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By EMILEE KLEIN

GRANBY — Days after a large fire engulfed Red Fire Farm’s barn and farm store on Carver Street on Saturday afternoon, farm staff slowly recounted the equipment and inventory lost in the fire, as well as the memories attached to them.The fire caused an...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SUNDERLAND — The change of the seasons, as farmers know, often brings a slew of other changes along with it, and at Kitchen Garden Farm, this spring brings the largest change of all.Soon the farm will change hands for the first time since its founding...

By JACOB NELSON

If there’s a lesson to be learned from Love Leaf Farm in South Hadley, it’s this: don’t judge a farm by its size … or the size of their crops, for that matter.In the words of farmer-owner Michael Fredette, “Love Leaf Farm is a very small, indoor...

By LISA GOODRICH

Farms are the foundation of our local food system, with farmers markets, farm stands, and community markets providing the predominant means of providing local food to customers. And for some members of the community, the ability to order fresh, local...

By MADDIE FABIAN

Editor’s note: This is the fourth and final article from the Western Mass. Solar Forum series. AMHERST — Most experts agree solar energy is key to reaching the state’s climate goals, but opinions often differ widely when it comes to developing and...

By JACOB NELSON

In many ways, farming is an act of faith. Faith that nature will provide for a harvest, and a farmer’s faith in themselves to figure out whatever challenges arise. Some years bring bumper crops, others disappointment, but with climate change fueling...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture’s Buy Local campaign will get a boost in the coming months on the heels of a Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources grant.CISA received the $84,737 grant on Nov. 27 and will...

By MADDIE FABIAN

For farms across western Massachusetts, the effects of climate change were tangible during the 2023 growing season.At Red Fire Farm in Granby, co-owner Sarah Voiland said that after the May frost event, the farm’s full harvest on multiple acres of...

By JACOB NELSON

It’s hard to throw water on a burning house while trying to rebuild it at the same time, but that’s exactly what addressing climate change requires. Rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are already changing the planet. The choice is whether or...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — With farmers facing two straight challenging summers, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture is launching a fundraising campaign that will expand access to local produce and prepare farmers for a changing climate.After a soft...

By MADDIE FABIAN

NORTHAMPTON — With a sunny forecast and a schedule packed with agricultural events, music, motor sport activities, food and local art, the 206th Three County Fair is set to kick off Friday and run through Labor Day on Monday.First been held in 1818,...

By BELLA LEVAVI

DEERFIELD — As farmers assess the impact of last week’s flooding on their livelihoods and the future of the season’s crops, federal lawmakers visited the area on Saturday to see the damage firsthand.U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Jim...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — Eight acres of tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, leeks, beets, peppers and garlic, all about ready to harvest at the height of the growing season for Stone Soup Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture summer shares, will soon be plowed under after...

By CHRIS LARABEE

DEERFIELD — After more rain pounded the region on Sunday, Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials visited Deerfield on Monday afternoon to hear firsthand accounts of the damage from the continuing rains to farms in the region — including...

By MADDIE FABIAN

EASTHAMPTON — On Wednesday morning, rather than walking into the field to pick the first sweet corn of the season, Ben Perrault, co-owner of Mountain View Farm, kayaked through the inundated field to assess the damage caused by the worst flooding the...

By SOPHIE HAUCK

BOSTON — What started as a campaign against single-use plastic at Crocker Farm Elementary School became a lesson in political advocacy for fifth graders Nina Hirschberg and Bailey Millay, who testified on Beacon Hill in support of anti-plastic...

By JACOB NELSON

This week at Brookfield Farm, a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in Amherst, spring crops continue to take root in freshly tilled fields. Just as they grow — slowly at first, then exploding with life as the weather warms — so too will social...

By LEE HALASZ and KARI BLOOD

This winter has been one of the warmest on record in Massachusetts, and around the nation, extreme weather events are in the headlines on a regular basis. Scientists agree that our rapidly warming planet is now feeling the effects of the climate...

By CHRIS LARABEE

BOSTON — With a background in showing cattle at fairs and working on the family farm in South Deerfield, the state’s new agriculture commissioner has a regional flair to her.South Deerfield native Ashley Randle has been tapped by the Healey-Driscoll...

By JACOB NELSON

‘I’m a junkie for rutabagas,” admits Cathleen O’Keefe. “I love their tanginess and making fries with them. And winter greens. Knowing what goes into growing them in New England in the winter — they’re amazing!” O’Keefe has owned and managed the Winter...

By EMILY THURLOW

BELCHERTOWN — An online petition advocating for the return of 400 acres of state-owned farmland in Belchertown back to the Nipmuc people has garnered more than 900 signatures in less than six days. The Change.org petition, which was launched by a...