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North of Boston is a family farm in Boxford, Massachusetts. Its name is a nod to Robert Frost’s 1914 book of the same title.

We leverage nearly 350 years of family farming experience to grow and raise the highest quality food, from the finest tasting heirloom vegetables and fruits to heritage-breed pork and beef. We work hard every day to provide compelling and delicious food, and we broaden our offerings by sourcing from local farmers and cooperatives we know and trust—some of whom have been farming alongside our family for over three centuries. Here at North of Boston, we grow non-GMO crops, and we never use poisons to control pests or weeds.

Our mission is clear: To cultivate relationships with local food.

Our vision is awesome: To grow a thriving local food culture that’s inclusive, accessible, and resilient as hell.

Our guarantee is simple: If our food isn’t the best you’ve ever had, simply let us know and we’ll make it right.

Delivery

We’re not a third-party shipping service or cooperative. We’re not another app on your phone. We are a farm that provides exceptional food and exceptional service to 74 communities in the greater Boston area.

We custom pack your order and deliver it exactly as you specify. You’d like delivery to your workplace, your apartment on the 22nd floor, or to your boat slip? We can do that. You’d like your order unpacked in your kitchen or left under a shade tree in your back yard? We can do that. You’d like three baseball-sized beets, seven small gala apples, and the largest pork shoulder we have? We can do that too. With North of Boston, you’re not limited.

 

How Does Our Delivery Service Work?

  1. Choose your town, and then a list of available delivery options will appear.
    1. No delivery fees. No order minimums. No commitments
    2. Your order summary is emailed to you immediately after placing an order (check spam).
  2. The day before delivery, we weigh and freshly pack the order to your specifications.
    1. You’ll be invoiced through email, and can pay via a secure link through Square.
    2. An itemized receipt is attached to the invoice–just click it to see details.
  3. One of us will deliver the order to your home, your work, or wherever you specify.
    1. A 1½-hour delivery window is emailed to you the evening before delivery, and you’ll receive real-time updates by text message beginning 30 minutes before our driver arrives.
    2. If you won’t be home, we can place your order in a cooler, pop it inside your door, leave it with a neighbor, or place it on a back porch. Just tell us in the notes section.
    3. If you leave out last week’s packaging materials, our drivers will collect them.
 
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More About our Delivery Process


Our trucks and our drivers; no 3rd-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 74 communities in the North Shore, Boston and its suburbs, and Metro West. 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.

We deliver to Acton, Amesbury, Andover, Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Beverly, Billerica, Boston, Boxborough, Boxford, Brookline, Burlington, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Chestnut Hill, Concord, Danvers, Essex, Everett, Georgetown, Gloucester, Groveland, Hamilton, Haverhill, Ipswich, Lawrence, Lexington, Lincoln, Littleton, Lynn, Lynnfield, Malden, Manchester, Marblehead, Medford, Melrose, Merrimac, Methuen, Middleton, Nahant, Needham, Newbury, Newburyport, Newton, North Andover, North Reading, Peabody, Reading, Revere, Rockport, Rowley, Salem, Salisbury, Saugus, Somerville, Stoneham, Swampscott, Tewksbury, Topsfield, Wakefield, Waltham, Watertown, Wellesley, Wenham, West Newbury, Westford, Weston, Wilmington, Winchester, Winthrop, and Woburn.

We offer the following delivery times:

  • Wednesday evening delivery
  • Thursday delivery
  • Friday delivery
  • Saturday delivery
  • Sunday delivery
You can also currently find us at Farmer’s markets in Boxford, Gloucester, and Lowell*.
* Order pickup available at this market
Delivery area
 

Wholesale Orders

If you are interested in wholesale orders, please contact us.

Farmers Markets

We are proud to bring our fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat to farmers markets throughout the North Shore.

How Does Market Pickup Work?

  1. Place your order here for all market pickups.
    • There is a $45 minimum and no other fees.
    • If you miss the deadline, please contact us and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.
  2. We weigh and pack to your specifications, then send an itemized invoice the evening before pickup. You may click to pay online or pay in-person at the market.
  3. Your order will be ready for pickup during market hours, at your selected market destination.
 
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Currently you can find us at:

The Farm Market at Mill No. 5 in Lowell, Sunday 10-1pm: Year Round

The Farm Market at Mill No. 5 in Lowell, Sunday 10-1pm

Year Round

The Farm Market at Mill No. 5 in Lowell is open every Sunday from 10:00-1:00pm. We offer pre-order pickup for this market. Simply submit your order via this website and we'll have it boxed and ready for you. $45 minimum order please.

Annisquam Farmers Market: Fridays, June 17 - August 26

Annisquam Farmers Market

Fridays, June 17 - August 26

The Annisquam Farmers Market is open Fridays from 9:00-12:00 at the Annisquam Village Hall (36 Leonard Street).

Our Farm Stand: Wednesday through Sunday 10:00-6:00

Our Farm Stand

Wednesday through Sunday 10:00-6:00

Our own farmers stand is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10am to 6pm. The farm is located at 9 Ipswich Road in Boxford (Topsfield/Boxford line across from Pye Brook Lane).

How We Grow

North of Boston produces fresh food while maintaining a strong focus on soil health and natural resource conservation. We are USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Farm #1675

Here are a few examples of how we do things:

Pesticide-Free

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

Non-GMO

All our seeds and plants are non-GMO and are sourced primarily from High Mowing Organics, Johnny’s Organics, and Holmes Seeds with preference always toward heirloom varieties, as well as those we’ve maintained in our family’s thirteen generations of farming in Massachusetts.

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 lands.

Fertilizers

We use cow manure, chicken manure, and commercially produced nitrogen-rich fertilizers.

Weed Control

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

How We Raise

We specialize in heritage breed animals. We never use antibiotics, growth hormones, or other shortcuts. Rather, we respect animals and raise them as our family has for generations–outdoors in the sun, on grass. We also co-raise animals the same way with our longtime friend, Farmer Tom of Sanford, Maine.

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

Our Farmers

Justin Chase is a 12th-generation farmer. His favorite crops are those that epitomize the season in which they’re harvested: asparagus in spring; strawberries and rhubarb in early summer; tree fruits and raspberries later on, and then pork and apples, leeks and squash in the fall. But beets are his favorite of all, because they’re loaded with sugar and they taste of the particular soil in which they’re grown more than any other vegetable on Earth.
Justin advocates regularly for The Governor’s Food Policy Council and Massachusetts Food System Collaborative. Before founding North of Boston, Justin was a consultant for several states departments of agriculture and managed the farmer training program at Tufts University. He worked with his family on their historic farm in Newburyport and helped The National Farmers Union in Washington D.C. support farms throughout the country. Justin holds a BA in conservation biology, an MBA from Bentley University, and he’s an instructor for Cornell University and the United States Food & Drug Administration.
You can read more about Justin in the Bentley University Magazine.

 

Jamie Chase cares deeply about food equity and minimizing food waste. She grew up just a mile from Justin’s historic family farm and first worked there when she was a teen. Jamie’s relationship with the food system began with her earliest memories of standing in a crib at the back of her family’s restaurant. Jamie has worked in the food industry most of her life, from soil to table—including growing, wholesale food distribution, industry finance, event planning, working both front of house and in restaurant kitchens, and developing community coordination & volunteering efforts at local food pantries.
Today her food passions flourish in feeding her own family with from-scratch cooking and managing farm logistics. Jamie’s favorite moments on the farm are planting garlic, talking recipes, introducing folks to new foods, and creating safe spaces for all; she does not like raising chickens. Jamie holds a B.A. in Business Management and a M.S. in Organizational Psychology.
Justin and Jamie are raising their kids, DJ and Bradley, to respect the land, to appreciate the process of food—from earth to table, to understand the perils of food insecurity, and to generally appreciate the value of independent thought. DJ and Brad represent the 13th generation of family farmers to work Massachusetts soil.
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.

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