Edible Food Finds: Veg Out at Nourse Farm
Photos by Linda Campos
Next year marks Nourse Farm’s 300th anniversary. To visit this place is to step back in time: Waves of green grass cascade with the wind, ponies whinny and wander through the pasture and lush flower fields beckon guests to get their hands dirty. At the right time of day, you can even catch a breathtaking view of the setting sun disappearing beyond the treeline.
Nourse Farm’s 140 acres in Westborough constitute the 10th-oldest continuously operating family business in the country, owned by David Nourse. You might recognize one of the Nourse family’s most famous members, Rebecca Nurse, who was lost to the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and memorialized in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. The Nourse family is nothing if not tenacious.
“Our [teenage] child is 10th generation,” explains Catherine Nourse, founder of the farm’s Veg Out Food Trailer. “He puts in work here, whether he likes to or not,” she jokes.
Catherine has volunteered her fair share of labor as well, since she and her husband, Timothy, moved back to his family’s farmstead in 2014. In her professional life, Catherine works as a dietician and a professor at Quinsigamond Community College. It didn’t take long before her nutritional work started following her home to Nourse Farm.
“One of the things I noticed at Nourse Farm was that even though people really wanted to be members [of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) harvest subscription program], there was still sometimes a disconnect between all this raw produce that they were getting and what they could really do with it at home,” Catherine recalls.
She began developing recipes and posting them on the Nourse Farm website for their CSA community. Eventually, farm operator Jonathan Nourse suggested she start up a food truck and Catherine took the bait.
“I always found the whimsical nature of food trucks very appealing,” she says. “Now, when people are picking their own berries or coming from the CSA pickup, they’re able to stop off and get a nice cup of homemade soup or a fresh salad.” This year, the menu has expanded to include beet and bean burgers as well as hummus wraps. “We offer a rotating menu that relies on what we are harvesting here at the farm and turns it into something yummy and nutritious to eat.”
Veg Out’s plant-forward concept is about more than just personal health; Catherine is equally focused on planet health. “With the change in administration, it’s nice to hear a renewed focus on climate, and being part of the solution is something that we’re really excited about,” she says. Guests who arrive by bike even receive a discount on their orders.
The Nourse family humor is reflected in every dish from the Age of Asparagus soup to the How-Ya-Bean Burger. See for yourself this summer off the corner of Nourse and Jasper Streets in the beautiful Westborough countryside.
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This story appeared in the Summer 2021 issue.
