Bianca Meleo, Freitas Farms farm manager
By Terry Vandewater.
“The corn is really good today!” is frequently heard at local farmers’ markets from the folks at Freitas Farm. Located in Middleborough, the farm has been operating for three generations with a fourth helping out when home.
Its humble beginnings started around 1960, when Leola Freitas bought less than an acre of land in Middleborough for $1.00. There she grew vegetables, then loaded up her cart, hitched up her horse, and road up and down the street selling vegetables. Bit by bit more land was purchased and the farm grew to 70 acres.
Her son David helped with the farm, then became a brilliant electrician per Bianca Meleo, Freitas Farms farm manager and David’s niece Jamie’s best friend since 4th grade. He then returned to farming full-time in the 1980s. David felt strongly about the “Need to bring the farm to the people.” He used grants to build three greenhouses (150’x75’) on the 70-acre property to complement the farmland used for crops. These greenhouses still benefit the farm today with seedlings and hanging flower baskets as two of their uses. David also co-founded the Quincy Farmers’ Market in 1982. In fact, Freitas Farms only participates in farmers’ markers versus selling through a farm stand.
David’s son, Scott, started farming at age 15 and joined David fulltime in the 1990s. Together they farmed the land and sold their produce at a number of local farmers’ markets. When David passed in 2019, the farm land was split among the family with Scott continuing to farm 30+ acres. (The other portion is safe from commercial development.) Bianca proudly shared that, “Scott’s been running the farm successfully for five years. Nobody could have done a better job stepping into his father’s shoes.”
Freitas Farms sells a variety of produce with its largest crop being corn. Approximately 60% to 65% of the land is used to grow three varieties: Silver Queen (white corn); Butter Sugar (mixed corn); and Royal Princess (sweet yellow), with some touting that its “The sweetest corn on the planet.”
While corn may be the farm’s largest crop, Freitas also offers an abundance of other produce thanks to the greenhouses, apple and peach orchards, blueberry bushes, a cranberry bog, and the remaining non-corn land. Along with eggplant, tomatoes, okra, Freitas Farm grows and sells beans, beets, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, onions, peppers, potatoes, radishes, and a range of other root crops such as cousa (a Lebanese yellow squash), pattypan, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash, zephyr, and zucchini.
The farm sells its many products from May through November at seven farmers’ markets, including Brockton, Hanover, and Hingham in eSEMA-land, as well as Dedham, Natick, Newton, and Sandwich. They also participate in the Marshfield Virtual Winter Farmers’ Market. Clearly the love of farming and bringing fresh, nutritious produce to the people has spanned the generations and many are the benefactors. Check out Freitas Farms at one of the abovementioned farmers’ markets and taste the love.
This farmer profile is sponsored by The Brockton Farmers’ Market and made possible through a grant from Massachusetts Agriculture.
