Photos by Linda Campos

Stacey Apple and Alex Cecchinelli are partners in life and work—chef and farmer. Their complementary professions help drive the success of Iron Ox Farm, a vegetable farm in Hamilton.

Cecchinelli started Iron Ox Farm in 2017. The owners of the farm that he was working on decided to focus on the plant nursery that they ran and leased him an acre to grow vegetables. In those early days, Cecchinelli tilled the land with a walk-behind tractor, or an “iron ox”—thus the farm’s name. Since 2017, the farm has been relocated two times until the couple was able to procure a 99-year lease on the 20- acre farm, where they are currently located, and a ride-on tractor. But the name still holds.

In 2017, Apple was still working as a chef at Short and Main in Gloucester, having trained at Craigie on Main in Cambridge. In 2018 she left Short and Main to focus on Iron Ox with Cecchinelli, but her connections in the restaurant world helped when finding markets for Iron Ox Farm’s produce.

“The most important thing for us is that we have diversified markets,” she says. “We have a loyal CSA, the Marblehead farmers market, and sell wholesale to many restaurants. The restaurant market is crucial for our business, but when COVID caused them to close, we were lucky to have a huge demand for CSA shares. We expanded from 40 CSA shares to 100 shares. The restaurants eventually re-opened and the demand picked back up, luckily!”

Short and Main, Sandpiper Bakery, Talise and Pastaio Via Corta are only a few of the local restaurants and shops that buy wholesale from Iron Ox. “I feel that I have worked with at least 50% of the chefs that order from us at previous places. It is a tight community that supports each other.”

In fact, last summer, Apple and the owners of Sandpiper Bakery and Helen’s Bottle Shop, a local wine purveyor, hosted a few harvest dinners at Iron Ox. The three partners have created a new business, Little Gem, and hope to host more dinners this summer.

Continuing the same innovative streak, Apple and Cecchinelli are always experimenting with their vegetable offerings. “I would say our greens are probably the best known. You can find bagged greens of arugula, spicy mix, lettuce mix and spinach in the community with our sticker on them. But we try to provide a good variety of all vegetables to our CSA.”

Last summer the couple experimented with a pick-your-own flower plot that they hope to make into a separate CSA this year. This summer they hope to better cultivate the high bush blueberries on the property. However, their largest ambition and priority for 2023 is to build a farmstand. “We would like to sell our own produce but also a little bit of everything from everyone—grain, cheese, meat and jars of preserves and food. It would be a place to sell local food in one spot.”

To that end, the couple have already ordered a new variety of tomato seeds from Italy. Apple, always thinking like a chef, wants to experiment with different canned tomatoes, hot sauces and salsas to sell at the farmstand.

The couple’s desire to be a hub for local food via a farmstand is also evident in how they share their land. They currently sublease 10 acres to Boxford’s Lillooet Farm for rotational sheep grazing. The sheep naturally increase the organic matter in the soil, reducing the farm’s need for tillage and fertilizer. (The farm uses 100% organic methods and is in the process of becoming certified.) Apple and Cecchinelli also hope to partner with the Here and There Grain Project and include grain in their crop rotation. In addition, they are part of Nourishing the North Shore, a food access program that provides subsidized CSAs to low-income families and seniors.

“Nourishing the North Shore is a thoughtful partner with us,” she says. “Instead of asking for donations, they apply for grants that allow them to pay for the food, helping both the farms and families.”

The key ingredient to this love-filled venture is not only experimentation, but partnership—whether together as a couple or within their larger community.

ironoxfarming.com