Berkshire Grown works toward an equitable and resilient local food system by supporting and promoting farmers, connecting people to local food, and building community partnerships around local food access. We do this by…
- Building farmer skills and capacity;
- Championing locally grown and produced food to consumers;
- Partnering to increase community access to local food;
- Advocating for policies that support the resiliency of local farms.
Berkshire Grown Winter Farmers Markets offer off-season solutions
The Berkshire Grown Winter Farmers Markets began in 2009 to allow farmers to sell directly to consumers eager for fresh produce for their holiday meals during the low-revenue season. Since then, it has expanded to six monthly markets held at the Housy Dome (1064 Main Street, Housatonic) in Great Barrington between November and April and two held at GreylockWORKS (508 Main Street) in North Adams in November and December. These markets connect 6,000 shoppers with 40 local food producers and 17 artisanal makers.
The winter markets also help farms scale up to buy livestock or grow storage crops (products requiring post-harvest storage in a semi-controlled or controlled environment for later use/sale). “We’re full throughout the season—even in January through April, which is an indication of how good the farmers are at planning and creating planting schedules for every market season,” attests Margaret Moulton, executive director of Berkshire Grown.
“The challenges are plenty, but so are the rewards!” shares Alyssa Van Durme, director of the Winter Farmers Markets for Berkshire Grown. “Farmers markets, especially winter markets, fulfill a critical role in providing a sales outlet and income to our farmers, food producers, and artisans in the slower months. Equally as important, they allow shoppers year-round access to local foods. The holiday markets (November and December) are joyous celebrations of local abundance and see the greatest amount of traffic and sales. It’s wonderful to see how many customers come out to shop local for their holiday food and gifts.”
All markets are free and open to the public. The first Berkshire Grown Winter Farmers Market in Great Barrington will open this Saturday (November 23), with the remaining markets held on December 21, January 18, February 15, March 15, and April 19. The winter markets in North Adams will take place on November 24 and December 22.
“In 2023, we generated $151,540 in revenue for local farmers and producers,” Moulton notes—valuable revenue that has helped keep farmers farming in the Berkshires. Berkshire Grown has also helped increase access to food by accepting SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), HIP (Healthy Incentives Program), and the 1:1 Market Match program funded by Berkshire Agricultural Ventures. “While we still haven’t gotten back to the pre-pandemic level of sales or number of people attending, the Berkshire Grown Winter Farmers Market is going strong,” she affirms (the 2018-2019 season saw over $176,000 in total sales, compared to $119,000 in 2022-2023, though HIP/SNAP use has more than doubled in the last year alone, affirming the growing need for food access).
A vision rooted in sustainability and access
Berkshire Grown is widely known for producing the Guide to Local Food & Farms and providing the go-to network connecting farmers and the Berkshire community. Lesser known, perhaps, is the critical role the nonprofit has played in ensuring the sustainability of our local farms and our access to fresh produce over the years. Its roots go back to 1985, when a small group of community members, concerned about the loss of farms in Berkshire County due to development and good land going fallow, formed the Berkshire Regional Food & Land Council to raise awareness and develop local food networks. That group became incorporated in 2003 and has been known as Berkshire Grown ever since.
Initially, the organization aimed to connect local farmers and food producers to chefs, restaurants, and wholesale buyers through an annual networking event. “It worked a little like speed dating,” Moulton explains, “with a series of short, informal appointments.” In those pre-social-media days, socializing and networking were important aspects of the event.
“We also held an annual Harvest Supper at Butternut featuring 22 chefs using mostly local ingredients,” she adds. Berkshire Grown rode the farm-to-table wave until 2019 when it became clear that the event was a drain on the restaurants, who needed to bring in additional staff to work the event. Eventually, farmers and chefs “did not need us to make the connections for them anymore,” says Moulton. In response, Berkshire Grown gradually shifted its farmer-support focus from providing networking opportunities to providing workshops and technical training to help farmers increase their skills. These include resources to help grow their businesses and advance climate-resilient farming strategies. In addition, the organization raises public awareness of the challenges and successes of the Berkshire agricultural community.
New challenges inspire new and growing programs
The Berkshire Mobile Farmers Market program, funded by a three-year grant from the USDA’s Regional Food System Partnership, is a partnership of six local nonprofits (Berkshire Bounty, Berkshire Grown, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Berkshire United Way, Community Health Programs, and Southern Berkshires Rural Health Network). In its 2023 pilot season, it served three locations. The following season, it expanded to six mobile market locations: Monterey Community Center, Becket Town Hall, 2nd Street Second Chances and 18 Degrees (both in Pittsfield), CHP (Adams), and the Armory (North Adams). The “FairShare” payment options (including HIP, SF, SNAP, and WIC benefits) help boost community members’ buying power and provide increased food access.
Van Durme, a native of Syracuse with a winning combination of practical skills, passion, and purpose, managed the pilot season of the Mobile Farmers Market. She was enjoying a successful career in marketing and sales in her late twenties when she began a soul-searching process that led her to a seasonal farm apprenticeship in Alaska, working for $12 an hour. After that experience, having returned to the Northeast, she developed a growing awareness of the beautiful farm country in the Hudson Valley, which eventually led her to a goat dairy in Ancram, a vegetable farm in Alford, and ultimately to a staff position at Berkshire Grown.
For many years before the pandemic, Berkshire Grown’s long-standing program, Share the Bounty, purchased Community Supported Agriculture shares from CSA farms during the winter months and delivered them to food pantries and community kitchens for weekly shares of fresh produce, meat, cheese, and eggs. This program continues to provide small-scale farmers and producers with critical funds to help purchase seeds and supplies ahead of market season. In turn, during the harvest season, these farmers provide fresh, locally grown food to community members experiencing food insecurity.
Indeed, at the beginning of COVID, as local farmers faced the loss of all wholesale accounts overnight and food insecurity in the Berkshires skyrocketed, Berkshire Grown played a pivotal role in getting healthy food to the people who needed it most, working with nonprofit partners to establish food equity by broadening access to locally grown food. “One of the most effective ways to support local farmers is to purchase their meat, poultry, and eggs and get them to people facing food insecurity,” Moulton explains.
In 2021, Berkshire Grown created the Farm to Food Access program in partnership with Berkshire Bounty to further address food insecurity. With this program, Berkshire Grown set up large-scale purchasing contracts with farmers, and Berkshire Bounty delivered the food to pantries, providing a reliable year-round link to nutrient-dense produce, meat, and eggs.
By 2023, Farm to Food Access supported 26 farms along with 18 food pantries and community meal sites. With significant funding from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and a network of nonprofit partners, nearly $300,000 of local crop purchases helped feed 11,000 people weekly through food access sites across Berkshire County.
In short, Berkshire Grown programs make the impossible possible—keeping farmers farming and ensuring that everyone has access to fresh, healthy, locally grown food.
