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Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

Backyard Growers Program

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Gloucester, MA
Backyard Growers Program

Building healthy, connected, resilient communities by empowering people to grow their own food We believe in the transformative power of food.

Backyard Growers is dedicated to cultivating community by growing food together. We have built hundreds of garden beds across Gloucester at schools, in backyards, at public parks, and community organizations. Our programs are filled with people from all walks of life: low to moderate income families putting fresh veggies on their tables from our community gardens, volunteer mentors helping seniors

grow food in their backyards, and people learning new skills and teaching others. In schools, our work is about a generation of kids growing up planting, harvesting and eating their own school-grown food. Our programs impact over 2,000 kids in Gloucester Public Schools, where we maintain nine school gardens with 74 raised garden beds, resulting in 1,000 lbs of veggies in school cafeterias annually. Keep growing, keep eating fresh, delicious food, keep working together, and we'll see you in the garden!

06/03/2026

🤩 Kiddos were all smiles at this week's Salad Days Taste Test at Plum Cove Elementary School! 🥬 Students Kindergarten through Grade 5 harvested the leafy greens they planted as a group back in April. The next day, Backyard Growers and a great crew of parent volunteers served them up for a lunchtime Taste Test.

This seed-to-fork experience is a lynchpin in the Gloucester school calendar - every spring and fall, students eat from the garden they cultivate alongside our team, getting their hands dirty, learning where their food comes from, and trying new foods as a community.

Plum Cove PTO

06/02/2026

🌱 SALAD DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN! 🥬 We kicked off our annual Salad Days harvests at Gloucester Preschool with our littlest gardeners.

Kiddos were able to harvest the leafy greens they planted as seeds earlier this spring and enjoy a Taste Test of the fresh produce they grew themselves with Backyard Growers. Harvests and Taste Tests like this are traditions in Gloucester Public Schools, where students celebrate Salad Days and Fall Harvest Days every year, PreK through Grade 5.

Stay tuned for more harvests cropping up at schools all over Gloucester!

05/27/2026

🌱 KIDS FEEDING COMMUNITY🫜 We're celebrating the Gloucester High School Garden Club's very first produce donation to The Open Door food pantry this week. Students grew and donated 20 bags of spinach and a crate of colorful radishes, totalling 16 lbs of fresh produce grown right down the street in their new 10-bed veggie garden, managed and made possible by Backyard Growers.

We love collaborating with this crew of kids to bring their garden vision to life and help them make a direct impact in their community. This garden is powered by individual donations from supporters like you, as well as state and corporate grants. Stay tuned for more!

05/19/2026

We're still buzzing from this weekend's Community Seedling Sale & Pop-Up Backyard Growcery! Thanks to all who joined us at Burnham's Field to shop seedlings for a cause while supporting local farmers, growers and bakers. We were able to distribute over 1,300 vegetable seedlings grown by Cedar Rock Gardens to our program gardeners and the wider community, with proceeds powering our programs through the 2026 growing season.

We're also grateful to our repeat volunteer crew from Whole Foods Market who helped people navigate the seedling sale and really supported our team throughout the day. Can't wait to have you back!

Now, let's get growing! 🌱🥬

05/14/2026

Just two days to go until our Community Seedling Sale & Pop-Up Backyard Growcery! We welcomed an awesome volunteer crew from Johnson & Johnson MedTech Heart Recovery this week who pitched in prepping Burnham's Field Community Garden to host the sale - they mowed, weedwhacked, organized and tidied the space which serves 55 Gloucester households.

🌞 Join us this Saturday, May 16, 10am-2pm at Burnham's Field to purchase veggie seedlings for a cause - proceeds from veggie seedling sales support Backyard Growers' work cultivating healthy, connected, and resilient communities by empowering people to grow their own food. Plus, don't miss these wonderful Backyard Growcery vendors: Milky Way Apothecary, First Light Farm, Marshview Farm, Underground Mushroom, The Woven Crust, Salty's Bagels & Between Sandwiches. We can't wait to kick off the growing season in community!

05/08/2026

🥕 JOIN OUR TEAM 🌱 The Backyard Growers Board of Directors is on the hunt for an Executive Director to support our mission cultivating healthy, connected, and resilient communities by empowering people to grow their own food. Through home, school, and community vegetable gardens, alongside a vibrant weekly farmers market, we expand access to fresh food and connection for families, seniors, and children across Cape Ann.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/EDSearch2026

We're looking forward to partnering with a leader to shape our shared vision and bring it to life, drive a diversified revenue strategy, and serve as a visible and trusted ambassador in our community.

05/05/2026

This spring, we've seen connections between the veggie garden and the kitchen come to life for middle schoolers at DISH, a weekly after-school cooking workshop series that we host alongside The Open Door. Each week, students plant or harvest with us in the garden before incorporating the produce featured in the garden into the meal they prepare.

Beets have become pink hummus and chocolate beet muffins. Snap peas and carrots went straight into fried rice. Edible flowers - violas - were incorporated into beautiful Vietnamese summer rolls. Eating with the garden has been so much fun!

05/04/2026

🌱 BACKYARD GROWERS' MAY SEED OF THE MONTH: Mounded Nasturtiums. Have you visited the Sawyer Free Library Seed Library yet this season? Every month through September, Backyard Growers contributes packets of a new Seed of the Month for veggies, herbs, or other edible plants that you can pick up when you visit the library. This month, stop by to pick up nasturtium seeds while supplies last! Packets include plant lore, planting instructions, and more.

💚 Why you should love nasturtiums: Every part — flowers, leaves, and even the seeds — is edible, with a peppery, slightly spicy flavor that makes them a beautiful and tasty addition to salads, grain bowls, or anywhere you want a pop of color. The immature green seeds are especially prized: pickled, they become a popular substitute for capers, often called "poor man's capers."

04/28/2026

🌱 This spring, Backyard Growers program gardeners receive eight free veggie seedlings - a 30% increase from last season 🥬 We hosted a seedling pickup for community gardeners at Burnham's Field and the sun came out to play! We had such a great morning seeing happy gardener faces, helping people get their gardens set up, and reconnecting after the LONG 🥶 winter.

More seedling drops are taking place around town at other community gardening sites today!

💚 You can buy seedlings for a cause at our Community Seedling Sale & Pop-Up Backyard Growcery next month! We'll be at Burnham's Field again with gorgeous, healthy plants for the public, grown by Cedar Rock Gardens, and a roster of awesome food & farm vendors.

Address

103 R Maplewood Avenue
Gloucester, MA
01930

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.backyardgrowers.org/

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