What do you do when you have a four-quart-a-week yogurt habit? Buy some cows, of course. That’s what Klippenstein and Lacinski did in 2006. They’d been growing organic vegetables on their farm since 2001, first for themselves and then for sale, but saw a gap in the availability of locally produced organic yogurt and decided to fill it themselves.

As a small-scale organic farm, Sidehill is committed to stewardship of the land and to producing high-quality food in balance with nature. “Our mission is to address the issue of health on a holistic level,” says Klippenstein. “The health of the soil, the animals, the economy, and the community.”

They now own 17 cows grazed on certified organic pastureland, producing raw milk and yogurt from March to December. And they continue to grow and sell over 30 different organic vegetables, including greenhouse tomatoes, summer heirloom tomatoes, and nearly year-round salad greens.

2008 Local Hero Awardee

In 2001, McClintock experienced an epiphany while shopping at her local supermarket: recently inspired by a presentation on eating locally, she saw the processed, packaged, and out-of-season food on the shelves and wondered “Where did this come from? Who brought it? And how can this be good?”

Although she had always shopped farmers’ markets and supported CSAs in the 1980s and ’90s, McClintock was spurred into greater action. Beginning in 2005, she has co-organized Greenfield’s annual Free Harvest Supper of Locally Grown Food. And in 2008, she helped launch the first Week of Winter Fare/Groundhog’s Day Farmers’ Market, organized to demonstrate the many options available for seasonal eating in winter.

Her weekly column for The Recorder is an extension of her commitment to local food. “I’m grateful for the wonderful food grown in my community. Eating locally and sharing my enthusiasm with others is a tangible and tasty way to live my values every day.”

Take 20 kids ages 12–20, add a commitment to organic farming and sustainable living, and put it all on four small plots in Springfield—and you’ve got Gardening the Community, a youth-centered urban garden program founded in 2002 by Northeast Organic Farming Association.

As partners with rural and suburban agriculture, “We see ourselves as a participant in the farming community of Western Massachusetts, by maximizing urban space for food production and building awareness of the value of local food,” says Brennan.

Each year, the program employs teens to produce thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables, selling produce at a neighborhood farm stand and at farmers’ markets, restaurants, and local retailers, as well as distributing food to local senior centers—all on bicycles to minimize the use of fossil fuels. Many of the kids also create gardens in their backyards, involving their parents and further developing food self-sufficiency and a healthy lifestyle.