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Agroforestry Crawl: Three farms in one day!
Join CISA on Friday, September 26th for an all-day Agroforestry Crawl visiting three innovative western MA farms with agroforestry systems on their land.
We start out at The Long Game Orchard in Northfield, a 6-acre silvopasture farm with tree crops including chestnuts, American persimmons, Asian pears, Yellowbud hickory, and pawpaws. The farm is also experimenting with fodder and biodiversity hedges and is transforming an adjacent secondary forest fragment into a silvopasture system. From there we travel to Firefly Farm in Sunderland, a 25-acre no-till farm with perennial herbs, a no-till veggie area and orchards of heartnuts, hazelnuts and chestnuts. Finally, we hit Carr’s Ciderhouse and Preservation Orchard in Hadley for a look at their apple orchards that are integrated with grazing flocks of sheep and chickens based on the farm and raised in collaboration with Meadowfed Lamb.
Visits to each farm include farm tours and conversations with the farmers and participants. Following the tour of Carr’s, we will have some time to reflect on opportunities and challenges associated with implementing agroforestry systems on western MA farms and a networking session over pizza and cider.
This event is oriented toward farmers and service providers, but is open to members of the public interested in learning about agroforestry.
Date: Friday, September 26th, 9:30am – 6pm (rain date Sept 27th)
Farm Tour Locations:
- The Long Game Orchard, Northfield
- Firefly Farm, Sunderland
- Preservation Orchard, Meadowfed Lamb and Carr’s Ciderhouse, Hadley
Agenda:
9:30am – Meet up at The Long Game Orchard
10:00am – Begin farm tour
11:30am – BYO lunch break at The Long Game Orchard or elsewhere
1:00pm – Meet up at Firefly Farm, begin farm tour
2:30pm – Depart for Preservation Orchard & Carr’s Ciderhouse/Meadowfed Lamb
3:00pm – Begin farm tour
4:00pm – Discussion on moving agroforestry systems forward – constraints and opportunities
5:00pm – Networking/cider/pizza at Carr’s
6:00pm – End of event
Registration: Please register in advance. Although we encourage participants to attend all three farm tours, you may select one or two tours to attend if you’re not able to commit to the full day.
Food: CISA will provide some snacks but otherwise food will not be provided on the tour. Please bring your own lunch or plan to go out in between tours. Pizza and cider will be available to purchase at Carr’s Ciderhouse during the networking session at the end of the tour.
Transportation: Please arrange your own transportation between tour locations. Participants are encouraged to coordinate their own rideshares to carpool between locations, if possible.
Contact Stephen at stephen@buylocalfood.org with questions or to register.
This event is part of Climate Change and Farming Week 2025. Click here for more information!