This publicly-accessible site is adjacent to the oldest, largest, and most diverse community garden in Boston: the Clark Cooper Community Gardens. Since breaking ground in April 2014, hundreds of volunteers have participated in site preparation, planting, permaculture workshops, and fruit harvest on the land. The space is also utilized by Mass Audubon campers and elementary school children.
The Boston Nature Center was originally a state psychiatric hospital, which was built in the late 1800s and operated throughout much of the 1900s. Eventually the hospital was torn down, the land was acquired by Mass Audubon, and the space was given new life as a wildlife sanctuary. Today, the nature center land operates as a robust wildlife sanctuary, a community garden, a public respite from the city, an education center for future generations, and of course, a thriving food forest.
The stewardship team of the Boston Nature Center Food Forest has included many individuals over the years, and solidified into a core group of stewards during the growing season of 2021 and 2022. The group welcomes new volunteers regularly for permaculture orientations and community work days. (Email declandevine1@gmail.com to get involved!)
Read BNC Stewardship Team’s words on their work and their food forest below.
When is your team having the most fun?
Our team is having the most fun when we have our gardening hats on, the smells of fresh blooming flowers and a faint smell of tick spray is in the air, pruners or pick axe in hand, and are united under the goal of creating a healthier and happier ecosystem that we can live in tandem with. Hacking away at the prolific tansy or multiflora rose, planting blueberries, and picking asian pears. Having conversations on who we are, what drives each of us, and a hopefulness for the future.
What is your biggest goal as a stewardship team?
Our biggest goals as a stewardship team are to promote a symbiotic ecosystem that is self maintaining, improves ecosystem health, and also feeds us in the process. In doing this we can also rebuild the soil, create a refuge for wildlife, and improve our own knowledge and health by getting to know these plants and creating connections with other like minded individuals who care about the environment we live in.
What are the dreams that bring your team together?
The dreams that bring us together are we can create a world where our children’s children will have better physical and mental health and where our ecosystem is healthy, happy, and thriving in symbiosis with humans — not being conquered, but being understood and nurtured.
Learn more about the history of the BNC Food Forest by exploring this Food Forest Photo Essay from 2014 (the food forest’s inaugural season).
