In the 1970s, when Advocate founders Geoff Robinson and Chris Austin sat on stacks of their new publication for want of furniture, the only local food they could get their hands on (apart from the broccoli Geoff proudly grew himself) was perhaps a bushel of apples from Atkins, though their Amherst offices were surrounded by farms.
In those days, the fruits of the Valley went elsewhere. Potatoes were shipped off to the land of Frito Lay. Cucumbers picked by local kids off the backs of flatbed trucks ended up as Cain's Pickles.
Our most famous food crop is asparagus. In late May and June it could be purchased from little tables in front of the farms on Rte. 47, where cans with holes in them served as cashiers. Perhaps it was a way for the Mrs. to make a little money, because getting this food into local stores was not a real option.
Today you can buy "Real Pickles" made by a guy who won't let his gherkins out of the region, and Pekarski's of Deerfield smokes meat. A BLT made entirely from local products is a reality, thanks to a pushy "buy local" infrastructure.
In a country where food typically takes 1,500 miles to get from farm to plate, we're doing better than most communities. Not only are there farmer's markets, CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture—a farm-to-consumer business model that cuts out the middle man), farm stands and local produce at Stop and Shop, but this food can also be accessed from various non-traditional venues such as harvest suppers, Pad Thai demonstrations, Thanksgiving stores, and the Peach Festival. Some might wonder, has food become a new form of entertainment? Have all of those bumper stickers finally made Local Heroes out of us all?
Yes, farmer's markets are growing like Russian sage. At last count there were 29. Today the South Deerfield-based CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) manages the kind of programs that got CSAs and farmers' markets off and running. Marketing workshops, wholesale instruction, funding, educational support and distribution of local food to schools and seniors, as well as the development of processing collectives to increase production for smaller farms, are all part of the small organization's efforts.
The growth in the local food movement is not wholly in organics, although organic farming plays a big role. Ruth Hazzard at UMass Extension School is Vegetable Insect Pest Management Specialist and Vegetable Program Leader in the Department of Plant Soil and Insect Science. While she allows that farming has always been a big part of the culture in Western Mass., the food has not been available to its citizens.
"Growers couldn't get it in stores, so it took a big push from the Pioneer Valley Growers' Association around 25 years ago," she says. Now local food can be purchased not only at area coops such as River Valley and Green Fields and at locally owned stores like Serio's Market in Northampton, but also at Stop and Shop, Big Y and Whole Foods.
Many of these farms were drawn to organic farming for health reasons, and that increased the market for local food. Hazzard worked directly with the first group of growers to adopt organic growing methods, Happy Valley Organics, a 15-year-old collective in Whately. That organization last year began a winter farmer's market at Enterprise Farm on River Road. Owner Dave Jackson is considering extending his distribution service to include a CSA.
CSAs are entities designed to foster a direct relationship between farmer and consumer. Shares of the farm's annual harvest are purchased before the summer season and individuals visit the farm weekly from June through October to pick their share of the weekly harvest. The first CSA in the country was Indian Line Farm, founded in 1985 in the Berkshires. In 1986, Brookfield Farm in Amherst started out with 55 members and five years later came the Food Bank Farm.
Michael Docter worked as a volunteer with the Food Bank of Western Mass., which distributed food to agencies from a warehouse in Hatfield. It was his idea to grow healthy vegetables and he came up with a business model based on CSAs. Typically the middleman is cut out and memberships pay for the upkeep of the farm in return for a summer's worth of produce and fruit. Food Bank Farm is the only CSA in the country that works as a charitable organization (it is a separate entity from the Food Bank distribution center in Hatfield). The profits made by the Food Bank Farm are from the memberships (800 this year), baked goods and a retail store.
According to Hazzard, the density of the state in population (fourth in the country) means plenty of market for local food. Now it is practically saturated, so for a CSA like Red Fire Farm in Granby, it is necessary to look eastward. "Around 70 percent of our membership is from the Boston area," says Ryan Voiland, owner and founder of Red Fire. "Membership isn't the only way we sell. There's also the wholesale business that is around 30 percent of what we do." Voiland says this standing in a foot of muddy soil where he leans down to pick a cranberry bean. "I cooked this last night in a succotash," he says. "You should try it." I open the beautiful package but the bean tastes bland. "Not raw…" he says.
Down the river in Hampden County, the city of Holyoke is experiencing its own food revolution.Though authors like Michael Polan are writing books that preach, "Eat Food, not too much, mostly plants," such a mantra might fall on deaf ears in the poorest city in the state. Because of a local food program called Nuestras Raices (Our Roots), citizens are getting more plants than they ever had in Puerto Rico. The nonprofit was formed with one community garden in 1991. Now there are 10 urban communities with 125 families and 100 children participating. They grow a total of $125,000 worth of vegetables yearly and sell at the Holyoke, Chicopee, Westfield and Springfield Mason Square Farmer's Markets. Nuestras Raices also has an on-site farm stand and provides homebound seniors with food, as do many CISA member CSAs. The newly formed Food and Fitness Agency plans to grow food for the city's schools, starting with a salad bar. In September a Harvest Festival will feature Puerto Rican food, music and activities for children.
Finally, a rigorous Farm to School program sponsored by both CISA and a state organization is managing to convince school committees that getting healthy greens in kids' bellies wouldn't be a bad thing. Statewide, 60 farms are selling to local schools and 160 public school districts are purchasing that food.
Of course, this kind of seismic shift was not just a force of nature. CISA started with funding, as did the Food Bank Farm and Nuestras Raices. A strong infrastructure made it possible for the cucumbers children picked off trucks just 20 years ago to be fermented nutritionally and sold regionally at a price point twice that of Cain's Bread and Butter Pickles.
Left out of the local food garden party are nascent grain growers. To battle the rising costs of flour, local bakers have begun wheat-growing trials in an attempt to grow their own. Wheat Berry Bakery and Caf? of Amherst has begun a small CSA for grain and beans. The price is around $200 for a year's worth of all-you-can-use, but there has yet to be a solution for processing and storage. Next week NBC will visit Hungry Ghost in Northampton to cover their grain-growing venture; owner Jonathan Stevens says what they really need is cash to fund their research and heavy machinery like a combine.
Some believe that wheat should not be grown here because of the climate. "It just makes more sense to bring it in on a train from New York," said one farmer. "Our storms are too violent for the kind of wheat they're growing." It might take more than a village.
For more information on the farms mentioned and upcoming events, view the Valley Locavore Blog at www.valleyadvocate.com.
