CISA's Annual Meeting + Local Hero Tours

Wednesday, April 3, 6-8:30pm
Trinity United Methodist Church, Springfield

Join us to visit with CISA staff, board, and community for dinner and to celebrate this year's Local Hero Awardees!

Opt in before the meeting for tours of two important Springfield partner sites:
3:30pm: Wellspring Harvest, a worker-owned hydroponic greenhouse.
4:45pm: Gardening the Community, a food justice organization engaged in youth development, urban agriculture, and sustainable living.

The Annual Meeting and tours are free, but seating is limited. We're looking for volunteers! if you'd like to help out at the meeting, please contact Jennifer Williams.

Tell your story at Field Notes!
Nan Parati at Field Notes 2018 
Jason Threlfall photo

Do you have a story about local food and farming that you would love to share? Whether you're a farmer, chef, waiter, gardener, food activist, passionate home cook, or anyone else with a local food or farm story, we want to hear it! Pitch us your story, and you could be selected to tell it on stage in November at Field Notes, CISA's storytelling event. 

Local Hero profile: Hickory Hill Farm

Photo courtesy of Hickory Hill Farm
The image of metal buckets hanging from maple trees is quintessentially New England, but for a big maple farm like Hickory Hill Farm in Worthington a system of vacuum-pressurized lines carry the sap down to centralized collection bins. Paul Sena's team is working overtime as March brings the golden window of weather for producing maple syrup.
Mayval Farm, Easthampton
Leslie Lynn Lucio photo
Late winter on the farm

Maple sugaring, greenhouse work, orchard maintenance, and a lot more -- local farmers are hard at work as we ease towards spring! Take a peek at what's happening on local farms in CISA's monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Local Hero enrollment deadline is coming!

Many Hands Farm Corps, Amherst
Farms, restaurants, retailers, specialty producers, landscapers and garden centers, and institutions: don't miss out! Sign up by 3/18 for a year of benefits as a member of CISA's flagship program!
Limited-edition CISA t-shirts

Now available: a lovely ode to pollinators, in t-shirt form! Designed by local artist Kimberly Wachtel of Where Earth Meets Sky, this is the final design in our series of limited-edition, seasonal CISA t-shirts. Don't miss out -- it's beautiful!
Save the date for CISA's 5% Day at Whole Foods Hadley


On Thursday, April 18th, CISA will be the beneficiary of a community giving day at Whole Foods Market in Hadley: 5% of net sales for the day will go to support CISA's Senior FarmShare program, which provides low-income seniors with a share of the local harvest!
Quick Links

Check out our press page for news stories about local farms and local agriculture, along with our weekly interview series on WRSI, monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and more!
Go to press page

Farm tours, film screenings, workshops, special local meals -- there's always something happening in the Valley!
Go to events listing

Job opportunities, land, equipment.
Go to classifieds
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CISA, 1 Sugarloaf Street, South Deerfield, MA 01373