Egremont and Great Barrington — When Anna Houston saw the parcel of fertile river bottomland on North Plain Road, slated to possibly become a gravel pit, she knew that something should be done; it was prime farmland. “Somehow, we have been the lucky farmers to be stewarding that land into the future, and it’s completely changed our trajectory as farmers and as a business,” she said at The Egremont Barn on Sunday, December 8, at the “Final Acre Campaign” benefit concert for the acquisition of River Run Farm, where she and Rob Perazzo have operated Off the Shelf Farm since 2022.
Philanthropist Jane Iredale purchased the 79-acre parcel in 2022 with the understanding that Berkshire Community Land Trust (BCLT) would raise the $1.6 million to buy it back for it to be held in perpetuity as farmland and leased to small farmers. BCLT aspires to close this month or next and entreats the community to support the campaign’s final stretch. As of the benefit concert, about $170,000 remained to raise, said Beth Carlson, head of BCLT’s Farmsteads for Farmers program. “We do need to close because we’ve extended multiple times.”
Over 25 years ago, remarked Elizabeth Keen of Indian Line Farm, she was approached by the land trust and the Nature Conservancy “with this outrageous idea to begin a model of bringing conservation and land trust and working farm together.” She accepted. “We realized that in the Berkshires, it would be nearly impossible for us to actually own land and begin to farm and have it be a financially successful enterprise.”
Before moving to River Run Farm, Houston and Perazzo were driving all over the county between small leased plots of land where they did their rotational grazing. “We move all of our livestock every single day to new grass,” explained Houston, “so that we are building soil and spreading manure and being generous to the land. It was a way to make it work and start our business and get going with nothing.” They believed in growing food this way but wondered if the hectic lifestyle was sustainable, especially since they wanted to start a family.
Houston believes that had they not moved to River Run, they wouldn’t be in business today. In the two seasons that they have farmed there, Off the Shelf has transformed. In the first year, their gross revenue grew by over 20 percent and net profits by 40 percent. With less driving, they reduced fuel spending by over 20 percent. “We have increased our chicken poundage by over 400 percent,” Houston told the crowd at the concert, from about 900 meat chickens a year to 4,500. They have doubled the number of laying hens to 2,800, and they just harvested their first three beef animals. “We’re actually spending less time doing it because that farm has allowed us to invest in efficient equipment.”
A $498,000 Department of Agriculture grant from the state allowed them to build a barn to house chickens in the winter and a facility to wash eggs on site, instead of their dark, cold garage or, previously, their shower. The physical stability inspires more than just financial investment. “It’s also investing in the soil and being able to continue to cultivate the soil and have that soil continue to feed the animals that we raise, and then feed all of us,” said Houston.
They have partnered with Berkshire Grown and Tri Corner FEED, who buy their products to distribute thrugh their food-access programs. Over 15,000 dozens of eggs and over 8,000 pounds of chicken annually have gone to food pantries, CHP, WIC card holders, and sliding-scale markets. Without River Run Farm, Houston claimed, “we would not have been able to say yes” to requests for 2,000 chickens a year. “There’s no way we would have been able to even consider doing something like that.”
“I grew up in Vermont,” Houston shared, “and I feel like every time I go back, one of the fields that I remember as a kid now has a house on it… We are so lucky to have people thinking about this and taking action. I just feel really grateful. It’s not about us, really. I want to retire someday, but [River Run] will go to the next farmer. And we need good food; we need good soils and good community.”
Will Conklin, of Sky View Farm and Greenagers, echoed her sentiments. “Anna and Rob’s son… his friends that come to visit at that farm can have that notion that this is not quite just private land. This is here forever, and it’s always going to be a farm, and those ideas are going to continue to percolate forever. I hope you’ll give, because you’re giving to and creating memories that just won’t go away, just as we hope our soil and our fertility and our farmers and our communities will not go away.”
Sheffield resident and musician Wanda Houston, who performed at the benefit concert ahead of the BTUs, said agriculture was “the basis of this country, and especially our homegrown farmers, the real salt-of-the-earth farmers. I’m grateful that they’re here, that I have access to that readily.”
“There’s more to it than that,” she continued, “there’s something about the soul of the farmer and what their concern is, and how they keep the animals; it’s all of that, and I feel that they have it, and I appreciate that. That’s why I’m here.”
River Run is the first of many farms that Farmers for Farmsteads hopes to purchase. “If we overraise for some reason,” said Carlson, “we will be in a position to move on to another project. There are a variety of farms on the market right now. And there’s farmers who want to farm. We can’t do anything about them until we’re done with this.”
Donate to Farmers for Farmsteads’ campaign here.
