Join us for CISA's Annual Meeting and Celebration!
Tuesday, April 11
5:30-8pm (with optional tour of Ground Up Grain/Valley Malt beginning at 4pm)
Gateway City Arts, 92 Race St, Holyoke

CISA members and supporters, you are invited to our Annual Meeting and Celebration! We’ll be honoring CISA’s 2023 Local Hero Award recipients, sharing the highlights of the past year, and, most importantly, gathering together for the first time since 2019. Come reconnect, celebrate, and enjoy!

Before the evening program begins at 5:30pm (including a delicious dinner catered by Gateway City Arts), you may choose to join us at 4pm for a tour of the Ground Up Grains/Valley Malt facility, just around the corner from the meeting. Come see this impressive new agricultural infrastructure right on the canal in Holyoke, and hear more about the work that’s being undertaken by Holyoke leaders.

Dinner is free, but space is limited, so please RSVP!
Coming to Greenfield: Making Food Fun
Saturday, March 25
10am-noon
Green Field Market Alley
144 Main St, Greenfield

Celebrate the arrival of spring in Franklin County with an outdoor family event!

CISA and the Franklin Community Co-op are teaming up for an early spring event to celebrate local food with children and families. Meet the farmer who produces sugar at Bergeron’s Sugar House. Try out different grades of maple syrup and maple cream on silver dollar pancakes, and enjoy maple milk from Our Family Farms. Learn to make a new recipe with a food demonstration for kids from Green Fields Market. Taste fresh, mini croissants baked by Rise Above Bakery using local flour, butter, and milk. The morning includes more local surprises, so come check it out!

Stormy weather? No problem. The event will be held indoors at the Franklin Community Co-op event space at 170 Main Street.

CISA is hiring: Program Assistant
Spread the word! CISA seeks a Program Assistant to work with the Technical Assistance and Local Hero teams in implementing programmatic activities that support CISA’s mission.

Work includes Local Hero program support for membership enrollment, promotion, communication, and maintenance, as well as logistical support for technical assistance workshops, one-on-one technical assistance, and evaluation.

March is maple month!
Winter one day and spring the next: that's March in New England! Luckily, cold nights and warm days is what makes the sap flow, and that brings the first major crop of the year: maple syrup!

Our friends at Mass Maple can help you find sugar shack breakfasts and farms to visit. Check them out!
Get to know our Local Heroes
We're proud to work with local media to get the word out about local farms! Here are a couple highlights from our Valley Bounty column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, plus Monte Belmonte and Kaliis Smith's new show on NEPM, The Fabulous 413.

  • Mayval Farm: Have you tried any of the gloriously delicious dairy products being made by hand on a small farm in Westhampton? Feta, fromage blanc, and ... skyr? Learn all about them!

  • Maple Corner Farm: Phil, Monte, and Kaliis get the backstage treatment at Maple Corner Farm in Granville, before the ceremonial first tree taping of Massachusetts Maple Month. Hear how they make syrup at their state-of-the art sugar house, and how the process has changed over the farm’s nearly 200 years (along with the climate). Then attend (vicariously) the joyous hoopla that is “the first tap of Maple Month!” Listen in!

  • Sunrise Farm Maple: “We call it liquid gold,” Erik Lively says of maple syrup. This is his favorite time of year at Sunrise Farms in the hills of Colrain, when they reap the sweet, amber rewards of a year’s hard work.“There are trees here that my kids tapped, that their great-great-great grandfather tapped, and that’s because of how they were cared for,” he says. “We want to pass on the knowledge, but also the trees themselves.” Read their story!

  • Mi Tierra Tortillas: Phil, Monte, and Kaliis got a VIP tour of Mi Tierra's Springfield tortilla factory from owners Michael Docter and Jorge Sosa. Did you know Mi Tierra makes half a million tortillas each month with just salt, a little lime, and whole lot of local corn? Or that some of their corn (or maize) comes from "Mike's Maze" in Sunderland? Give it a listen!

Farmer info corner
Local Hero enrollment is open now!
Farmers, retailers, restaurateurs, institutional buyers, specialty food producers, and garden centers: sign up now as a member of CISA’s flagship program and reap the benefits of Local Hero membership!

Lots of great upcoming workshops!
Don't miss out on CISA's upcoming workshops for farmers, including: Honing Your Spring Employee Onboarding Plan, Insights on Vegetable Farm Financial Benchmarks, Managing a Multicultural Farm Team, and Managing Farm Labor Costs.

More from CISA

Check out our press page for news stories about local farms and local agriculture, along with our regular segments with WRSI and regular column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and more!
 
Job opportunities, land, equipment, and more.
Thanks to our sponsors!
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Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture is an equal opportunity provider and employer. 
1 Sugarloaf Street,
South Deerfield, MA 01373
413-665-7100