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By BOB FLAHERTY

HADLEY — There are TV shows with “friends” in the title and we all have enough Facebook friends to fill the Mullins Center, but the sort of companions who help you bring in the tobacco harvest on a hot weekend in August are the ones you want with you...

By LISA GOODRICH

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 10 acres, within walking and biking distance of the University of Massachusetts...

By ADA DENENFELD KELLY

Growing up in Hadley, Steven Latham had a wild Chincoteague pony on his family farm, but it wasn’t until he learned about a veterans’ program pairing veterans with mustangs to train that he was inspired to create his documentary.“A couple friends told...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

It’s August and in my household that means one thing: local tomatoes. For much of the year, our grocery stores offer tomatoes tough enough to endure machine picking followed by days or weeks in cold storage. Even the more expensive, so-called...

By PAIGE HANSON

This summer, ice cream enthusiasts statewide can explore the newly established Massachusetts Ice Cream Trail, a self-guided tour of more than 100 ice cream shops in Massachusetts.Of the 100 locations statewide, seven of them are in Hampshire...

By DAVID SPECTOR

In summer, many New England roads are lined with clouds of magenta flowers atop the tall stems of several species of Joe Pye weed, especially where the roads are bordered by damp ditches. Who was Joe Pye? A perusal of popular botanical sources reveals...

By KAREN LIST

Anyone attending the Sci Tech Band’s spring concert in April in the school’s gym would have seen several hundred high school musicians all dressed in black warming up to play under a huge sign that says: “Everything Matters.”They would have heard...

By PAIGE HANSON

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center’s 2024-2025 season includes quite a few notable offerings, including “a one-time Grateful Dead keyboardist, two of the greatest artists in world music, jazz celebrations of the lives and work of...

By BOB FLAHERTY

Outgoing executive editor Jim Hicks of the Massachusetts Review has yet to warm up to his new surroundings.400 Venture Way looks like one of those ultra-tech monoliths that have “Solutions” as part of its name. Surrounded by a sea of blacktop and...

By DIANE BRONCACCIO

SHELBURNE FALLS — Randy Kehler, a war-tax resister whose opposition to the Vietnam War, advocacy for social justice and refusal to pay federal taxes gained national attention, was remembered fondly this week by friends who fought alongside him for...

By ALICE CARMICHAEL HARRIS

I fastened my helmet and threw my leg over the back of my boyfriend’s big BMW motorcycle. We had a perfect sunny day as we rode out of Amherst, past neat houses and farms, past acres of serene woodlands. It was July 4, 1974, and when Russ had read the...

By RICHARD MCCARTHY

When I was a teenager, among the last things in the world I thought would render me uncool and out-of-it when I got older was technology. In fact, I don’t remember ever using, or even coming across the word “technology,” except my knowing MIT stood...

By PAIGE HANSON

Driving down the road on Route 5 in South Deerfield, commuters are met with a prehistoric surprise: a giant volcano with a huge dinosaur statue smack in front of a bright-green shack. Most find themselves asking, “What in the world is this...

By LEAH VERESS

Alice Colman recalls the day a routine fennel harvest turned into a wake-up call. As she stood in her field, carefully examining a plant’s feathery leaves, she felt herself growing increasingly frustrated with the crop’s appearance. When she kneeled...

By JACOB NELSON

Local wool for your wardrobe … and for your garden?That’s the idea behind a new project from Western Massachusetts Fibershed, an organization working to strengthen our local fiber economy, right alongside our local food economy.Peggy Hart is a core...

By CHRISTINE HATCH

Swamps are great story villains. They are notoriously difficult to navigate due to their sinking sticky mud, spiked vines and dense vegetation; they are neither fully land nor water, negating boats and footwear as helpful vessels for traversing them;...

By RICHARD MCCARTHY

When I was 18 years old, I hitchhiked alone from western Massachusetts to St. Petersburg, Florida and back. Hitchhiking was fairly common among young people then, although not typically for such a long distance. I had some trials along the way, not...

By JACOB NELSON

Jackie Pliska, owner of Wanczyk Produce in Hadley, has dreams of keeping the farm stand business open year-round instead of just even months each year. But first, she has to finish college.Pliska started working at the family business when she was 11....

By ANNA LAIRD BARTO

Last summer, I chronicled my 68-mile paddle of the Connecticut River through Massachusetts. Along the way, I became very well acquainted with the river, its bends and currents, dams and bridges, trees and wildlife — even its sewage overflows! Here are...

By KARI BLOOD

One of the reasons many of us love living in the Valley is being able to see wildlife around us. But those sightings will become increasingly rare if humans don’t take bold steps to slow the loss of species around the world. Scientists are sounding...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

After long weeks of yearning for gardening weather, we’re suddenly inundated by spring. Endless outdoor chores beg for our attention — composting, mulching, edging, scrubbing birdbaths and, at least in my garden beds, pulling out multitudes of maple...