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Published September 7, 2024 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Climate Change at Home: Adapting Together

Local support and federal funding help farms respond to climate change

By Jacob Nelson

Three people. Two businesses. One piece of farmland. Countless ways that climate change is making farming harder.

And yet plenty of hope, because these farmers have a plan. With support from peers, nonprofits, and even Uncle Sam, they’re building resilience to keep people fed, whatever happens next.

The three farmers are Brook Bullock, her partner John Collector, and Leila Rezvani. They met at a teaching farm in New Orleans, where Bullock was the executive director, Rezvani a lead farmer, and Collector a frequent volunteer. As they got closer, they talked about starting a commercial farm together. When Bullock and Collector were able to buy Stonebridge Farm in Chesterfield in 2022, they invited Rezvani and Rezvani’s partner to join them on the land. Soon, collaboration blossomed.

For various reasons, it made sense to create two separate businesses. Under the existing Stonebridge Farm name, Bullock and Collector today raise cattle for beef, sheep for lamb, chickens for eggs and meat, and rabbits along with several kinds of fruit. Still getting established, they sell eggs and a few other things at the Chesterfield General Store, Oliver’s Farm Stand in Goshen, and the Hilltown Mobile Market.

The other farm on the land is Keshtyar Seed, a hand-scale vegetable and seed farm run by Rezvani and Bullock. They grow a wide variety of produce sold in many of the same markets, as well as rare and threatened plants grown specifically for seed.

“These seed plants are mainly from the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa), where my father is from,” Rezvani explains. “We sell to two small seed companies – Experimental Farm Network and True Love Seeds – and a few other people.”

As these young farms get started, a big part of the farmers’ focus is on preparing for climate change and all its repercussions. Among them, the toll of increasingly extreme and erratic weather has already left an impression.

“I was responsible for a farm in a very vulnerable place in New Orleans,” recalls Bullock. “Hurricanes came, everyone I loved evacuated, and I had to stay for our animals.”

Rezvani is equally pensive, adding from her experience in the South, the Hudson Valley, and now Massachusetts, “It seems like we have to be prepared for anything at this point.”

In truth, they can’t prepare for every possibility. Instead, these farmers are focusing on practices that offer general resilience to many different impacts of climate change.

For Stonebridge, that starts with improving the health of their pasture soil and the mix of plant species that grow from it. “To do that we’re using rotational grazing,” says Bullock. “Basically, using livestock as a tool to grow strong, healthy soil and grasses.”

Rotational grazing involves moving groups of animals through a field one small section at a time. The animals eat everything down to a certain point before moving on, giving that area time to rejuvenate with the help of their manure. This mimics how herds of grazing animals naturally behave. Done well, rotational grazing decreases soil compaction and encourages more fertile soils, plant growth, and species diversity. All are good for livestock, pollinators, and overall ecosystem health.

Soil with more organic matter also drains after heavy rains and traps moisture longer, keeping pastures productive when it’s hot and dry. All of this is helpful as climate change spawns more heat waves and more intense and spottier rainstorms, both of which have been felt this summer already.

Keshtyar Seed’s operation also benefits from improving soil health, but their biggest concern is protecting their plants from extreme weather.

“If you get rain at the wrong time, you can ruin an entire seed crop by getting it wet,” says Rezvani. “Wind protection is important too – we get really strong winds here in the hills.”

Their main adaptation strategy is growing more plants under cover, whether that’s small “caterpillar tunnels” over single rows of plants or larger “high tunnels” covering a whole area.

For both farms, “Diversifying is also so important,” adds Bullock. “We might have a year where the sheep don’t do well, but we still have cows. If the blueberries fail, we still have pears, and our income doesn’t crash.”

Whether starting a new farm or retrofitting an old one, figuring out how to adapt to climate change is both costly and risky. New equipment, materials, and technical assistance all cost money. Trying new farming strategies takes time and effort too, and success isn’t guaranteed. Yet climate change is affecting farms around the globe, and to grow enough food to stay in business and feed everyone, many will have to adapt.

Given the stakes, most people would say these risks and costs are worth it. The question is, who takes on the risk and cost? Often, it’s farmers, but they as a group have little time or money to spare. Most would love some help.

Some nonprofits and mission-driven companies are standing with farmers, encouraging climate-smart farming practices with funding to defray costs and technical advice to guide the way. For example, Stonebridge Farm received funding from American Farmland Trust to buy fencing for rotational grazing. Meanwhile, Keshtyar Seed received one grant from Sky High Farm, a nonprofit supporting historically marginalized farmers, to build a future high tunnel, and another from Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) to pay longtime farmers at Crabapple Farm, also in Chesterfield, to help them learn the quirks of Hilltown farming.

“Coming from Louisiana where this kind of support wasn’t accessible, it felt like a fairytale,” says Bullock. “But now that I’m here starting a production farm, it feels absolutely critical.”

Critical, but maybe not enough. At least not for all farms.

So far, small grants are helping keep Stonebridge and Keshtyar above water, but the farmers started with a few uncommon advantages. They were already educated about climate change and motivated to design their farm around it, and all three have off-farm income allowing more financial flexibility. For farmers not in these positions, a handful of grants may not be enough to enable a similar transition, leaving them more vulnerable to climate change’s impacts.

“To encourage farmers to shift how they farm and basically do climate resilience research, there needs to be a higher payback,” says Bullock. “Farmers are risking their livelihoods to do this.”

Many farmers and supporters say that farmers provide a public service by feeding people and innovating to keep our food supply stable, and that service is worthy of more public financial support. Recently, lawmakers acknowledged this in a big way.

As directed by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the US Department of Agriculture has invested over $3.1 billion in the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Much of that money will go directly to U.S. farmers, paying them to transition acreage into pre-identified climate-smart farming practices. Farmers will also be paid to collect data on how these practices influence carbon sequestration, soil health, and other indicators of climate resilience.

Locally, CISA is part of a team of organizations helping farms apply for funding. Stonebridge Farm is among the first local farms to do so, and CISA will work with dozens more in the coming years.

As climate change brings more extreme and unpredictable weather, new pests and diseases, and even makes some areas too risky to farm, undoubtedly farmers will still find a way to deliver. Policies that shift risk and expenses off farmers’ backs may help. So may steady patronage and advocacy from the local community.

As Congress renews the Farm Bill this year, many local farmers and advocates are lobbying in favor of programs like the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities. Closer to home, many are taking part in a local Climate Change and Farming Week from September 15-22 organized by CISA. Public events range from farm tours to cooking demos and film screenings, all aiming to spark collaboration towards climate solutions within the local food system. Learn more at buylocalfood.org/climateweek.

“If we value farms growing food that’s good for people and good for our world, we need to invest in them,” says Bullock. “I really hope policy makers keep putting money towards local farms, not taking it away.”

Jacob Nelson is communications coordinator for CISA.

This week on NEPM, CISA’s Communication Manager, Claire Morenon, launches her debut alongside Monte and Kaliis. This week, they spoke with Brooke Fernandes, of Fern Valley Farms.

Pick-your-own apples at Fern Valley Farms. Photo by Lizzy McEleney.

Now in its seventh year of operations, Fern Valley Farms in Wilbraham is a celebration of local food in a picturesque looking out on the entire Connecticut River Valley. With help from Dad, Bill Fernandes, Dan and Brooke Fernandes continue the legacy of the Rice Family, who established the orchard in 1894 in Wilbraham, where it served as a source of wholesale apples for many local grocery stores.

In 2016, Dan Fernandes and his father, Bill, took an interest in the orchard while traveling through to access the Wilbraham Nature Preserve to cut and bale hay. Father and son, along with help from hard-working friends, worked to clean up the overgrown orchard. In 2017 Dan purchased the orchard and opened it to public for pick-you-own. In the years since, the Fernandes family has worked tirelessly to beautify the orchard and create a gathering place in Western Massachusetts.

Brooke says, “We want to celebrate where our food comes from by showing people how the apples grow. We’re educating people about varieties of apples, how the weather impacts crops, and even pruning.”  The orchard is open for pick-your-own apples for 2024. The farm has 15 varieties in total, stretching the season into October. This year’s apples are promising: big, beautiful fruit with all the juicy sweetness you’d expect from your favorite apple.

Events are how the farm welcomes community. They ran a summer concert series on weekends, and they have outdoor family movies, and more. The farm is available for

Ready for the concert! Image by Lizzy McEleney

weddings and private parties.

Fern Valley Farms is open for apple picking on weekends 10-6:30pm starting Labor Day weekend through the second week of October. See their website or Facebook page for event information, including the Family Fall Festival on September 29 and the Pancake Breakfast on October 20, 2024.

Published August 31, 2024 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette

The Fruits of a Hot Summer

“I know people that won’t even touch yellow tomatoes,” says Kate Miller Carl, the matriarch of Roundhill Orchards in Southampton. “To me, if there’s something novel, I want to try it just to see what it’s like.”

When Carl and her now late husband, Alfred R Carl Jr., first started Roundhill Orchards decades ago, the most novel fruit they grew was unusual varieties of apples. Today the orchard grows fruit in every color of the rainbow. Viewing change positively, Carl is open to trying something new. Could that help the orchard adapt to a changing climate? Maybe. At the very least, her enthusiasm for new tastes and experiences is a welcome sign for customers looking for the same.

Carol Lollis/ Daily Hampshire Gazette photo

Running the orchard is a family affair. Each of the two main operators, Kate Miller Carl and her son, Andrew Carl, live and farm on different parcels of land passed down through the family. Her daughter, Jenny Kapinos-Coleman, also helps when she can.

“Whimsical” is how Carl describes the main orchard property where she lives at 1 Douglas Rd, right off Rt 10 in Southampton. Rows of fruit trees and bushes bend along the edges of fields, and flowers are planted all over, splashing color in between the lines.

When Carl inherited her property, it was home to many old, full-sized apple trees, unkempt and no longer productive. She and her husband removed these and planted 600 new semi-dwarf apple trees in their place. With diligent pruning, the new ones stay a much more manageable 12 feet tall.

Those apple trees, now growing 26 varieties of apples, remain the core of the whole orchard business. Yet it wasn’t long before other fruit arrived on the scene. Blueberries and blackberries. Peaches and pears. And of course, raspberries: red ones, black ones, summer-bearing varieties and fall-bearing ones too.

Kate Carl, owner of Roundhill Orchards, picks fall Raspberries at the farm in Southampton. Carol Lollis/ Daily Hampshire Gazette photo

“The fall raspberries are beginning now,” says Carl. “Once they really start cranking, it’ll just be a wall of red.”

Fall raspberries and apples are the two crops that Roundhill Orchards offers for pick-your-own in Southampton. Raspberry picking won’t begin until mid-September, but apples are almost ready. The orchard maintains a limited online presence, but customers can check pick-your-own availability by calling the number listed on their Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) online guide listing (buylocalfood.org/farmguide).

Two newer fruits that Roundhill Orchard grows, both on the land managed by Carl’s son, are hardy kiwis and pawpaws.

“To me, growing new things is what makes farming interesting,” says Carl. “You can buy some fruit at the grocery store, but not things like this. Doesn’t that make you curious?”

Carol Lollis/ Daily Hampshire Gazette photo

Hardy kiwis are the size of a large grape with smooth green skin. On the inside, they look and taste very similar to the larger, more familiar fuzzy kiwifruit grown in warm climates. Pawpaws, which are indigenous to the Appalachians and Midwest, are quickly gaining a following among farmers and foodies.

“Pawpaws are sometimes called a custard apple, because they taste a little like a banana custard,” Carl explains. “Not everyone likes them, but the people that do love them. They’ll ask weeks in advance when the pawpaws will be ready.”

The harvest date of any of their crops is a moving target that depends a lot on the weather. “This year, everything feels so out of whack,” Carl says. “Things are a good ten days to two weeks earlier than usual.”

Carol Lollis/ Daily Hampshire Gazette photo

She thinks the main culprit is heat, and the data agrees we’ve had a sweltering summer. According to the National Weather Service, average daily temperatures near Southampton were three to four degrees above normal across May, June, and July, reaching above 85 degrees 27 times in that span. It’s not just western Massachusetts that’s feeling the heat either. Scientists just reported last July was the hottest month ever recorded. In fact, the last 14 months in a row have broken records for average high temperatures in each respective month.

Warmer temperatures and erratic weather patterns, fueled by climate change, pose real challenges for New England fruit growers. While last year’s cold snaps devastated many crops, this year’s relentless heat has shortened harvest seasons, increased pests, and made fieldwork more challenging.

“When I was little girl,” she says, “we’d have the Memorial Day parade at the cemetery in Southampton, where a huge hedge of purple lilacs was always in full, glorious bloom. Now, 60 years later, the blossoms are dead and brown by Memorial Day.”

Carol Lollis/ Daily Hampshire Gazette photo

“Some people don’t realize that things are really changing,” she continues. “If you’re not outside working in the middle of it, you might not see it. But for us it’s challenging.”

A chaotic climate is especially challenging for farms that grow just a few crops. Farms like Roundhill Orchard are more resilient because they don’t put all their eggs in one basket. If one crop struggles, others may do alright and keep income flowing.

Thankfully, this year has been a good year for most things. Apples, peaches, and fall raspberries are ready now. Pears are on the verge, and pawpaws and kiwis are still to come, leaving a lot to look forward to.

Roundhill Orchards sells a lot of fruit at their own farm stands, one at the Douglas Rd location and another at 115 Southampton Rd in Holyoke (the latter is closed when it rains). They attend the Florence Farmers Market too (every Wednesday from 2-6pm through October at the Florence Civic Center) and sell fruit to Small Oven Bakes in Easthampton.

Jacob Nelson is communications coordinator for CISA. To learn more about local farms near you and what they’re growing, visit buylocalfood.org.

A surprise parting gift: Monte and Kaliis did a whole show on how local agriculture has evolved in Phil’s 16 years at CISA!

Intro and Amherst Nurseries part one: 0:00 – 11:45

Amherst Nurseries part two: 11:45 – 24:20

CISA’s past and present: 24:20 – 41:40

Reflections from Phil: 42:00 – end

Bill and Connie Gillen, co-owners of Sunset Farm in Amherst. Photo by Carol Lollis, Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Sunset Farm Grows Vegetables, Flowers, and Community

Sunset Farm in Amherst is a neighborhood farm that emphasizes the social aspects of farming in community. Owners Connie and Bill Gillen grow vegetables and flowers on ten acres, within walking and biking distance of the University of Massachusetts campus.

The couple waded into farming over fifty years ago, while they were still working in other professions. With early careers in Cambridge, Connie Gillen is a retired psychologist, and Bill Gillen is a retired architect.

Bill Gillen’s great grandfather and grandfather farmed in Brooklyn in the 1860’s. The octogenarian worked on farms there when he was young. The tractors at Sunset Farm are functional farming history that punctuate Gillen’s long view: the Ford 9N was built in 1937, the blue 8N in 1948, and the newest is from the mid-1950s.

The farm welcomes neighbors, students, and passing visitors throughout the growing season to visit and experience the farm. With an unconventional approach, all the crops at Sunset Farm are offered as pick-your-own.

Farmer Bill Gillen leans over plants to check them

Farmer Bill Gillen checks his crops. Photo by Carol Lollis, Daily Hampshire Gazette.

The farm has 100 rows of crops that are labeled, so visitors can find their chosen crop. The farmers use a golf cart to navigate sections of their farm. Gillen explains, “We mix the rows up and move them 12 feet apart, so there is room for the golf cart. We keep the aisles open so we can get to the crops.”

Gillen’s daily email missives from “The Gillen Collaborative” to over 130 people combine agriculture education with social updates.  Part Farmer’s Almanac, the farmer shares what is in season and practical suggestions for the farm visit, inserting a bit of humor and wisdom in equal measure.

The farm grows 800-1,000 tomatoes in many varieties. Neighbors who wish to pick them can walk out to the correct rows on the far edge of the property—or they can purchase them in the farm stand already boxed. On August 5, Gillen wrote, “When you pick tomatoes, leave your water bottle behind: just pop a tomato when you need hydration. I do believe in climate change, but that doesn’t mean I need a water bottle with me in the field.”

Vegetables and flowers are the primary crops on their gently sloping landscape. Although Sunset Farms offers a wide variety of pick-your-own crops, they do not offer blueberries or other berries or fruits that are commonly sought after for pick-your-own.

light green melon still on vine

A melon on the vine

Gillen says, “Watermelon and cantaloupe are the only fruits we offer currently.” The farm grows a small variety of watermelon, suitable for smaller households, and easier to manage at farmers’ markets.

Touring the farm on a golf cart with Gillen, he points at a small cantaloupe with a light green rind that is edible, with pink flesh inside. The innocuous melon shines a light on the diversity of friends and neighbors visiting Sunset Farm. Some of the pick-your-own customers say this variety of melon is from their home country of Korea, while others claim the melon comes from their home country of Armenia. Gillen smiles and says, “So our melons belong to everybody.”

Some people make an annual event out of visiting the farm, such as a group who visits for the chestnut harvest in the fall. Gillen notes, “You take a rake and poke the branches to get the chestnuts to fall. There’s a trick to it. The men will harvest while the women shuck the chestnuts, with tea going on the side.”

Gillen trusts that neighbors, students, and customers visit according to nature’s rhythms. He explains, “We don’t have a schedule. Nature has a schedule. Depending on nature and good luck, people show up when the crops are ready.” The social aspect of neighbors and community enjoying the bounty of the farm together makes Sunset Farm a vibrant place to gather.

With confidence in nature and the experience of watching the unfolding of seasons over 87 years, Gillen knows his market. He explains that excitement for crops is about timing. For instance, over-wintered spinach is their first crop of the year and the first leafy green at the farmers’ market. “The timing makes our spinach extremely popular,” he says.

Produce and flowers from the farm are available for sale at their own farm stand. Locals may recognize their bright yellow farm stand as the little building that once sat on the Amherst Town Common. While the farm stand is open daily 24/7, visitors are encouraged to enjoy the experience of pick-your-own as well.

Bill Gillen, co-owner of Sunset Farm carries a crate of tomatoes. Photo by Carol Lollis, Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Sunset Farm has a longstanding presence at the Amherst Farmers’ Market. “We have been selling at the Amherst farmers’ market for over fifty years,” says Gillen. In 2021, the couple received a special citation from the legislature for 50 years of service at the market.

Connie Gillen stands in front of her work table where she arranges flowers for a customer

Connie Gillen stands in front of her workspace where she prepares flower arrangements for a customer.

While Sunset Farm seems to place as much emphasis on the social aspects of the farm as the crops themselves, Bill and Connie Gillen cultivate intangibles like community, beauty, and fun with their farm. Gillen explains, “This is not a food community. This is a social thing. Customers retired here in Amherst because of the beauty here. People have fun coming together here. They enjoy talking to Connie while using their hands.”

Gillen concludes, “Between the farmers’ market and our farm stand, this small farm supplements local families’ diets with fresh food that is lovingly grown. More than anything, I hope to inspire and enhance joy for our customers and neighbors by sharing with them what it feels like to touch the soil, pick a vegetable, or arrange flowers.”

Lisa Goodrich is Communications Coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, (CISA). To learn more about Sunset Farm, check out their Facebook page or website at www.sunsetfarm.us.

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Kaliis, Monte, and Phil visit Jenell Smith, chef and owner of Jen’s Organics Restaurant in Springfield, to talk about:

Jen’s Organics is open Weekdays 11-7 and Saturdays 10-3. Visit them on State St. in Mason Square.

First published August 20, 2024 in the Springfield Republican. See original article and images here.

Gleanings from my 16 years in the Western Mass local food movement

By Philip Korman

As I am poised to leave my job after 16 years as executive director of CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture), naturally, I’ve started to reflect. My takeaways so far are: local farms are still challenged to keep farming, maybe even more so; the local community is solidly behind farms and CISA, yet that support is more likely to appear in times of trouble; and the number of folks who care deeply about farms has grown along with the desire for a more just local food system.

When I took the helm at CISA, I didn’t come in with a deep background in agriculture. What I did know was how to grow an organization and create community. The timing was a bit scary because it was right when the 2008 recession began, and I spent many sleepless nights worrying that local farms would go out of business because consumers had less to spend and donors might have less resources to fund CISA’s support of farms in their time of need.

Thankfully, these concerns were unfounded. The recession resulted in residents buying more from local farms, and increasing their support of CISA, perhaps because people were looking to deepen their roots, keep farms farming and bring in fresher and healthier food for their families.

CISA Executive Director Philip Korman, right, with Emma Gwyther at a Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce event in 2020.(Ed Cohen photo)

This was not the last time we saw a surge of interest in buying local food during a challenging time. When the pandemic hit, many residents who did not feel safe shopping in big supermarkets turned to small farm stores and farmers’ markets. When the national food supply chain was disrupted, residents (re)discovered local meat, cheese and much more. 

In both the 2008 recession and the 2020 onset of the pandemic, the community supported CISA in increasing its efforts to connect residents to farms and farms to residents.

The community has also shown up to help local farms directly as climate change has brought new challenges. In October 2011, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, the support of local residents and businesses enabled CISA to launch a new Emergency Farm Fund to provide no-interest loans to affected farms.

And in 2023, when hundreds of farms were severely hurt by the worst range of weather disasters in recent history, residents, local legislators and the governor rallied. Within a few months, over $3 million was raised through private donations and $20 million from public funds to help these farms survive the season.

While economic and climate conditions have continued to shift, there’s one factor that continues to put pressure on local farms and our local food system: the shrinking number of global companies that control a greater percentage of the national food and agriculture markets.

The top four corporations in many agricultural sectors, including meat processing, seeds, fertilizers, and retail grocery, control 60-90% of the national market.

Over my time at CISA, we have worked to understand more deeply how our local food system reflects the racial, gender and class inequities of our nation. The owners of farms across the country and state are still overwhelmingly white and male. Many people who work on farms are from other countries, here to build a better life for their families, doing the hard work that few others want to do.

And access to local food in our state is still difficult for folks without personal transportation and discretionary resources.

Farmers' marketAgainst this backdrop, CISA has worked to lift our local food system as a place where we can make some movement on these issues through community engagement and serve as a model in the region and nation. Many vital partners who have emerged as the leaders in their communities have been our teachers and we, hopefully, their ally.

We can be proud that we are the only state in the nation with HIP, the Healthy Incentives Program, a state government program that provides fresh, local produce for families on SNAP, and a grant infrastructure farm program that invests needed millions to help local farms expand to feed their communities.

Our work has grown as our support from local businesses and residents has grown. CISA is equipped to creatively and strategically look ahead and take risks to face our current and future challenges.

And while I am sometimes still up in the middle of the night, concerned about how farms will weather climate change, a challenging economy and systemic inequities, I am confident that more people in our community understand more deeply that what they buy, how they vote, where they invest, and who they share a meal with is a daily practice of love, connection and change.

Philip Korman is the executive director of CISA, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture

Published August 17 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette

More Than a Farm Stand

Bringing local food and fun to Goshen

By Jacob Nelson

For people near Goshen, Oliver’s Farm Stand is bringing more local food within close reach. As they do, they’re bringing their neighbors closer together too.

Farm stands come in many shapes and sizes. Since 2017, Oliver’s has grown into a nearly full-service neighborhood store, explains Ruby Hutt, who owns and runs it.

“We carry almost 100% local and regional products,” she says. “All our fruit and veggies are hyper-local – most of it I go pick up myself – and along with that we try to have everything for a complete meal. We have local meat, cheeses, eggs, baked goods, and a whole range of specialty items.”

Located in the center of Goshen at 36 Main Street (Route 9), the farm store is open 24/7 using a self-serve honor system. They accept cash, check, credit, debit, Venmo and Apple Pay. Hutt is also in the process of getting approved to accept SNAP-EBT (formerly known as food stamps).

The history of Oliver’s Farm Stand starts with Hutt’s son, Oliver. Soon after he was born, Hutt and her husband Dan bought a house in Goshen and moved there from Hutt’s hometown of South Deerfield. In a new community, Hutt found herself craving another outlet compatible with full-time mom duties.

“People told me someone used to sell corn up here,” recalls Hutt. “I said, ‘gosh, I could do that. I grew up working on farms in the Valley. I know farmers.’ So, I put up a tent, went around buying vegetables, and it just took off.”

The first three years of sales were modest but proved the business had staying power. Then COVID hit in 2020, and everything changed. People scrambled for uncrowded grocery options that were closer to home but still had many essentials. Oliver’s Farm Stand’s self-serve model fit the bill, and with such a short and local supply chain they never faced shortages like the big grocery stores. That summer, sales quadrupled.

Since then, Hutt has only expanded, now carrying hundreds of items from around the region, dozens of them from right here in western Massachusetts. A few of them deliver to the stand and Hutt also buys some items through Marty’s Local and Food Connects, local distributors that collect and sell food from producers across New England. For everything else, Hutt herself hits the road to bring it back to Goshen.

Among the “hyper-local” produce farms she buys from, Hutt names Lombrico Farm in West Whately and Paddy Flat Farm in Ashfield as “super small, but their quality is phenomenal.”

“I’ve also worked with Pause and Pivot Farm in Williamsburg since they started, and they’re great,” she says. “We get their microgreens and fresh baked goods. Their bars, cookies and scones are amazing.”

Recently, Hutt decided that while she’s out picking up food for Oliver’s – essentially becoming her own tiny local distribution company – she may as well bring back some of the Valley’s bounty for other local businesses too. Camp Howe, a youth summer camp in Goshen, and the Old Creamery Co-op in Cummington are two places she started delivering local produce to this summer. She hopes to add more partnerships soon.

With her small business on the rise, Hutt is excited that people seem to really want what she’s offering. That consistent support has given her the confidence to take the next step for the business: moving the farm store into a new, bigger, permanent building starting next year.

Until now the farm store has been a temporary structure. Every spring the Hutts move fridges, freezers, and shelves out of storage to reconstruct the stand. Each fall they tear it down again.

“It’s a lot of work, and in the end we’ve built a grocery store outside, which is just silly,” Hutt says. “Heat, humidity and critters can all damage products. Eventually we realized it would be easier and cheaper to get the bigger, climate-controlled building and move everything indoors.”

With the new building, Hutt also hopes they’ll be able to stay open for their customers year-round. “We’re spoiled with so much local food available all year,” she says. “If we can extend our season and give people access to it, why not?”

“Why not” seems like a typical response when Hutt sees an idea that’s in reach and could bring her neighbors more food or just a dose of fun. The Oliver’s and Friends Seasonal Celebration, which she dreamt up with Miana Hoyt Dawson of Pause and Pivot Farm, offers both.

Now in its third year, Hutt describes this free event as Goshen’s smaller answer to the likes of the Cummington Fair or the Ashfield Fall Festival. On Saturday September 14th from 11am to 4pm, food trucks, face painting, and a vendor lawn with local food and crafts will set up in front of the farm store, complete with live music and children’s activities throughout the day. Proceeds will benefit the Northampton Survival Center’s Hilltown Food Pantry located right next door.

“As a new small business, I can’t afford to give away money,” says Hutt. “But Miana and I can create a space to raise money with this super fun family event. Last year we had over 1,000 people, and this year will be even bigger.”

The value Oliver’s Farm Stand brings to the local economy cannot be overlooked. Their impact on the broader local community, including all the new events, relationships, and opportunities they’ve created, leaves an even bigger mark. That makes Hutt proud.

“Everything I do through Oliver’s is so personal,” she says. “It’s more than just a farm stand.”

Jacob Nelson is communications coordinator for CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture). To learn more about local farms and where to buy or enjoy local food near you, visit buylocalfood.org.

Fitzwilly’s Serves Local Ingredients with a Side of Northampton History

Fitzwilly’s Restaurant offers seasonal, local food in an iconic downtown Northampton location. As summer explodes with local crops on the farm stands, Fitzwilly’s revised menu bursts with local tomatoes, corn, fruit, and much more.

Locals may be familiar with the history of the restaurant. As Fitzwilly’s celebrates their 50th anniversary this year, co-owner Fred Gohr recently talked about the history of the business. It started when Roger Kirwood, a small business owner from Springfield, visited Northampton in 1974.

He found much of the town boarded up and an old bar where Fitzwilly’s now resides. Gohr explains that Kirwood “fell in love with the bones of the place, bought it, and spent months doing the work himself to expose the brick that was covered over with plaster.” The building is the Classical Revival Masonic Block, built in 1898. It housed the law office of Coolidge and Hemenway from 1898 to 1918 — yes, that’s Calvin Coolidge, who would go on to become the 30th president of the United States.

Fitzwilly’s Restaurant was born, with Kirwood drawing the name from a 1967 madcap farce that featured Dick Van Dyke and Barbara Feldon. Kirwood hired Gohr in 1978 for another restaurant in New Haven, where Gohr was attending the University of New Haven after his training at Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute. One weekend in 1979, Kirwood asked Gohr to come to Northampton to help out during some renovations. Gohr quips, “I came up for the weekend and I’m still here.”

Gohr worked in many roles until becoming general manager in the early 1980s. In 1988 Gohr and eight original partners bought the restaurant from Kirwood; today four partners own Fitzwilly’s, but only Gohr is involved in the daily operation.

In 1988, Kirwood bought the space next door and opened Pop’s Package Store. After a series of businesses came and went in that space, Gohr and his partners opened the Toasted Owl next door to Fitzwilly’s in 2004. The Toasted Owl is a sports bar that features “solid local food, but a more limited menu.” As Fitzwilly’s celebrates 50 years, the Toasted Owl celebrates 20 years.

Aligning with the seasons and working with local farms inspires the Fitzwilly’s kitchen team. Gohr says, “We like to push the envelope a little bit. That’s where the local produce comes in. We look forward every year to spring and local asparagus. We center all of our specials for a month on asparagus. We offer asparagus grilled cheese, grilled asparagus, or even an asparagus pasta dish. We buy cases of asparagus from John Boisvert Farms in Hadley, and we go through four cases of asparagus a week as long as it’s around.”

Asparagus Grilled Cheese

Local diners can return to Fitzwilly’s often and enjoy specials that change with the seasons. Gohr notes, “Once asparagus fades, the strawberries really kick in. We make strawberry shortcakes, and strawberry salads, and then it’s summer and the produce really arrives.”

The summer menu features a number of local produce items, plus every weekend the restaurant offers new specials with local ingredients. Fans who enjoyed Fitzwilly’s Mexican Street Corn from a Taste of Northampton will recognize this crowd-pleasing appetizer on the summer menu. Gohr says, “People just love it. First of all, it’s fresh, local corn. We do it with cojita cheese, cilantro, jalapeño crema, with a little bit of lime juice. It’s really delicious.”

There is no one theme that defines the menus of the restaurant. Gohr notes, “Our kitchen staff loves to get in the kitchen, play around, and come up with stuff.” Gohr continues, “Fitzwilly’s has always been known for good, consistent, affordable food for everyone.”

“We use local produce wherever we can. We have a wild mushroom grilled cheese on the menu with mushrooms from Mycoterra Farm in South Deerfield. That’s year-round because they grow indoors,” says Gohr. They recently offered a grilled peach salad with peaches from Outlook Farm. Some farms deliver, and other times, someone on the Fitzwilly’s team picks up from farms. Everything is seasonal: the scallop and sweet corn risotto changes to a butternut squash risotto for the winter as the yield from the fields changes with the weather.

Other local ingredients you’ll find in Fitzwilly’s kitchen include potatoes from Swaz Potato Farms and blueberries from Sobieski’s River Valley Farm. Gohr notes, “This is the first time we ever had three vegetarian sandwiches on the permanent menu. We do a blueberry grilled cheese, where our chef cooks it down with balsamic vinegar and local goat cheese from Thomas Dairy.” For Gohr, running the business takes him away from experimenting with local ingredients in the kitchen, but “when I get back in the kitchen, it’s a lot of fun,” he says.

Both Fitzwilly’s and the Toasted Owl feature a number of local beers, hard ciders, and wines. Artifact Cider, Berkshire Brewing, and many more make the local lineup at the bar. Indigo Coffee has roasted and supplied coffee to the restaurant for 30 years. The bar menu at the Toasted Owl includes treats like a Caprese flatbread made with local tomatoes or hand-cut French fries made with Swaz potatoes.

Looking back Gohr says, “Our amazing staff brings me joy. We have a number of long-term employees that have been with us for years and years. Right alongside that, the satisfaction of our guests brings me joy. We call ourselves the Fitzwilly’s Family—and our guests are part of that.”

Lisa Goodrich is Communications Coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, (CISA). To learn more about Fitzwilly’s Restaurant, check out their social media or website at https://fitzwillys.com.

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Debby and Godie Cook from Cook Farm and Flayvors of Cook Farm in Hadley join Phil, Kaliis, and Monte to talk about how their 115 year old dairy farm has evolved over the years. Did you know:

Flayvors of Cook Farm is open every day from 12 – 9pm on South Maple Street in Hadley (as of summer 2024).

Published August 3, 2024 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Greenfield Recorder

Fresh Figs? In Massachusetts?

Leyden Farm unlocks new flavors and farming possibilities

By Jacob Nelson

It’s rare to try an entirely new food as an adult. Rarer still to realize it was growing under your nose the whole time.

Before he started farming them in Leyden, Tom Ashley had never eaten a fig outside of a Fig Newton. Even the idea of fig trees thriving in New England was new to him. Now, he and his wife and farming partner, Trish Crapo, are helping others discover the joys of growing and eating their own fresh local figs.

Dancing Bear Farm has grown unique produce for over 40 years. At one point their fields spanned five acres, but now they’ve scaled back to focus on greenhouse crops, namely fresh figs and young fig trees.

“Everyone thinks what makes this farm unique is the figs,” says Crapo, “but I think it starts with Tom. Tom loves the challenge of an unusual crop. Thirty years ago, he was one of the first people to grow heirloom tomatoes around here. Then it was different kinds of garlic and specialty peppers. Whenever others try to copy him, he pivots and finds another niche. I think he’ll always be growing something interesting.”

Figs, in Ashely and Crapo’s eyes, are interesting for many reasons. They’re an ancient crop cultivated for thousands of years since being domesticated in western Asia. These storied roots, coupled with the novelty of finding them in New England, add to their mystic. For many people, figs also are a connection to family and home. For example, several of Dancing Bear Farm’s customers have shared stories about immigrant relatives carefully tending fig trees that made the transatlantic voyage with them, whose fruit flavored their childhood.

Figs themselves are also an enigma. Are they a fruit? A flower? Is there really a dead wasp inside every fig, as the rumor goes? The answers are yes, yes, and usually no. Figs are technically a collection of inverted flowers that bloom inside the fig pod and mature into a compound fruit. And while many wild figs rely on specific fig wasps to pollinate them, most commercially grown figs – including those grown at Dancing Bear Farm – are self-pollinating instead.

Ashely and Crapo’s fig journey began with a gift from a longtime customer they now call their “fig mother.”

“She brought us four dead-looking sticks,” says Ashley, “cuttings from her fig tree in Brooklyn. She said, ‘stick these in your greenhouse and see what happens.’ And I said, ‘yeah, sure Marie. Figs?’ I had never eaten one, and I didn’t know if they’d even grow.”

They humored her, planted the cuttings, and had a small harvest within a year. “I ate my first fresh fig, and it was great,” says Ashley. “Sweet but light – completely different than anything I’d tried before.”

Ashely and Crapo were sold on figs, but knew that full grown 20-foot fig trees wouldn’t fit inside their existing greenhouse. They pruned them heavily, planting any viable cuttings so that they might become new trees too. Soon their fig tree collection outgrew the greenhouse anyways, convincing them to tear it down and build a larger, glass-paneled structure they call their Figtorium. Today it houses seven mature in-ground fig trees, thriving in what Crapo calls “a slice of Mediterranean climate.”

Today, those seven fig trees can produce over 1,000 figs each year per tree, starting in August. That’s over 700 pounds of figs, most of which are sold to nearby restaurants and bakeries like Great Falls Harvest in Turners Falls, Hope & Olive restaurant and Rise Above bakery in Greenfield, and Sweet Lucy’s Bakeshop in Bernardston.

As Ashely explains, the main reason figs shipped in from far away can’t compare to local ones is that, unlike most fruit, figs don’t ripen after picking.

“To have any shelf life, most figs are picked under-ripe,” he says. “The best way to enjoy a fig is to pick it off your own tree or come to the farm and get one picked that day.”

Dancing Bear Farm does sell some figs directly from the farm. These days though, they mostly sell the fig trees themselves, which can supply customers with their own harvest of fresh figs for years to come.

The yearly care for a fig tree is not excessive, but figs do have different needs than most local fruit trees. For those interested, Ashely has three pieces of advice.

The first is to have a plan for the winter. Left outside and unprotected, the bitter New England cold will kill any fig tree. Instead, Ashely encourages people to plant them in large 15-gallon pots that can be moved indoors during winter and back outside when spring returns.

The other two tips are about pruning. Fig tree branches should be heavily pruned every fall once the tree has gone dormant and before moving it inside. He also suggests a heavy root pruning every three to five years. Both practices ensure the tree habituates to its potted life and continues producing a lot of figs.

To help customers learn, Dancing Bear Farm has a how-to video on root pruning on their website. For branch pruning advice, Ashley also invites customers to send him pictures of their trees via email and he will mark suggested cuts.

With rich and subtle flavors, figs are incredibly versatile in dishes ranging from sweet to savory and casual to fancy. Homemade fig jam goes great with soft cheeses or spread on toast. Figs added to red sauce thicken it and add a delightful sweetness. Among their business customers, Hope & Olive once made a fig cocktail with muddled figs and fig leaf simple syrup, while Sweet Lucy’s Bakeshop often makes a homemade Fig Newton-style fig bar of their own.

One of Ashley’s favorite fig recipes is a fig marsala reduction sauce. “After I cook a steak or pork chops in a skillet, I’ll remove the meat, add some wine to the pan, shallots, and figs,” he explains. “Smash it all up, let it reduce, and drizzle it over the meat.”

It sounds fancy and exotic, but it’s pretty straightforward and approachable. Just like growing figs in western Massachusetts, it turns out.

Dancing Bear Farm is now accepting inquiries about figs and fig trees. Contact information is listed on their website: dancingbearfarm.com. Text and email are best.

Jacob Nelson is communications coordinator for CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture). To explore more local food and farms in your neighborhood, visit buylocalfood.org.

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Maritza Amaya-Branche and chef Martin Amaya, who own Alina’s Ristorante in Hadley, chat with Jacob, Kaliis, and Monte about their long history of running this beloved restaurant and longer road to getting there. Our conversation covers:

Alina’s is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 5-9pm. Reservations can be made online or over the phone (413-584-8000).