Basket of Yearling yarn

The buy local movement in the Valley not only encompasses eating local, but also wearing local. If you’re a knitter or a crocheter like me, you may not have asked yourself, “Who grew my yarn?” However, this is the question that inspired Lisa Fortin to establish Bloom Woolen Yarns, a business dedicated to growing, dying, and selling yarn and other products right here in the Valley. Fortin is a slow fashion enthusiast, and she created Bloom Woolen Yarns to bring high-quality, hand–dyed yarn to our local economy while keeping a small environmental footprint. I spoke with Fortin to learn more about how Western Massachusetts fiber products are an integral part of the greater buy local movement.  

Bloom Woolen Yarns created their first product less than three years ago, in January of 2021. This first yarn, a worsted weight called Yearling, is now just one product among many that Fortin sells online, at regional festivals, and at various retail locations like Northampton Wools and Atlas Farm. Her products include yarn of all different colors, sizes, and textures, as well as wool sponges, knitting patterns, and even a yarn CSA. Fortin’s yarns attain rich, earthy colors from organic and natural dyes, which lend them more character than your average store bought yarn. She often sources natural dyes from her own garden.

Fortin’s favorite part about her job: “Being able to work with beautiful natural fibers, with my hands, and growing plants.” She also loves working outdoors on her homestead, visiting farms, and meeting people. As for her passions beyond her business, Fortin notes, “Free range kids, homeschooling, natural parenting, lactation work, local food, organic vegetables, natural medicines, and handcraft in general.” She credits her four kids, Clara, Lily, Willow, and Zinnia, for playing a big role in her homesteading and business. 

Fortin’s Sheep – Photo Credit Candace Hope

When I spoke with her at her studio in Ashfield, we were surrounded by gorgeous hanging fiber arts, newly dyed, vibrant yarns – and even a funky chainmail costume piece. When I complimented this piece, she smiled and said, “That’s my past life.” She explained that her work used to focus on costuming and jewelry making. Since then, Fortin has become an avid knitter. She cultivated her passion for natural fibers once she got her own flock of Shetland sheep, and began sending their wool to a local mill. This produced farm yarn, which Fortin used for her personal knitting projects. Fortin noted that she really got into her fiber endeavor once the pandemic struck in 2020. Not only did she think to herself, “I should just make more yarn”, she also asked herself, “As a knitter, what would I like to knit with?” From there, she was driven to create her own comprehensive line of yarns – sock yarn, DK (double-knit), worsted weight, and aran – so that whether you want to knit a sweater, or socks, or baby clothes, or outerwear, you could source that yarn locally. 

As the pandemic continued, Fortin spoke with local farmers and learned that a lot of wool was not being used in its usual ways: it was quite literally piling up. She saw her opportunity, took backstock wool off their hands, and started up her business. Her first yarn came from of sheep and alpaca wools. When thinking back on this moment, Fortin said, “I was thrilled.” 

Today, Fortin still sources wool from her own flock, and supplements with wool from Leyden Glen Farm in Leyden, Four Blessings Farm in Leverett, and various farms in the area that have extra wool. She explained that different wools lend to different kinds of yarn: when she can collect soft fleeces, she makes her DK weight yarn called Babe, and when she collects rougher fleeces that are too coarse for wool, she makes sponges and dish clothes. These rougher fleeces are called waste wool, because it’s wool that farmers often dump. However, Fortin enjoys giving purpose to wool that may not necessarily be right for clothes.  

This ties back to her general philosophy around the business: to have a small environmental footprint. Fortin emphasized that she was driven to create her business in order to work against the fast fashion industry, which produces enormous amounts of waste and is increasingly destructive to both the environment and the local clothing economy. She remarked, “We can literally grow some of our own clothing here. We can’t grow cotton here, we can’t exactly do linen yet or hemp on a large scale, but we do have wool. So, every time we knit a sweater — and a knitted sweater you can wear over and over and often for many years — it’s one less thing that we have to buy at a big store. That is really underneath everything that I do.” 

Lisa Fortin in her garden

In addition to handmade clothing, Fortin promotes thrifting and buying second hand. She added, “I do recognize that not everybody has the time or inclination or knowledge to make all of their things, but they can support people that are doing that work.” 

When you buy local yarn, you are often receiving a higher-quality, longer lasting product than your average store bought fibers. Just like when you buy local food, buying local fiber products helps to steward environmental health while supporting the local economy. You can find Bloom Woolen Yarn Products at Northampton Wools, Atlas Farm, regional festivals in season, and online at https://www.bloomwoolenyarns.com/ . 

Jake Mazar and Soham Bhatt

I met Jake Mazar off North Maple Street in Florence on a crisp winter day last December. As he led me into a large industrial building nearby, I noted that this must be a big expansion for Artifact Cider Project. “It’s huge,” he exclaimed. “It blows my mind every time I walk in here.”Now, seven months later, Jake and his business partner Soham Bhatt are opening their first tap room at their brand-new production facility and they couldn’t be more excited. “It’s kind of surreal,” Jake reflected. “From the time we started the company the dream was to have a place where people could come see the operation, experience the cider making, and hang with us. Now, we’re here.”

Artifact Cider Project is a quickly growing craft cidery producing hard ciders that are available in hundreds of retail outlets across the state. The company recently celebrated their five-year anniversary since their founding. In the beginning, Artifact brewed in a 500 square foot garage in Springfield that was definitely not designed for cider makers. But over time, Artifact Cider grew. With more and more outlets interested in carrying their ciders, Soham and Jake decided to expand into a new space in Everett, Massachusetts and began to take on employees.

Now, five years into running the business, Jake and Soham are thrilled to be moving into their new permanent space in Florence. Unlike their previous homes, the Florence production facility was custom designed for making cider. “That’s part of the reason why we’re so giddy and excited to move in here,” Soham explained. “We feel like we finally have the tools that we wished we had five years ago. But we’ve learned so much along the way, it’s been a journey.” Beyond their new production equipment, the pair view the new space as an opportunity to forge new connections with the community. Jake explained, “Having a taproom gives us the opportunity to share in our customers’ experiences with our ciders in a new way. We wanted to create a place that is fun and welcoming, where you can feel at home if you are a cider expert or just want to explore and have a drink and some food.”

Artifact Cider’s new taproom in Florence is set to open at the beginning of August.

While the business has grown dramatically in scope and scale over the past five years, Jake and Soham’s guiding philosophy has remained steady. “We’re trying to celebrate the apples of our region,” Soham explained. “We’re trying to craft really unique, distinctive ciders from things that are grown here and are representative of this place.” Over the past century, the apple market turned increasingly national. As the fruit was shipped across the country and around the world, Soham felt there was a loss. “The apples weren’t appreciated for being unique and special to this area. One thing that Artifact does is shine a spotlight that these apples are very much here and now.”

Artifact sees themselves as a part of a recent resurgence of cider in the area. “We live in one of the top apple-growing regions in the world,” Jake said. “It’s cool to be a part of this renaissance. Getting to celebrate the amazing terroir, the apples we grow, and the orchards behind it.” Jake and Soham value their relationships with the orchardists that they buy from. “It’s a collaboration with these growers,” Soham told me. “Ultimately my job is honoring their work. Their expertise is growing apples. My expertise is making cider that hopefully doesn’t offend them.”

The pair describe Pine Hill Orchards in Colrain as their ‘home orchard.’ When they were first starting out, even though they were small, Pine Hill was willing to take the time to let them order custom varietal blends. As Artifact has grown, so has their relationship with Pine Hill. “It’s a conversation that took place over years,” Soham explained. “Now it’s at the point where Artifact actually has trees in the ground at the orchard. Pine Hill will spray in different ways because of certain apples they know we’re going to use, pick in certain ways because they know we’re going to be making cider out of them … That’s a win-win for both of us.” In the end, Artifact hopes that their relationship with Pine Hill and other local orchards will help bolster the farms into the future. “We believe orchards and agriculture are an important part of our culture in the northeast, in the past and more importantly in the future. We are passionate about helping sustain them,” Jake said.

As Soham, Jake, and the rest of the Artifact team open their doors of the new taproom this month, they know it represents a new chapter for the business. But Artifact as a company has always embraced change. When they make their cider, they try not to control the process too much. “We try to let the apples express themselves and we just steer and guide it,” Jake explained. One of their ciders from last year might taste differently this year because “the story of apples from this year is different than last year … The apples are different and instead of trying to control that by adding acid or sugar we let the cider be a little bit different.” As apple season quickly approaches, there will be only one way to find out the story of this year’s cider. Grab a pack of Artifact Cider or swing by the new tap room in Florence and taste it yourself!

Customers enjoying cider during the preview weekend at the Artifact Cider Project tap room.

Shannon Green of Jay’s Wicked

Shannon Green found out that her husband Jason was a sauce fanatic early on in their relationship. On a recent morning, sitting in front of a massive skull-covered Jay’s Wicked Gourmet Sauce poster, Shannon explained, “Back before we were married, I looked in his fridge. He’s a chef and you’d think there would be all this food, but it was full of condiments!”

Shannon soon learned that many of the sauces stuffing Jason’s fridge were freshly concocted experiments. Jason has a passion for invention, and his drive to tinker with things, combined with his love of food, brought a steady stream of delicious concoctions through the couple’s kitchen. One of those early creations was an original barbeque sauce—it was a hit with their friends, and Jason began serving it up on ‘Crazy Jay Burgers’ at Mary Lane Hospital, where he works as the chef. Word about the new sauce spread quickly, and soon people were walking into the Hospital asking for bottles of barbeque. Shannon, with her entrepreneurial instinct, sensed an opportunity. “People liked it so much that they wanted bottles of the sauce – I said we should start doing something with this!” The idea for Jay’s Wicked Gourmet Sauce was born.

Once Shannon and Jason decided to take the plunge and start a new business, they began a year-long sprint to perfect their recipes, track down suppliers, and produce a whole bunch of sauce. After many tough months of figuring out how to make a home-made sauce on a commercial scale, Shannon and Jason were proud to unveil their brand-new line of Jay’s Wicked Gourmet Sauces in the summer of 2016. The couple quickly hit the road, tabling at events throughout the state to spread the word about Jay’s Wicked. With a young child in tow and day jobs on the side, Jason and Shannon were constantly on the move, but the hustle paid off. Shannon was thrilled when she realized for the first time that customers were beginning to seek them out at events. “By the second year, people were expecting us to be places. That was the first, ‘Woah, this is working!’”

Shannon and Jason aim for a high level of quality. Shannon explained, “I don’t like the fillers, I don’t like anything fake in my product.” She picked up a bottle of their Honey RazBQ sauce and began ticking off the ingredients on the label. “Look – there’s tomato paste, raspberries, vinegar, some sugar, honey… it’s all real things. It’s not some word that you can’t pronounce.” For the couple, a keystone of producing a high-quality product also means sourcing their ingredients locally. They buy in peppers from Hubbard’s Dry Brook Farm and Kitchen Garden Farm in Sunderland, vinegar from Apex Orchards in Shelburne Falls, Ginger from Old Friends Farm in Amherst, and are always looking to establish new relationships with their farmer neighbors.

Jason and Shannon Green

The Jay’s Wicked logo may be covered in skulls, but don’t let that scare you off—they have a sauce for everyone. For those who prefer a milder taste, go for the original Barbeque sauce or Spicy Gold, a mustard-based barbeque sauce, which Shannon points out is great for glazing a ham or on roasted broccoli. The Honey RazBQ sauce (with real honey and real raspberries) is all sweet and no heat. “It’s for the people who thought the original barbeque was too hot,” Shannon told me with a laugh.

Of course, Jay’s Wicked has sauces for folks who appreciate spicy, too. Green Rocket is made with jalapeños (a delicious addition to your morning eggs and potatoes, says Shannon) and Fiery Chipotle can bring a deep, smoky flavor to tacos or a chipotle mayo. For you heat lovers, mix the Jay’s Wicked Habanero with maple syrup for a glaze on your next salmon. Or if the Habanero isn’t hot enough, go for the Triple Black Reaper: black cherries, black garlic, black tea, and the infamous Carolina Reaper pepper. But, as Shannon points out, Jay’s Wicked isn’t about just blasting your socks off. “We focus on the flavor of the peppers rather than just intense heat. A lot of hot sauces you eat them and then you don’t taste your food because your taste buds are blown – that’s not us.”

Jay’s Wicked by Nature Cider Tonic

With a full line of seven sauces, you might expect Jason and Shannon to have their hands full, but the couple is constantly working to create new products. For the past few years, Shannon and Jason have been making a cider tonic for family and friends; encouraged by a positive community response, the two took the leap outside of the sauce world with the official release Jay’s Wicked by Nature Cider Tonic this past November. Shannon told me that she loves to use the tonic in salad dressing, in tea, or to drink it straight up as a healthful supplement. The product is packed with nutritious foods including raw apple cider vinegar, ginger, horseradish, honey, black peppercorns, turmeric, rose hips, and chocolate habaneros. Completing a bio-regional herbalism apprenticeship encouraged Shannon’s drive to produce something that would be packed with nutrients while also tasting delicious. Shannon considers herself a naturalist and hopes to continue developing more herbalism-focused products down the road.

Shannon and Jason are in their third year of Jay’s Wicked, and they have come a long way from that refrigerator full of condiments. These days, you can find their products in Fresh Acres, Table and Vine, Big Y’s in Hampden County, Arnold’s Meats, Rice’s Fruit Farm, Atkins, and on their website. It has been a tough road so far, filled with early mornings and late nights, but Shannon is inspired to keep forging ahead by the comradery she has made with the thriving food community in the Valley. “Everyone is in the same boat. Other businesses, farmers, we’re all small business owners and we all have similar struggles. You think you’re going to be a competitor with somebody but you meet at an event and there’s a great value in talking to each other. Learning from each other has been so rewarding.”

Owner Julie Tuman

Julie Tuman remembers a young customer approaching her pop stand with a determined look on her face. “I don’t think she was old enough to read the menu but she came up with her money and she definitely knew how much change she was supposed to get because she told me in advance,” Julie told me on a recent July morning. The child quickly ordered ‘a red,’ but Crooked Stick Pops isn’t any old ice pop stand and Julie has a whole lot more than just ‘red’. On any given day a red could be a watermelon hibiscus pop or strawberry lemonade, or maybe that day it’s strawberry pineapple or watermelon basil. Julie puts together flavors that reflect the bounty of the season as she tracks down whatever fruits and herbs local farms have available. “There were five red ones and we had to take some time to talk about what they were all made of.” For Julie, introducing her youngest customers to new flavors is thrilling to watch. “How cool is it that we have kids ordering pops with cucumber in it, or kale, or even dill – and then loving it and having this really open experience.”

Kids are not alone in loving Crooked Stick Pops. In fact, the seed for launching the pop business was planted when a very much adult Julie found herself fanatically visiting and revisiting a gourmet frozen fruit pop shop on a beach vacation to Florida. “We would go there 3-4 times a day. On the way to the beach, on the way home from the beach, on our way to dinner, coming home from dinner … on our second way home from dinner … I loved it!” With a dream of bringing that same ice pop joy to the Valley, Julie decided to build a commercial kitchen in Easthampton two years ago and began experimenting with her own recipes. She found her first customers when she took her pop tricycle – with a cooler hitched into the front – on the road to summer hot spots around the Valley. Before long, the pops were a hit and Crooked Stick Pops became a regular vendor at the Northampton Tuesday Farmers’ Market, the Springfield Forest Park Farmers’ Market, the Amherst Farmers’ Market, and the Great Barrington Farmers’ Market.

Crooked Stick Pops

Working the farmers’ markets has created great opportunities for Julie to establish relationships with farms throughout the Valley. She’s often thrilled to clear out her vendor neighbors’ stock at the end of the day (blueberries from Bear Meadow Farm are a favorite!). Julie aims to source everything that she possibly can from the Valley – whether it’s strawberries from Warner Farm, plums from Sentinel Farm, or ginger from Old Friends Farm. At her business’s small size, building those close local relationships are essential. “When you’re this small, it’s hard to get people’s attention. That’s why it’s so great to work locally. For example, Kitchen Garden Farm doesn’t need to work with me, they don’t need the $50 that I give them every two weeks but Caroline and Tim are awesome people and they’re happy to have me come pick up my tiny, tiny order even as other businesses are ordering entire pallets. I get the same level of attention.”

The farms that hear from Julie the most are often the orchards in the Valley – many Crooked Stick Pops are made with an apple base. For Julie, using apples as the building block of her pops is essential to producing a healthy product that she can feel good serving to the community. “I care about what I eat, I care about what other people eat. I want us to eat good things. I’m a perimeter of the store shopper, a farmers’ market shopper. I don’t want those processed foods … One of the nice things about the fruit pops is that they really are much better for you. We don’t use fruit juice – we use the whole fruit. You’re getting the nutrients and the vitamins and the fiber but anything frozen on a stick still feels like a treat!”

Crooked Stick Pops

Along with the joy of producing a healthier product is the tough reality that making a nutritious pop with locally sourced ingredients isn’t always cheap. “You can find things that look the same as my pops in a big box store for way less money. There’s a lot of education that goes into it, explaining to people that this is food made out of food. Food has a price tag. I pay farmers and make pops out of their produce but there’s a cost associated with that. My fruit pops have a higher cost than commercially available Popsicles, just like a locally grown carrot has a higher cost than other carrots. We have to work on articulating the value of what we do – the nutrients in the pops, the lower food miles, everything else that goes into it – there’s value in that.”

People around the Valley must be sold on the value of Crooked Stick Pops because the business has been growing fast. It’s only year three and Julie already has six employees, a regular stand at five farmers’ markets, and a new brick-and-mortar pop shop in Easthampton. (Visit the shop in the Eastworks building Tuesday – Sunday!) Julie also does tons of pop up events so be sure to visit her at Food Truck Fridays, the upcoming Look Park Food Truck Festival, or one of the many other events up on her calendar. Running around to so many events can be crazy stressful but for Julie, it’s been a great way to spend her time. “It’s maybe not going to change the whole world but it makes an awful lot of people happy.” Plus, it doesn’t hurt that Julie gets to kick off every morning in a kitchen overflowing with giant watermelons, baskets of peaches, and heaps of plums. “My life consists of working with fruit and then interacting with awesome people. This is good.”

Relish the Harvest, a Chicopee-based specialty food producer founded by Jessica Wisniewski in 2010, began with a Wisniewski family staple: sweet zucchini relish. During the summers of Jessica’s childhood, her family would harvest the abundant produce from their garden in Sunderland and preserve the fresh summer flavors through canning. After studying chemistry in college, she spent two summers working in the Cains Pickles packing factory in South Deerfield, followed by other jobs involving quality assurance with other food companies such as Breyers. Working in these positions, she learned about the laws governing commercial food products, which proved to be crucial when she decided to start her own specialty food company. Beginning with her mother’s original recipe, she has since added three additional recipes to the mix. Her products capture the freshest taste possible from vegetables picked at their peak, from the end of July to the end of September.

Photo by Relish the Harvest

The recipe for zucchini relish that originally started the business calls for fresh zucchini, onions, and green and red peppers, all grown right here in the Valley. Jessica then adds a combination of vinegar, spices, turmeric, sugar, and salt to the mix. Since vegetables make up most of the recipe (unlike some other store-bought relishes, Relish the Harvest contains no added binders and fillers), 90% of the of the finished product is fresh, local vegetables. She used to grow the vegetables herself, supplementing here and there with produce from other local farmers, but as Relish the Harvest has grown she has transitioned to purchasing all her produce from local farms to focus on making the best product possible.

Jessica has slowly introduced three new products to her company line: Sweet Hot Relish, Hot Pepper Spread, and No Sugar Added Zucchini Spread. The No Sugar variety does not include any substitute sweeteners for the sugar, opting instead to focus on herbal flavors like dill. Jessica often hears from customers that they appreciate how fresh her products taste, and that they are happy she provides even healthier and purer products than similar products found at the grocery store. One of the biggest rewards for her is getting this positive, direct feedback from her customers.

Relish the Harvest is both a supporter of and a direct part of the local food movement; access to fresh local produce is crucial to the quality of Jessica’s product, and as a local food producer she relies on customers’ enthusiasm for local food. The seasonal availability of local produce can be challenging for a business producing and selling relish all year round, but the quality of local veggies and the strength of the relationships between local producers make those challenges worth the effort. When she is not focusing on her company, Jessica is spending time with her family. Her husband has been supportive of her business from the start, and her young children like her products, even bringing them to school in their lunchboxes. If you want to give Relish the Harvest a try, all of Jessica’s products are available online at www.relishtheharvest.com. She also sells to seven local Big Y’s, seven Whole Foods, and local stores like Atlas Farmstand.

Photo: Hosta Hill

Hosta Hill, producer of kimchi, krauts, and krautonics, received this year its second consecutive Good Food Award. Field-to-ferment experts and Hosta Hill co-founders Maddie Elling and Abe Hunrichs gained national recognition from the San Francisco-based award organization in 2015 with their Kimchi, which is known for its fresh, vibrant taste and crunchy texture, and again in 2016 with their Gochu Curry Kraut, an Indian-Korean fusion made with curry and kimchi peppers. To be eligible for entry in the pickles category, the food’s ingredients must be locally grown and produced without synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. But to win, the food must be both sustainably-produced and delicious.

Today, I’m in the Great Barrington village of Housatonic at Hosta Hill’s commercial kitchen watching Abe and two other staff members fill and label bottles of their newly famous Gochu Curry Kraut. When I mention I saw snow on the ground on the way here, Maddie tells me, “This is a great way to get your vegetables in the winter.” The harvest season may be over for Maddie and Abe, but they will stay busy making their value-added products until planting season begins.

Maddie and Abe grow much of what’s used in their products, but their cabbages, radishes, onions, carrots, garlic, and hot peppers are supplemented by produce from area farms as needed, such as napa cabbage from Kitchen Garden Farms in Sunderland and green cabbage and onions from Red Fire Farm in Montague.

Crate upon crate of cabbages line one wall of the kitchen while a pallet of cabbage waits right outside. Clearly, it all starts with cabbage. I ask Maddie to take me through the processing steps. She explains that it’s actually pretty simple. For a basic sauerkraut, the cabbage is cored, sliced, mixed with salt, and then packed in a barrel to age for 4 to 6 weeks. (The cabbage is fermented by naturally-occurring lactic acid bacteria, so there is no need to add starter cultures). They know it’s ready to be packed when the pH drops below 4.3 and the taste is right. “If it’s too young, it will taste too green—too much like fresh cabbage,” she explains. Next, it’s packed into jars, labeled, and refrigerated. It’s best within 6 months of packing. Over time the product will soften and become more acidic as it continues to ferment, but it’s still perfectly safe to eat.

Hosta Hill’s products include Sauerkraut, which contains only green cabbage and salt, and the more exotic variants Crimson Kraut, Gochu Curry Kraut, and Kimchi. The juices of each are bottled and sold as Krautonics, which you can drink straight like a fire cider, add to smoothies or green juices, or use in alcoholic beverages such as a Kimchi Bloody Mary or a “krautback”—the sauerkraut version of a pickleback, where a shot of whiskey is chased by a shot of brine. Krautonics can also be used as a soup base, as a salad dressing, or as a marinade with soy sauce, garlic, and herbs added. The newest Hosta Hill addition is Lacto-Fermented Hot Sauce. Introduced last year, it uses ripened jalapeño peppers and garlic grown by Maddie and Abe.

All Hosta Hill products are raw and living foods, full of probiotics. Maddie tells me it’s rewarding “to see how people respond to our products and say how much it’s been helping their health” and to know “that we’re offering a truly healing and delicious product.” She mentions the link between probiotics and digestive health, but also refers to the newer science linking digestive health to the brain and mental health.

Hosta Hill is a young business that has met with early success in part due to strong community support. Maddie says, “It’s a really exciting time. There’s a lot of interest and support in local food products, and lots of resources and technical assistance in the Berkshires. It’s a good time to be a business. People want to know where their food comes from.” Maddie and Abe, both passionate about working outdoors, were raising pigs and turkeys and growing vegetables in 2010 before finally committing to sauerkraut and kimchi, which they produced in church kitchens and sold at the Norfolk Farmers’ Market and Northampton Farmers’ Market, educating people about their products along the way. In 2011, they moved to the current property which they rent from Maddie’s parents. Through a Kickstarter campaign, funding from friends, family, and customers allowed them to build a commercial kitchen below the house. There is a staff of 4, consisting of the 2 owners and 2 part-time employees plus some seasonal help.

The business continues to expand its reach. Hosta Hill products can be found in stores in the Berkshires such as Berkshire Co-op and Berkshire Organics and in stores throughout the Pioneer Valley such as River Valley Co-op, Cornucopia, Green Fields Market, and Atlas Farm. Products are also sold at the Tuesday Market in Northampton. In addition, they use Myers Produce, a small Vermont-based distributor, to distribute products to Boston and New York. Maddie says they are working to get into restaurants and cafes through wholesale distribution channels. When she visits a restaurant, she always brings samples and suggestions on pairings for the chef.

Maddie says their biggest challenge is a lack of space, both for production and farming. In fact, there are plans underway to move into a new kitchen this summer. Other plans for the business include producing more products (such as the cultured mustard they’re currently developing), growing more of their raw ingredients, and having their organic farm certified.

When I ask for recipe ideas for the krauts and kimchi, Maddie rattles off several ideas: sauerkraut served on top of a bowl of stew as a garnish or paired with ham, Gochu Curry Kraut or Kimchi as an appetizer with cheese and charcuterie, and Kimchi or any of the krauts on a sandwich. Their products are available at stores throughout Massachusetts, online at HostaHill.com, or at a number of Holiday Markets such as the Northampton Winter Market, the Holiday Shindy at Shire City Sanctuary in Pittsfield (Dec. 10-11), Carter and Stevens Farm in Barre, MA (Dec. 11), and Berkshire Grown in Great Barrington (Dec. 17) and in Williamstown (Dec. 18).

The smell of freshly brewed tea fills the room—kombucha is on the production schedule today for Artisan Beverage Cooperative in Greenfield, and as General Manager Garth Shaneyfelt tells me, kombucha begins with tea. Through the magic of fermentation, the sweetened tea will soon be transformed into the popular tart and effervescent beverage known as kombucha. Kombucha is just one type of beverage produced by the fermentation experts at Artisan Beverage Cooperative. They also produce mead, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey, and an alcoholic ginger drink they call Ginger Libation, made from fermented ginger and fruit juices.

This worker-owned cooperative was formed in 2013 from the merging of two local companies: Katalyst Kombucha, producer of kombucha since 2005, and Green River Ambrosia, producer of mead since 2007 and Ginger Libation since 2010. Katalyst Kombucha had already formed a close relationship with Green River Ambrosia, utilizing extra space in the facility to produce its beverages. Shared values of supporting sustainable agriculture and the local economy, along with the promise of operational efficiencies, made the merger a natural decision. Restructuring into a co-op was another way to evolve further and help ensure the sustainability of the business through worker ownership and governance. Garth explains, “We want to support the local economy. That’s why we became a worker co-op—because we’re interested in staying here.” Artisan Beverage Cooperative has 6 worker-owners and 8 employees. After 2 years there, an employee can become an owner.

Garth came from the Green River Ambrosia side of the business, and got his start in home brewing. Mead is his specialty. He explains that recent interest in craft brews has caused explosive growth in domestic mead production. When he started Green River Ambrosia in 2007, there were fewer than 30 meaderies in the country. Now there are about 350. Of all the products made at the brewery, Garth’s favorite is still the mead, specifically the Whiskey Cyzer. This is an apple mead made from fresh pressed apple cider (from Pine Hill Orchards in Colrain and Clarkdale Fruit Farms in Deerfield) and late season honey (from Warm Colors Apiary in Deerfield and other local producers), that is aged in whiskey barrels for 6 months. He tells me this one is great for the holidays.

When possible, the ingredients are sourced from the Pioneer Valley. Local Libation uses ginger from Old Friends Farm in Amherst. The schizandra berries in Schizandraberry Kombucha come from Chang Farms in Whately. But where availability or climate makes this impractical, they will source regionally (e.g., Concord grapes from upstate New York). And for ingredients that are unavailable domestically, Artisan Beverage Cooperative purchases from democratically-organized small farmer cooperatives. The tea and sugar is purchased in this way, through Equal Exchange, with incredible impact. “We are supporting an entire village in Paraguay by buying their sugar,” Garth tells me. Responsible sourcing may be more complex and costly, but it is a commitment that Artisan Beverage Cooperative has made to ensure it has a positive impact on farmers and their communities.

Both Katalyst Kombucha and Green River Ambrosia were companies that began at the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center, a community fee-based food processing facility in Greenfield managed by the Franklin County Development Corporation (known locally as “the CDC”). After merging and restructuring into Artisan Beverage Cooperative, the group remains at the CDC, but now as tenants. The co-op has its own wing with an office, a newly built tasting room, and a factory that produces 5 days a week.

The product offerings and distribution channels have been steadily growing. The product mix is 55% kombucha, 40% libation, and 5% mead. About half of the Katalyst Kombucha is distributed in kegs (with 32 kegerators in the region for chilled storage and dispensing), and the rest is distributed in bottles and growlers. You can find Katalyst Kombucha at Green Fields Market, River Valley Co-op, and Cornucopia in varieties such as Bliss Berry, Concord Grape, and Jasmine. The Libation line is also available in bottles and on tap and is distributed through Berkshire Brewing Company. You can find Ginger Libation year-round, and a cranberry version, Local Libation, in the winter. There is also a blueberry version for summer and fall. The Green River Ambrosia meads are available in bottles only and include such varieties as Valley Cyzer, Winter Warmer, and Chamomile, plus a lemon mead made especially for the local Mutton & Mead Medieval Festival.

Artisan Beverage Cooperative now also has a relationship with Performance Food Group, the third largest food service distributor in the country, which has greatly expanded product reach. Garth is clear that the co-op’s biggest challenge is managing these diverse sales channels and the large distribution area. For example, Ginger Libation is now in 35 states. The staff finds local distribution to be the most fulfilling due to the personal interaction it entails. “Our best relationships are our direct relationships—being able to go into the stores and do demos.”

When I ask about the co-op’s plans for the future, Garth tells me, “In the next 5 years, we will probably outgrow the CDC. A lot of us live close. I prefer to walk or bike to work. We want to be based in the place we live.” This commitment to staying in the community, like the commitment to responsible sourcing, represents a very different philosophy from business as usual. And, it has not gone unnoticed. Garth says his greatest reward in this business is that “the customers really appreciate what we do, and we get support from the community.”

To show your support and learn more about Artisan Beverage Cooperative, you can stop by on December 4^th for the ArtBev Holiday Market. You can tour the brewery, meet the staff, purchase gifts from guest vendors, and of course, sample the co-op’s high quality specialty brews in the brand new tasting room.

Photo credit: Maple Valley Creamery

Do you know what makes Maple Valley Ice Cream so irresistible? It’s not just the local cream, milk, & pure cane sugar. It’s also a dedication to happy cows, sourcing locally, open spaces, and the community. It’s a desire to provide a future for youth and animals through 4-H and other community connections. This is what you hear from Bruce Jenks and Laurie Cuevas of Maple Valley Creamery in Hadley, who source locally from Mapleline, Shaw, McCray’s and High Lawn Farms to make their well-known and much loved local ice cream brand.

Bruce was inspired to start making a fresh, fully-local ice cream “mix” (the “mix” is the base from which all ice cream flavors are developed) as an alternative to the widely-available frozen mixes. Upon realizing what a truly quality product they had on their hands, Bruce and Laurie decided to launch their own ice cream brand instead of selling their mix to other producers. The operation started very small, with Bruce testing out his ice cream making skills in his farm house kitchen with a Cuisinart, but within several months they were sending product to Whole Foods in Hadley and Serio’s Market in Northampton. Esselon Coffee Roasters and the North Hadley Sugar Shack supplied ingredients in some of the first trial flavors. Now Maple Valley Creamery proudly offers a 28 flavor line of super premium ice cream, along with frozen yogurt, fresh butter, and whole milk ricotta cheese.

During my visit to the farm and creamery I got to meet a group of plump, healthy looking cows that had come in for milking. Laurie discussed their involvement in 4-H while simultaneously rubbing the face of a cow like it was her pet. These ten Brown Swiss cows are matured Maple Valley 4-H project calves that will be bred for future 4-H calves. They will also supply fresh raw milk for the farm store that is currently underway, located several feet from where the cows are milked. Laurie is very close to these animals —they each have names and stories, and they are treated with respect and loved like family. “People like the ice cream, but they really love to learn about our cows,” says Laurie. Misty, the oldest of the herd, is one of the cows I got to meet. With huge eyes and a sweet face, Misty and the rest of the cows seemed more than content eating hay while their milking duties commenced. The new farm puppy, Sydney, had no reservations about being around animals ten times her size. In fact, she delighted in licking the nose of any calf who dared to put their face close enough to the ground. Another group of milking cows owned by Bruce and Laurie are housed at nearby Barstow’s Longview Farm. “The Barstow family has been very kind and supportive of our farm throughout our construction phase,” says Bruce. “With their help in housing our ladies we can easily add cows as the demand for raw milk increases.”

Caitlin and Aaron are the hardworking youth on the farm who are both keen on learning the business. “I told the kids that they didn’t have to grow up and become farmers but they had to understand where their food comes from.” According to Laurie, the farm’s involvement in 4-H has played a huge role in the kids developing a solid work ethic and setting them up to be able to offer something to the community. Caitlin and Aaron are both currently studying Dairy Management at Vermont Tech and are an integral part of the herd management, the farm, and the ice cream business.

Bruce and Laurie’s schedule is beyond busy. They still personally make deliveries to over 40 stops per week, delivering products to their core group of customers from the Berkshires to Boston while their distributor handles customers throughout the rest of New England. With just the four of them in the business, everyone works hard. “We don’t sleep much and have no down time, but we truly love what we do so it’s not a bad thing,” admits Laurie. Bruce adds, “We truly are a ‘micro-dairy’. We don’t even own a tractor. We’ve yet to pay ourselves. We had to decide why we were getting into this and commit to it. We are so very grateful to the Gordon and Terry Smith family who own the farm for providing us a place for our developing dairy.” This lifestyle has been a refreshing contrast to Laurie’s two decades of working a corporate job. She loves being outside and loves the people and animals she interacts with now. The passion the kids have about learning the business has been added inspiration to Bruce and Laurie.

The connection that Maple Valley Creamery has to youth and the academic world is strong. Last spring Bruce and Laurie mentored a UMass Food Science class and helped them develop ice cream flavors. At the end of the semester, Bruce, Laurie and several guest chefs taste-tested four ice cream flavors created by the students. Cherry Chocolate Chunk was deemed the winner, and Maple valley Creamery produced the recipe as a seasonal flavor and sold it in stores with the UMass logo. “We were so honored to work with these brilliant kids who were completing their educations. We worked every day at some point with each group throughout the process, and we loved every minute of it,” said Bruce. Maple Valley donated a percentage of the sales of the UMass pint back to the Food Science class to continue the program. They have been asked to mentor the upcoming class and are looking forward to the process again.

Exciting changes are on the horizon. The creamery has a brand new milk room that they were able to set up partially with a viability grant, and they are working on opening up a store on the farm by mid-January. The store is named Mill Valley Milk Company and the plan is to sell fresh raw milk, ice cream and other local products at the store and make the creamery more of a destination for locals and those passing by. The new milk room is spotless and the store is like stepping into a comfortable rustic farmhouse setting. The plans are ambitious and time is limited but according to Laurie, “Bruce is fearless – he gets things done. He keeps us focused and moving forward every day.” The Maple Valley family is eager to welcome all to meet their beautiful cows and calves and to provide an enjoyable experience for those seeking farm fresh milk and ice cream.

Kristin Barry, Shelly Risinger, and their children Brycen and Cobyn at the Northampton Winter Farmers’ Market. Jason Threlfall photo.

With a motto of “Local agriculture is everyone’s business,” Kristin Barry and Shelly Risinger of Appalachian Naturals have built a thriving local company that helps consumers enjoy the flavors and quality of locally grown food throughout the year. Their sauces, dressings, dips, salsas, and other condiments each contain ingredients produced by Massachusetts farmers, from Cape Cod to the Berkshires. Supporting local agriculture is as integral to Appalachian Naturals’ identity as its creative flavor pairings, which have gained a strong and loyal customer base throughout the northeast and the mid-Atlantic regions.

Kristin and Shelly settled in Goshen in 2003 to be close to family after several years as hands-on owners of The Crossroads Restaurant in Joshua Tree, a popular rock-climbing destination in the high desert of southern California. Their home-made salad dressings at The Crossroads were so popular that customers brought in mason jars to fill up whenever Kristin and Shelly took time off. Inspired by customers who had urged them to “bottle this stuff,” they launched Appalachian Naturals in the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center at the Franklin County CDC. As the company grew, they consolidated production on their property in Goshen – renovating a large barn into an 800 square foot energy-efficient production facility.

The harvest rules this family-run business: from mid-July to October, more than fifteen tons of locally grown produce are delivered to be made into savory salsas, tomato puree, and a variety of other products. Each recipe is made from a majority of local ingredients. Their Salsa Veracruz, for example, is 99% local (except for lime juice and salt). Appalachian Naturals is the only local company that prepares tomato puree from 100% local organic tomatoes and packs it in glass jars. At the peak of the season, they are capable of processing 1,800 pounds of tomatoes daily using just two 100-gallon kettles.

Through its regional distributors, Appalachian Naturals currently offers more than 25 products that can be purchased at natural foods stores, coops, general stores, gourmet markets, and farm stands. By using local ingredients that are available year-round, including milk, honey, and maple syrup, Appalachian Naturals has expanded its production capacity and sales while maintaining their commitment to using local ingredients.

Increased sales is just one measure of success. Appalachian Naturals is committed to a business model that represents a level of production that is personally sustainable and supports creativity and a healthy work/life balance. Kristin and Shelly take pride in being caring employers and building and maintaining an efficient production facility with a very small carbon footprint.

For helping bridge the gap between local agriculture and prepared foods, leadership in ethical and sustainable business practices, and a commitment to a supportive workplace, CISA is proud to honor Appalachian Naturals as a Local Hero.

Local live edge slabs from Forest Products Associates

Sue Fiske, multigenerational owner of Forest Products Associates, likes to keep it simple. Of what they produce on their farm, Sue says, “It’s pretty much trees and garlic”—the garlic being a special hobby of Sue’s and the fine hardwood being the central production. However, don’t let simplicity fool you—this domestic and exotic wood supplier offers an extensive range of products that are anything but simple. Tucked away just beyond a residential neighborhood in Greenfield, Forest Products Associates features a warehouse full of everything from exotic Honduran rosewood to locally-produced live edge walnut slabs sporting the Local Hero label.

Since 1946, under Sue’s father, Lee Fiske, Forest Products Associates has maintained this focused commitment to quality, community and sustainability—which Sue says is “just the way it’s done” in the Northeast. However, the community that Sue and her father have worked with is not quite the local community that we all traditionally think of, but is instead what Sue jokingly calls “a very large neighborhood” that has grown to include sustainability-certified global producers as well as a variety of local producers and sources.

These ethical commitments to sustainability and community have been central to Forest Products Associates since the beginning. Years into building this local business and having become globally recognized for his high quality kiln drying, Lee even took his love of all things wood abroad by briefly moving his whole family to Spain. In the early 1960s, when Sue was just a child, Lee had been asked by the United States Agency for International Development to use his dry kiln skills and extensive knowledge of hardwoods to develop lumber production and processing in Spain. And though these global connections and commitment to the “very large neighborhood” may have initially sent the Fiskes abroad, they eventually returned home to the strong local roots that Sue works to maintain to this day.

Sue, who graduated with a degree in business from the University of Massachusetts and in fine woods from “The Lee Fiske School of Wood Technology and Hard Knocks,” has now taken the business in a bit of a different direction. Although Forest Products Associates is still busy with wood drying in their on-site kilns, Sue focuses more on sales—but with the same commitments to quality, community and sustainability. In addition to the multigenerational business partners with whom Sue works to source their fully certified exotic woods, Sue has a wide range of streams for local suppliers. Despite a loss of more than two-thirds of Western Massachusetts mills in recent years, Forest Products Associates still works with many small producers, including one of the last remaining sawmills in Northampton. And, to this day, local farmers will call Sue to sell her single trees that come down on their properties.

Local pine boards on the shelves

With Sue’s focus on sales, Forest Products Associates has developed a wide range of local customers that they work with, including local contractors, woodworkers, artisans or individual homeowners or hobby woodworkers. After listing the variety of products that customers may make with their wood products—musical instruments, cabinetry or pens, to list a few—Sue laughing adds, “if anyone wants wood, they end up here sooner or later.” Some of the woods from Forest Products Associates have even ended up featured as counters in a number of local restaurants, including those of Local Hero restaurant and brewery The People’s Pint.

It is clear that these partnerships and connections are what define the business model of Forest Products Associates. There is a pride in all that they do, and it shows. Excitedly, Sue describes what they really do here, “Anybody who wants something really cool, if they’ve got some dream in their head of what they want… anybody who has a dream, we’ll help them put it into reality.”

To get started on the project of your dreams, stop by the Greenfield location or visit their website for more information.

How a small local food business in western Massachusetts preserved its social mission through transitioning to a worker-owned cooperative and using an innovative financing strategy.

Authored by: Jonathan Ward, Special Projects Intern, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)

With significant contributions from:

Margaret Christie, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)
Addie Rose Holland & Dan Rosenberg, Real Pickles
Jeff Rosen, Solidago Foundation
Sam Stegeman, Pioneer Valley Grows (PVGrows)

Worker-owners with fresh cucumbers at Real Pickles in Greenfield. Photo: Real Pickles

Abstract

“We’re re-writing the standard storyline for a successful organic food business,” says Dan Rosenberg, founder of the twelve-year-old Greenfield, Massachusetts company Real Pickles, which makes naturally fermented and raw pickles from regionally-grown vegetables in a 100% solar-powered facility. Instead of selling their growing company to a large industrial food corporation, as happens so often with successful natural products businesses (think: Odwalla, Naked Juice, Tom’s of Maine, Stonyfield, and so on), Rosenberg and his wife Addie Rose Holland (who had joined him in running the business in 2004) went the other direction, deciding to keep Real Pickles small, locally owned, and mission-driven. In late 2012, Rosenberg and Holland formed a worker-owned cooperative with other staff members, and funded the co-op’s purchase of the business through a highly successful community investment campaign that raised a half-million dollars.

Transitioning to worker-ownership gave the company a way to protect its social mission. Since its founding, Real Pickles has been committed to promoting human and ecological health by providing people with delicious, nourishing food and by working toward a regional, organic food system. In order to help ensure that this mission would continue, the worker-owners inscribed these principles in the co-op’s organizing documents, and made them very difficult to change. Still, even after organizing the cooperative structure, the worker-owners needed to raise a half-million dollars to buy the business from Rosenberg and Holland. They considered a number of options for financing, from subordinated debt to equity. In making these decisions, the worker-owners drew from the experience that one of them had had working with Equal Exchange, a successful cooperative that has a long history of raising capital by selling non-voting preferred stock. Later, they sought the expertise of the PVGrows collaborative network in western Massachusetts. A financing expert in PVGrows also connected Real Pickles to Cutting Edge Capital, a pioneering law firm in the Bay Area that helped them navigate many legal hurdles. In the end, the worker-owners decided that the best way for them to raise $500,000 was to sell non-voting preferred stock through a direct public offering. Real Pickles officially launched a community investment campaign in March 2013. Astonishingly, in just two months, the campaign was over. Seventy-seven investors – a mix of individuals, customers and suppliers, even a number of other co-ops – together invested $500,000, which allowed Real Pickles to fully transition to worker-ownership.

With interest growing in scaling up local food systems, the story of Real Pickles’ co-op transition and community investment campaign offers important lessons. Communities need businesses that can model ways to stay small, vibrant, and locally owned. This story is both inspirational and rich in technical detail so that others can speak about it, replicate it, and, ultimately, build upon it to fit their own visions of resilient local economies.

Ten years ago, it would not be easy to spend a leisurely weekend afternoon in western Massachusetts listening to live music and sampling the offerings at the local winery. That’s because ten years ago, when Hardwick Vineyard & Winery first started producing and selling wine, only 20 farm wineries were open for business across the Commonwealth. “We were ahead of the curve for once,” jokes John Samek, Hardwick Winery’s founder and wine-maker. Now, the winery is part of a burgeoning local wine business that has found a particular home in the western part of Massachusetts. The winery produces 5,000 gallons of wine in six varieties every year, and every leisurely weekend afternoon visitors can enjoy samples in Hardwick Winery’s beautiful, bright, mortise and tenon framed barn.

It all started with a mansion, explains John. John and his wife, Audrey, moved to Hardwick in 1984 to run a dairy farm, and for years drove past the old Giles E. Warner Mansion on Greenwich Road. “The house was the inspiration for the winery,” says John. Growing up on dairy farms, John knew first hand how the dairy industry was changing and was concerned about building a business for future generations. Starting a winery seemed like a promising option to John.  “I knew that wine has been around forever and it would be around long after we’re gone.” The Samek’s growing interest in running a vineyard and winery and their admiration for the old mansion converged in 1997 when the mansion and its 150-acre property came up for sale. “We got serious and took a chance. I bought this farm and hired consultants and a wine maker.” The Sameks also embarked on a complete restoration of the Warner Mansion.

John describes his early vision for the winery in simple terms. “We thought we would grow grapes and make wine and sell wine and drink wine.” Sure, he and Audrey figured the business would expand and they imagined they would eventually start hosting events at the winery. However, they were unprepared for how quickly they stepped into this role. “Agritainment is a big part of the wine business,” says John. “We didn’t realize how big a part.” Yet the Sameks have embraced the role. The winery has a banquet hall for weddings and other private functions, hosts a Father’s Day Tractor Pull and a March Maple Festival with the local sugar houses, and runs a bed and breakfast in the mansion. Perhaps best of all, every year the Warner Mansion is open to all visitors during weekends in December, so members of the general public get to see the results of the Samek family’s painstaking work to restore the home they love, right down to swapping modern for period nails in the mantle to hang their children’s and grandchildren’s Christmas stockings.

Of course in all of this, the wine stands out. Hardwick Vineyard & Winery has won local tasting awards, including the title of Best in State at the Big E in 2012, where they served 45,000 tasting cups this year. John explains that local wine has become more possible in northern climates due to new hybrid varieties of grapes that can stand the colder temperatures and still fruit. The winery grows six different varieties of grapes and buys additional grapes from other farms in New England and New York to supplement their own crop. The wines have wonderful New England names, such as “Quabbin Native,” a sweet dessert wine that won double gold at the Big E, and “Massetts. Cranberry,” a wine that takes its name from the old abbreviation for Massachusetts and features cranberries from a farm in Hardwick.

The hard work of John, who is Vice Chairman of the Massachusetts Farm Wineries and Vineyard Association, and others like him has granted local wineries a chance to expand. The recently passed Farm Winery’s Bill allows growers and producers to sell wine at farmers markets and agricultural fairs. “It was hard to get people to Hardwick,” says John. “It was working, but now we go to the people, instead of the people coming to us.” The renewed focus on local agriculture in New England is what has contributed the most to the growth of Hardwick Wineries. “The market demand is there,” John observes. “People really want to support local.” As a result of all this hard work, John and Audrey’s vision of having a business they could pass on to their children was fulfilled when their daughter, Jennifer, and her husband, took over the job of managing the winery.

The Sameks are doing their part giving back to the community that has nurtured them through the ups and downs of growing a business and a family over the past 11 years.  If you would like to learn more about the winery visit their website.