North of Boston is a farm and local food hub based in Boxford, Massachusetts. We produce, source, and distribute exceptional quality food that’s grown and raised without pesticides or cruel and destructive practices. From soil to plate—producers to consumers—North of Boston is on a mission every step of the way.

Mission: To cultivate relationships with local food.

Vision: To grow a thriving local food culture that’s inclusive, accessible, and resilient as hell.

	Inclusive	Accessible	Resilient

Farm

North of Boston is a diversified farm in Boxford, Massachusetts. We produce fresh food while maintaining focus on soil health and natural resource conservation. North of Boston is the USDA’s USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Farm #1675

How We Grow

Pesticide-Free

We do not spray our crops. We have no pesticide licenses, and we don’t own a sprayer. We think it’s better to lose a crop and replant, than to deal with poisons and nonsense.

Non-GMO

All our seeds and plants are non-GMO and sourced primarily from High Mowing Organics, Johnny’s Organics, and Holmes Seeds with preference always toward heirloom varieties.

Fertilizers

We use manures and commercially produced nitrogen-rich fertilizers.

Soil Health

We maintain year-round cover crops to increase soil health, to increase our farm’s biodiversity, and to attract pollinators while providing a valuable corridor to surrounding conservation land.

Weed Control

We do not use herbicides. We use straw mulch, hand tools, mechanical cultivators, and ground fabric for weed control.

Animals

We don’t use antibiotics, growth hormones, or other shortcuts. Rather, we respect animals and raise them as our family has for generations - outdoors, in the sun, and on grass.

 
North of Boston is nothing like a factory farm and it shows in the quality of all our products.

 

Food Hub

We gather the best local food and then distribute it to homes, businesses, and shelters throughout northeast Massachusetts. In 2023 we sourced from 27 local farms, delivered to 82 towns, and helped thousands of households support their local food system.

What is a Food Hub?

“A centrally located facility with a business management structure facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distributions, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced food products.” – The USDA

What is Local Food?

The USDA says 400 miles, but at North of Boston we keep it closer to home. We define it as food produced within 200 miles of our farm.

Interested in Working With Us?

Are you a farmer or producer interested in distributing through our food hub? We’d love to hear from you.

Do you run a restaurant or market and would like to learn about wholesale pricing and how we can help you grow? We’d love to talk.

Want to buy direct for your home? You can shop the hub at our farm in Boxford, at our year-round market in Lowell, or by ordering online for free home delivery.

Store

Every morning we pull fresh stock from our farm and food hub to fill our store with the best local foods available. In addition to our full selection of produce, fruit, and meat, we carry products from local vendors including milk, eggs, and cheese. We offer it all and we know the producers who grew it, raised it, milked it, cooked it, and crafted it, many of whom use ingredients they buy from our hub while bringing their food in for us to distribute.

We invite to take your time and shop thoughtfully and intentionally, and ask questions about farming, food, and origin.

The Farm Store is located at:
9 Ipswich Road, Boxford, MA
Store direct: 978-561-6650

We are open every day 10:00am to 6:00pm.

 

Of course, you can place an order and it will be boxed up and ready to go on the date you choose.

Order Now!

Accessibility

We’re also happy to schedule special shopping times outside of normal hours to help with sensory or anxiety challenges. Just let us know what sort of accommodations you’d like and we’ll do our best to make them happen.

Delivery

From our farm to your home. No delivery fees. No commitments. No order minimums... Home delivery. Done better.

How Does Our Delivery Service Work?

1. Submit your order via the Order Now button.
2. You’ll receive an invoice the day before delivery, after we’ve packed the order to your specifications.
3. A 90-minute delivery window is sent the evening before delivery.
4. The day of delivery you’ll be able to track your order from your phone.

More About our Delivery Process

Our trucks and our drivers; no 3^rd-party
distribution service or cooperative.

Weather-resistant waxed produce boxes;
FDA-compliant bags; refrigerated vans.

Remote temperature monitoring.
Food safety is paramount.

Delivered, not shipped.
The distinction is great.

Exceptional food and exceptional service.

Service Area

We currently service 61 communities in the North Shore, Boston and its suburbs, Metro West, and the South Shore. As we grow into our new and improved delivery service, we add more and more communities to our service area. If you live near our service area and would like your community to be added, please contact us.

Mill No. 5

Our partnership with Mill No. 5 began at its indoor farm market years ago. It’s become a special place for us and we’d love to share it with you. While you’re there you can visit a restaurant that makes soups and sandwiches with crops from our farm, meet farmers who sell into our food hub, or see our friends that make the soaps you find in our store. To visit the mill is to learn more about our friends and food community.

Mill No. 5 is located at:
250 Jackson St, Lowell MA
https://millno5.com
We’re at the mill year-round, every Sunday from 10:00-1:00.

Leadership

Justin and Jamie Chase founded North of Boston in 2019. They built the farm and food hub from scratch, including clearing land and creating soil while setting their sites on becoming a contributive part of their industry.

 

Jamie has worked her entire life in food service, both regionally and nationally. She holds an undergraduate degree in Management, an MS in Organizational Psychology, and is published in the areas of LGBTQIA+ mentorship and leadership psychology. Jamie has extensive volunteerism in food equity, and even worked farming alongside Justin as a teen.

 

Before North of Boston, Justin worked his family’s farm in Newburyport. He managed the food hub and farmer training program at Tufts University and lobbied extensively for the National Farmers Union in Washington D.C. Justin is a 12th generation farmer, former instructor for FDA and Cornell University, and has an undergraduate degree in conservation biology and an MBA from Bentley University.

Tobi is North of Boston’s newest farm hand. He enjoys digging random holes, running around, barking at squirrels, and performing other valuable farm-related tasks. He also manages our inventory control process and created this Web site. Good boy!

You can read more about North of Boston on the Boston area’s premiere food blog, Edible Boston.