Dan Greene with herbs in the green house. Photo by Paul Franz/Greenfield Recorder.
Published May 24, 2025 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette
By Jacob Nelson
“It’s usually around April 20th when I plant things in the field that can handle light frost,” says farmer Dan Greene of Good Bunch Farm. “Then there’s a longer wait until the next big planting date in late May. By then the threat of frost is gone and you can finally plant all the warm-loving crops. After that, you really don’t have any time except for weeding and harvesting.”
As the earth turns green around us, many farmers are taking their last big inhale before their fields explode with life, demanding every ounce of their attention. This is certainly the case for Dan Greene, who cultivates about five acres at his farm in Shelburne with a few helping hands.
Dan Greene with herbs in the green house. Photo by Paul Franz/Greenfield Recorder.
Greene is one of many local farmers who springboarded from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst to running their own farm. In Greene’s case, there were several years of work and training after graduation before he founded Good Bunch Farm in 2012. He rented land for a while before finding his permanent spot in 2018.
“The land itself is pretty good,” he says. “It’s flat, not too rocky, and above the floodplain. We’re pretty far from bigger towns, but we have the advantage of serving this little hub of Shelburne Falls. It’s a bit far for the bigger Valley farms to bother selling to, but it’s a great market for a farm like mine.”
In terms of what he grows, it’s “a whole array of fresh vegetables, a lot of culinary herbs and starter plants too,” says Greene. “For farmers markets especially, it helps to grow a little of everything so I can be a one-stop-shop.”
Dan Greene waters tomato starts in the green house. Photo by Paul Franz/Greenfield Recorder.
Farmers markets sales are a big part of Greene’s business, as is true for many smaller farms. Over the past decade, Good Bunch Farm has cemented itself as an important vendor at summer farmers markets in Shelburne Falls (Fridays, 2:00-6:30 p.m. at the corner of Main and Water streets) and Ashfield (Saturdays, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm on the town common). Both markets are running now through the end of October.
“Shelburne Falls is small but it’s a good market,” says Greene. “It’s walking distance from most of the town and people in the neighborhood definitely come to shop. I’ve been there for as long as I’ve been farming and have a very loyal customer base. Ashfield is about twice as big, and a great gathering place on Saturday mornings.”
For many years Greene only grew for farmers markets and a handful of restaurants and venues. Then, when he finally got land in Shelburne, he opened a self-serve farms stand and was surprised how popular it was.
Good Bunch Farm’s farm stand in Shelburne Falls. Photo by Paul Franz/Greenfield Recorder.
“Sales-wise, it ends up being about the equivalent of doing a third farmers market,” he says.”
The stand is open now, offering a variety of early veggies like radishes, arugula and other greens, scallions, and fresh herbs. They also have many different kinds of starter plants for sale, ready for planting in home gardens when the weather is right.
A few things are different this year at Good Bunch Farm. For one, hopefully there will be a lot fewer vegetables lost to hungry deer.
Says Greene, “We recently got a grant from the Farm Viability Enhancement Program at MDAR (the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources) to put up a deer-prevention fence. Deer are kind of a constant nuisance, and we’ve tried other strategies to stop them, but none really worked.”
Photo by Paul Franz/Greenfield Recorder.
That funding, coming from the state of Massachusetts, is not in question, and should result in more local food ending up on Hilltowner’s plates this summer. Meanwhile, many of Greene’s peer farmers were left in the lurch when the federal government canceled other grant programs, breaking promises to compensate farmers for taking care of natural resources, growing food for schools and food banks, and other public services.
“I count myself lucky that I wasn’t pursuing any federal grants right now,” he says, “but even then, I’m still affected. One of the USDA’s programs was compensating us for food we gave to local food pantries – that was really helpful and now it’s gone. If they cut SNAP, that will affect my farm.”
“Having such uncertainty, lack of support, and even combativeness coming from the feds … it’s not great, I’ll say that.”
Greene is glad that the state of Massachusetts seems much more invested in farms’ survival. Still, states and the private sector do not have the financial resources to make up for the federal government canceling their investments.
Photo by Paul Franz/Greenfield Recorder.
“I was actually just at a meeting with state officials who are trying to figure out how the state can help,” he says. “We had a bunch of farmers, people from MDAR, Senator Markey’s office, and some others. It’s great, I just don’t know what their resources can support. It’s not just agriculture but a lot of services being targeted, and a lot of holes to plug, but they want to help.”
As the growing season gets underway, farmers have even less time to lobby for the support they need, because the needs of their animals and seedlings and soon-to-be-planted fields are even more immediate. For the moment, they must trust others to keep speaking up on their behalf.
“I know there’s a lot of community support for farms, and I’m so grateful for that,” says Greene. “It’s always nice to realize that when talking to people at farmers markets.”
Looking ahead to this year, Greene says, “Honestly, I’m just really excited for the deer fence. I feel like the farm is entering a new chapter, getting bigger and better. Hopefully we can have a good productive season.”
Jacob Nelson is communications coordinator for CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture). To learn more about local farms, farm stands, and farmers markets opening up hear you, visit buylocalfood.org.
Lady’s Slipper Orchids grown in Ashfield. Photo from Hillside Nursery website.
The spring planting season is upon us, and home gardeners are out in full force on weekends, visiting farm stands and garden centers hunting for just the right elements for their gardens and outdoor spaces. The season celebrates the return of the sun and warmer overnight temperatures, with many sun-loving species taking center stage on magazine covers, websites, and in newsletters.
But nature is a balance, and light and shade go together. As the woods warm up, trillium and lady slipper orchids may be found on woodland slopes under the cover of budding trees. As stems and leaves unfurl from the forest floor, a few local plant nurseries focus on woodland shade plants for those who appreciate a quieter, more understated garden palette.
Hillside Nursery is a small plant farm in Ashfield that specializes in the propagation and production of lady-slipper orchids and woodland wildflowers, whose botanical origins are the temperate forests of the Northern Hemisphere. Since 1989, these growers have been developing propagation and cultivation techniques for this unique group of plants so they can make these plants more available to the public.
Owner-operator, Amy Murray, talks about the start of the growing season, “The early spring can be a bit stressful not knowing what survived and what didn’t over the winter, but the cheerful early blooming plants that greet me when I go into the greenhouse lift my spirits.”
The nursery comprises of one greenhouse and a couple of shade houses for potted plants and raised beds. Hillside grows plants that are found in woodlands that gardeners can add to their shade gardens.
Murray explains, “When I was a new gardener, I only knew hostas, impatiens and astilbe for shady areas. While those are good choices, I like to think of the plants we offer as providing more interest in the shade garden by giving it a more woodland feel.”
Spring ephemerals are some of the plants that Hillside offers. These are plants that bloom in early spring before the forest is fully leafed out. Some of these plants go dormant in the summer and some do not.
Murray notes, “Some of the early spring bloomers have interesting seed pods that add further interest in summer. Some of our plants provide foliar interest; rather than being known for flowers, they have interesting shaped, patterned or colored leaves.” She adds, “We grow native plants and plants native to Europe and Asia.”
Hillside Nursery thrives in this niche of woodland plants for our region’s backyards and wooded borders. Murray says, “Our plants are more unusual, and we think, more interesting than plants offered at big box stores.”
She explains that their plants elude mass production because some are harder to grow in cultivation. Murray says, “This doesn’t mean they’re hard to grow in the garden, it just means they don’t like being in pots for extended periods of time.”
Lady slipper orchids are the farm’s specialty. Lady slipper orchids are grown from seed in laboratory conditions, and it can take up to 5 years to get a lady slipper blooming from seed.
Murray says, “We propagate most of our plants by seed, but there are others that we divide root stock because it is faster than doing it by seed. A lot of our plants take two years from seed, but there are some, like trillium, which can take four-to-five years to reach flowering size from seed.”
The specialty nursery grows and sells plants on nature’s timeline. Murray explains, “We don’t pump our plants with growth regulators and fertilizer so they’re full of flowers on the sales bench. They are allowed to grow as they would in nature, which sometimes requires a bit of imagination on the part of the customer. Just because a plant is not blooming on the sales bench, doesn’t mean it won’t bloom in the garden in the future.”
Overall, growing native woodland plants brings Murray joy. She explains, “I love all the steps of propagation, sowing seed, stepping up seedlings, dividing, potting—all of it. Even though it can be monotonous at times, it is soothing.”
Murray continues, “I also like providing people with happy, healthy plants that they can enjoy in their gardens for many years. At the plants sales we do, we have a lot of return customers who come by to say how much they love all the plants they bought in the past, and that makes me happy.”
Hillside Nursery sells through online sales: plants are bare root or potted, and some are sold as bulbs. The farm starts the season focused on wholesale accounts and spring plant sales in New England. Once the spring push is behind, Murray and her team work on propagating varieties for the next year and planning the fall sales.
The fall plant sale is bigger and offers more than the spring sale. “We turn our website on for ordering in July for fall and December for spring shipping. Things sell out quickly, so it’s best to get on our email list so you’ll get the email when we turn the website on,” says Murray.
Hillside Nursery sells plants by pre-order on their website, hillsidenursery.biz, and a selection is available locally at Baystate Perennials or Nasami Farm. The public is welcome to visit the farm’s open house on Saturday, May 31st from 9 to 1 to see the nursery and to buy plants. Hillside Nursery is open by appointment only.
Lisa Goodrich is a Communications Coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). To find cultivated native plants and perennials at local flower farms and nurseries near you, check out CISA’s online guide at buylocalfood.org/find-it-locally.
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Claire takes Monte and Kaliis out to visit Marti Ferguson and her herd of Finnsheep at Walking Cloud Farm in Buckland, where they also discuss the legacy and present day examples of sheep farming in the Hilltowns.
Then the party grows, as Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair supporters Barbara Goodchild of Barberic Farm and Launie York join to talk about nearly 50-year history of this event and everything people can enjoy this year.
The Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair takes place all day this Saturday and Sunday (May 24-25) at the Cummington Fair grounds. Animals, so much wool, great food, oh my! See the schedule here.
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Arbor vitae growing happily at one of Amherst Nurseries’ fields (their photo)
On a very muddy day, Jennifer brings Monte and Kaliis out to Hadley to see where Amherst Nurseries grows many of the trees and shrubs they sell or use locally for landscaping jobs. They talk about:
Florist-farmer Kimberly Longey photographed by Peter Lapointe.
For Kimberly Longey, Farmer-Florist at Wild Life Flowers in Plainfield, the idea of the slow flower movement began with an appreciation for local food. “As a lover of flowers, I have purchased out-of-season blooms at the grocery store because they brightened my mood in the dead of winter. Even though I was conscious of where my food came from, I wasn’t really thinking about where my flowers came from,” says Longey.
With a penchant for community development, Longey was active 15 years ago in the process of converting the Old Cummington Creamery into a model of community ownership. Over a couple of years, Longey says, “I learned a lot about sustainable food and how important it is to do things on a small scale for the sake of community.”
Longey says, “I started learning about sustainability and how the slow-food movement focused on nurturing what we want closer to home.” The vision for Wild Life Flowers began to take hold and Longey, “started with my own practices of learning how to grow flowers with an aim to bring them into my home, onto my table, and to give to friends and family.” She started the farm in 2022, during the pandemic, when “nurturing resilience community seemed important.”
Tulip photo by Kimberly Longey
Wild Life Flowers offers cut flowers grown locally, seasonally and ethically. The farmer-florist notes, “I am in the early stages of this learning and growing journey. My farm is very much a ‘micro’ farm, with an acre in production and intentionally limiting my market to an area within 20 miles, with no shipping of flowers.”
Wild Life Flowers customers are residents and businesses in Plainfield and the surrounding towns of Ashfield, Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Hawley, Savoy, Windsor and Worthington. The farm intentionally focuses on a small rural area that is not currently well-served for direct flower sales. The farmer notes, “I offer flowers at an accessible price point with the hopes of bringing joy to my community and to sustain resilience — for people and pollinators.”
Wild Life Flowers grows over 60 varieties of annuals, perennials, and woody shrubs on one acre, using low-till and pollinator-friendly methods. Longey uses organic practices (e.g., sourcing certified seeds, using natural methods to control pests and diseases), but the farm is not certified organic.
All growing and design happen on site. Longey is a seasonal farmer, harvesting
Spring Arrangement by Kimberly Longey
each flower at the peak of its natural bloom time. Over the winter, she dries flower petals to make dyes for silk ribbons, which she uses to tie bouquets during the growing season. Longey says, “We hand-harvest and arrange all bouquets and custom florals in our on-site studio.”
Longey offers the community, both near and far, several options to enjoy flowers throughout the season. The Wild Life Flowers website is the hub for pre-ordering and an explanation of options; Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) recently assisted the farmer-florist with website upgrades. She says, “We very much appreciate pre-order/pre-payment through our website. Pre-orders are placed in the reserved area of the farm stand for customer pick up.”
The Flower Club is a version of community supported agriculture, but for flowers. The farm offers Tulip Club (May), Summer Club (July, August, September) and Dahlia Club (September/October). With the farm’s limited offerings, the Flower Clubs let customers reserve blooms, while pre-ordering helps the farm to plan. The Pollinator Club (a share in all three flower clubs) helps the farm receive revenue at the start of the season, when there is more cash going out the door than coming in. To further reduce carbon impact, Longey is exploring drop-off points if there are five or more club members from a particular town.
Blooms by Kimberly Longey
A new offering on the Wild Life Flowers website is the “Bucket of Blooms.” Longey explains, “As a one-woman show my capacity is limited. I wanted to meet the requests from people seeking flowers for weddings or other special events. This is a way for people to just play or to supplement what they grow themselves with additional blooms, so people can create arrangements for their special events.”
Flowers communicate beyond words, and so Longey created Flower Vouchers as an easy way for people out of town to give flowers to relatives or friends in the area, whether for birthdays, anniversaries, or remembrances. One voucher is good for one farmer’s choice bouquet, available for pick up at the farm stand. Vouchers can be purchased in the Wild Life Flowers online flower shop.
The farm cultivates beauty, resilience, and community while eliciting stories from customers. Longey explains, “I grow flowers that inspire nostalgia and invite curiosity. My bouquets include tulips, hellebore, delphinium, larkspur, and peony. These flowers often elicit conversations with people about their love for a particular bloom, which is often tied to a memory of their grandmother or a dear friend who first shared those flowers with them.”
Tulip rising from wrap by Kimberly Longey
She continues, “The visual cues of certain flowers can bring back personal connections to childhood homes or family gardens. I grow these flowers because they continue a story line that is present in these hills, and because I love listening to these stories and the memories they inspire people to share. One of my greatest joys is seeing the smiles that a simple bountiful bouquet can illuminate.”
Wild Life Flowers is a place of positive energy. Longey concludes, “Growing flowers has always been a source of joy and inspiration, from placing pansies on a cake to incorporating nasturtium in a salad or using marigold and zinnia for natural fabric dyes. Flowers are not just something to admire—they are meant to be experienced through all senses and in their own season.”
Sunflower with bee by Kimberly Longey
To learn more about Wild Life Flowers, see their website and online flower shop at www.wildlifeflowers.com. The farm stand is self-service and relies upon an honor-system. The stand is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May through October. They accept cash, local checks and credit/debit cards. Special orders require 48-hour notice and a phone call at 413-262-9208.
Lisa Goodrich is a Communications Coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). To find cut flowers at local flower farms and nurseries near you, check out CISA’s online guide at buylocalfood.org/find-it-locally.
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Claire takes Monte and Kaliis to visit Nordica Street Community Farm in Springfield, where they talk to farmers Anne Richmond and Todd Crosset and some of their volunteers and supporters about:
Nordica Street Community Farm’s farm stand is open Wednesdays 1 – 6pm beginning June 18 through the end of October. Learn more about what you’ll find here.
Learn more about their public trails and other projects here.
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In Massachusetts, about 10% of locally grown food is sold straight from farmer to eater. How does the other 90% get from farm to plate? Claire brought Cathy Stanton from Quabbin Harvest Food Coop in Orange and Nick Martinelli from Marty’s Local in South Deerfield into the studio to talk about it with Monte and Kaliis.
Did you know?
Both of these businesses won Local Hero Awards from CISA for the important work they do so well! Learn more about both of their roles in creating a vibrant local food system here:
Click here to view the full job position
The Nuestras Raices Mobile Market Manager will be responsible for the daily operations of our mobile market, overseeing logistics, inventory, customer service, and community engagement to ensure the successful delivery of fresh, healthy, and affordable produce to underserved communities.
Key Responsibilities:
Skills and Qualifications:
Compensation + benefits: The Mobile Market Manager role is a part-time seasonal position (30hrs/week), compensated at $25.00/hrs. Benefits include paid federal holidays and sick time accrual.
Application instructions
Nuestras Raíces is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from all backgrounds. Latino, Black, Indigenous and People of Color applicants strongly encouraged to apply. Interested candidates should submit a resume, cover letter, and three references to hroque@nuestras-raices.org
See full position description here.
The Nuestras Raices, Inc. Economic Development Director is responsible for leading and overseeing all aspects of a the organizations economic development strategy, including identifying potential business opportunities, attracting new businesses, retaining existing businesses, facilitating infrastructure development, and collaborating with local stakeholders to foster economic growth and improve the quality of life within the community; this often involves market research, policy development, business recruitment, and community outreach.
Key Responsibilities:
Published April 19, 2025 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette
By Jacob Nelson
In many ways, farming can seem like a romantic way of life. “Being outside, providing for yourself, providing for your community – and the health changes I saw in myself, eating fresh food from the land – it all resonated so deeply,” says Cara Zueger, who runs Free Living Farm in Petersham with her husband Michael.
Michael and Cara Zueger with their barn cat and a mid-summer garlic harvest hung up to dry and cure (their photo)
The full picture is more complex, and usually a lot dirtier. Every day, farmers face things beyond their control, from mother nature to the global economy. The hours are usually long. The money is far from guaranteed. Satisfaction often requires seeing some deeper value in the work, finding joy in daily tasks, and hopefully keeping a spark of that first farming romance alive. The Zuegers seem to do all three.
“Our farm, Free Living Farm, is a market garden-style farm growing a variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers and pasture-raised eggs,” Zueger explains. “We use organic and regenerative farming practices, focusing on soil health, plant nutrition, and ecological integrity.” They harvest enough produce on an acre and a half to feed hundreds of families through their CSA (community supported agriculture) program and sale at farmers’ markets and their farm stand.
The Zuegers’ story starts in California, where they met working seasonal conservation jobs. From there they moved together to Washington, where they joined their first CSA program at a nearby farm. Rather than just paying cash for their weekly harvest share, they worked off some of the cost by doing farmwork. Enjoying that, they decided next to work-trade on a small farm in Hawaii, which opened their eyes to a new way of life.
Michael Zueger harvesting ginger from the greenhouse at Free Living Farm in Petersham in late summer (their photo)
“We were amazed how you could grow so much food in a small space and make a living,” Zueger says. “We knew this was what we wanted to do.”
For the next few years, they settled into a seasonal rhythm. During summers they moved to wherever Michael Zueger could get seasonal work with the U.S. Forest Service. In winters, they would find work-trade opportunities on farms in warmer climates, learning as much as they could from every farmer they visited. This learning period culminated with the couple taking a season-long apprenticeship on a CSA farm in Maine, followed by a winter working at Four Seasons Farm, also in Maine, run by Elliot Coleman.
“He’s one of the forefathers of the organic farming movement,” Zuger explains. “It was a great learning experience, and the end of a chapter of apprenticing. After that, we decided we were ready.”
Permanent no-till beds at Free Living Farm (their photo)
In 2018, the couple broke ground on the first iteration of Free Living Farm in Brookfield, MA. Four years later, they signed a lease and moved to their current land in Petersham.
Throughout their journey, the Zuegers have come to understand soil health as a source of wellbeing that extends far beyond the farm. In fact, the farm’s name is a playful nod to the ‘free living’ microbes that abound in healthy soil. As Zueger explains, “that term resonated with us, both in how we want to live our lives and how we farm, focusing on allowing soil microbes to thrive.”
One way they do this is by avoiding tilling or disturbing the soil when weeding or planting. This – along with adding nutrients through cover cropping and natural fertilizers – allows those microbes, fungi and other organisms to create a nutrient-rich, well-aerated soil that plants love. In turn, healthier plants are more resistant to pests and disease and often yield more food with higher nutritional value.
About half of Free Living Farm’s produce is sold through their CSA program, where customers subscribe to receive boxes of fresh-picked vegetables every week from the end of May through October. CSA shares come in two sizes, standard and large, with flexible payment methods and options to pay in installments. Information is available at freelivingfarm.com.
A weekly CSA share of late summer produce from Free Living Farm in Petersham (their photo)
“Members receive a weekly blurb about what’s happening on the farm along with descriptions of each item, storage tips and recipes,” Zueger says. “This year we have a lot of returning members, but we are looking for a few more people who would pick up shares on-farm here in Petersham.”
Otherwise, people can find Free Living Farm’s pasture-raised eggs and occasional veggies year-round at the Petersham Country Store. They also sell at the Sturbridge Farmers Market, held Sundays from 9-1 on the Sturbridge common beginning in June, and starting in May will open their self-serve farm stand every Saturday from 10-2 at the end of Maple Lane in Petersham.
“Opening day for the stand is May 10th this year,” says Zueger. “We’ll be selling the first veggies of the season along with our own eggs and fresh tulips for Mothers’ Day. We’ll also have veggie seedlings for sale all of May.”
In the coming years, Free Living Farm seems destined to keep growing. The Zuegers welcomed their first child this year and are poised to purchase their own land soon with the help of the East Quabbin Land Trust.
A view of Free Living Farm’s leased land in Petersham from above (their photo)
“We’ll keep farming here on our leased land too,” Zueger says. “But on land we own we can plant more perennials and fruit trees, maybe have a farm stand on a busier road, or even build a home. We’ll see. We have lots of dreams, but nothing is certain yet.”
Nothing is certain, but possibilities abound for a couple of farmers that seem to approach their craft with a clear-eyed sense of being where they belong.
“Now that it’s our business, farming isn’t quite as romantic as it first seemed,” Zueger admits, “but we still love the work, being outside as the seasons change. Every year has different challenges, but with those come opportunities to grow. It’s a lifestyle more than a job, but still, we really enjoy it. It works for us.”
Jacob Nelson is communications coordinator for CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture). To learn more about CSA farms and other local food businesses near you, visit buylocalfood.org.
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Claire takes Monte and Kaliis out to Natural Roots in Conway, a CSA farm and recipient of a Local Hero Award from CISA in 2025. They talk to farmer David Fisher about:
“Natural Roots is not an example of how if you do everything right you’ll be protected against hardship. It’s not an example of how one person, or business, can solve global problems all on their own. But it stands as a source of inspiration for each of us: what is in my control? What can I make better? What do I have to offer to my patch of earth, and my community? For that, CISA is proud to present David Fisher and Natural Roots with a Local Hero award.” –> Read the full award presentation remarks here.
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Who is CISA’s new(ish) executive director, Jennifer Core?
What does CISA’s mission look like at this particularly chaotic moment?*
Why is it healthy for baby lambs to bounce around like they have springs on their feet?
Monte, Kaliis, and Jennifer herself discuss these and more of life’s (or CISA’s) essential questions on this week’s Local Hero Spotlight.
*”CISA makes it a little easier to do a very hard thing, which is to run a farm in this part of the world.” – Jennifer