Letter: What Happens Next at Our Community Farm in North Amherst?

The following letter appeared previously in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Many North Amherst residents are grieving the loss of our local community farmers — Simple Gifts. As folks drive by the farm, they may wonder what happened and what’s going on now. There is activity which you can see from Pine Street, as a local Hadley farmer is growing organic squash this summer. But the farm store and former-CSA pick up remain closed. The Simple Gifts organic vegetable farm, which worked in partnership with the land trust, the North Amherst Community Farm for 18 years, is no longer in business.

This year will be one of transition. The North Amherst Community Farm (NACF) Board of Directors is working to determine what is needed in our community and what is best for the land. The first step is to reflect on the 18-year venture in community farming. When the partnership with Simple Gifts was created, we all had great hopes and dreams. We wanted an accessible farm that welcomed neighbors to walk the property. We wanted to see a beautiful, biologically diverse landscape. We wanted an incubator for new farmers. We wanted events and workshops that helped us all learn more about local food and farming. And of course, we wanted to see a financially viable and locally owned organic vegetable and livestock farm succeed in our community. The Simple Gifts farmers tried to give us all we wanted and succeeded in much of it. Perhaps we wanted too much.

Farming is a difficult business, and a small, organic farm, trying to serve the diverse needs of a demanding local community, has many challenges. These include everything from managing employees and balancing the books to competing in an economy defined by decades of “cheap food” policies. Simple Gifts Farm carved out a space for itself with their integration of vegetables and livestock and their commitment to the community. The strains of the pandemic were the final straw; the farmers’ energy flagged, and their thoughts turned to a search for a successor. However, the transition formula that we all assumed would be seamless proved to be far more challenging.

But transition in farming is an old story and the land which is currently stewarded by NACF has a history. In the thousands of years before colonial settlement, this land was part of the homelands of the Nipmuc, Pocumtuc and Norrwutuck tribes. Native people most likely used the land which we call North Amherst for hunting and as winter quarters. The violent destruction and dispersal of Native people and culture in the 17th century made this land available to settlers, first for grazing animals by Hadley farmers in the 18th century, followed by permanent settlement. Some of the first homesteads in the area transitioned into grain and livestock farms, and the farmhouse on the NACF property was built around 1830 to support such a farm. It is also likely that the farm grew broomcorn during the heyday of the Hadley broomcorn business followed by tobacco, as evidenced by the old tobacco barns that are still on the property.

The farm that was purchased by NACF with the support of the town and community residents from the Dziekanowski family in 2006, had been a successful and thriving dairy business in the mid-20th century. Most of the barns were in poor repair however and the farmhouse needed attention. The story of how Simple Gifts revitalized the land and the Amherst community restored the farmhouse may be found on the NACF webpage. Almost two decades of dedication, commitment and investment of money, muscle and heart brought this farm back to life. Many Amherst residents speak fondly of the farm festivals held on Festival Hill. Pick up days at the CSA barn were more like a party than a shopping experience. Many local children were first introduced to farm animals while visiting the farm. And who can forget “Pig Floyd” an 800-pound behemoth who sired generations of young porkers? While the farm business was not a financial success, in many ways the partnership between Simple Gifts and NACF is a story of friendship, community vitality and local spirit.

Our most pressing question is — what’s next? We hope you will help us decide. Do we still want a community farm in North Amherst? What kinds of enterprises and uses fit this land and this community? In the near future NACF will be hosting gatherings in which we will share what we have learned and what we are thinking. We hope to learn what our farm community wants from this 30-acre parcel in the middle of North Amherst.

If you have ideas, energy or thoughts, please contact NACF Board at bcoldham155@comcast.net. We want you to be part of our future.

Bruce Coldham

Bruce Coldham is president of the board of North Amherst Community Farm, the non-profit organization which holds the NACF farmland in trusteeship. He is also a retired architect resident and co-founder of Pine Street Cohousing, a north Amherst community that abuts NACF.