NOFA Mass News, June - August 2006
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Health-Conscious Community Seeks Like-minded Farmer
Last spring, Barker-Plotkin was driving around with an eye for farming opportunities when he spied Dan Gallagher pounding a “Looking for Farmer” sign into the ground. After a lengthy process of sorting through proposals from various farmers, Barker-Plotkin and his wife Audrey were selected as the right match for the project. Their operation, Simple Gifts Farm, already established in Belchertown, has been transferred to the new CSA site. Joining the Barker-Plotkins are Marcy Lowy, a veterinarian, and her husband Dave Tepfer, livestock farmer, who will raise grass-fed animals on the land for meat and eggs. Rotating the livestock pastures with the organic vegetables fields will maintain healthier soil and reduce pests.
Gallagher, co-president of NACF and Amherst resident, was one of the early participants who took action when the property was slated for the development chopping block. Economic conditions pushed the owners, the Dziekanowski family, to sell the family farm. The fetching price: $1.2 million. However, NACF was able to turn the project into a different animal. According to Steve Dunn, NACF’s other co-president, donations from at least 250 contributors amounted to nearly $140,000. In addition, the Town of Amherst contributed $100,800 from Community Preservation Act funds. Bundled together with $355,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, it all meant development rights were transferred to the town and the state. The Dziekanowskis, who could have asked a higher price from developers, offered an additional $600,000 in the form of a 30-year low-interest loan. They made this choice to assure that the land would be farmed in perpetuity.
Says Dunn, “The value of the land greatly exceeds what a farm operation can generate and what land costs.” For that reason, he encourages community members to continue their support with hands-on assistance as well as monetary assistance. Do you like to write or take photographs? Then you might like to contribute to the farm’s newsletter. Do you relish physical activity? Consider helping with building and maintenance projects. Computer saavy? The website needs maintaining. Ongoing fundraising is another area where more heads and hands are greatly needed.
Hosts of people in the community have been stepping up to the plate, donating expertise, labor and time. Bruce Coldham of Coldham Architects, LLC, will advise on the construction and renovation of buildings and Shaul Perry of Sunwood Builders volunteered to build a farm stand where produce will be sold to passersby. Ruth Hazzard, of the Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been instrumental in the hiring process and defining the terms of the lease. “It is this collective, grassroots effort that’s making [the farm] work,” Dunn emphasized. He also credited the non-profit service Equity Trust for their dedication to educating NACF about economic options and strategies. Like NACF, Equity Trusts views economics as a web of relationships—of individuals with one another, with the communities that we live within, and with the earth that sustains us.
Grease Truck, Solar Electricity
To that end, plans are already underway for a children’s garden and other ongoing projects with two local elementary schools. Community members will be exposed to innovations such as the use of renewable energy as the farm installs photovoltaics for lighting buildings, a compost-heated greenhouse, and Barker-Plotkins’s own “grease truck” which is fueled by used cooking oil.
Shares are offered on a sliding-scale basis, from $375-$425 with produce and meat available June through October. The goal is to recruit 100 members this season and increase to up to 200 in the future. Work shares will allow ten eligible members to work in exchange for a reduced rate. All members are encouraged to contribute one harvest shift, thereby reducing the workload for the farmers and increasing their sense of connection to the land.
North Amherst Community Farm is located at 1089 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01002. For information about the CSA, contact Jeremy Barker-Plotkin at jbp@the-spa.com or 413 323-8468. For information about contributing time or funds, call 413 549-0722 or visit NACF’s website at http://www.nacfonline.org/
Back to the June - August 2006 NOFA/Mass News
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