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Vegetables, herbs, grass-fed lamb, and wool products
 We are a horse-powered vegetable and sheep farm in the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. We run a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. This means that we offer fresh produce for weekly pickup on the farm to members who prepay for each season. Members are provided with a cloth bag to fill with their own selection of vegetables from the day's harvest. They can also purchase other local products such as bread, cheese, honey, maple syrup, and various other preserved goods from our farm shop. We also offer fruit and flower shares for additional purchase from local farmers. Our season runs from June through early November. Pickup days are Tuesdays and Fridays from 3:30-6:30pm.
Our farm is graced by the South River, which separates the growing fields and our home and barnyard from the roadside meadows, where our parking lot and CSA sheds are located. We cross over either by going through the river via horse and wagon or over it by foot, on a wooden suspension bridge. Our CSA families often spend hours at the farm when they come for their weekly vegetables, wading in the river, picking you-pick crops in the fields, and visiting with friends.
Call (413) 369-4269 or email us csa@naturalroots.com
Horse-Powered Farming
Our two teams of workhorses contribute greatly to our goal of strengthening the vitality of the farm. We are most fortunate to have these amazing creatures here to help us with the farm work. Their balance of tremendous power, fluid grace and sharp minds is truly something to behold. From our perspective, the horses offer a multitude of benefits over the tractor they have replaced.
Our horses are extremely versatile, able to help us with virtually every task on the farm. They cover everything from heavy plowing to delicate cultivating. They haul the harvest from the fields, water to the livestock, and their own hay up to the barn. They skid logs from the forest for firewood for our home and the greenhouse. They are multitalented and always willing to work.
The horses also have a beneficial effect on the land and the environment. They are instrumental in enriching the soil, as they are the primary source of manure on the farm. In the fields, they tread lightly and do not cause the compaction that can result from the wheels and weight of the tractor. By passing over the petrol-burning tractor for the hay and oat-eating horses, we are progressing in a shift from dependence on toxic energy to living energy.
The horses also have a beneficial effect on the farmers. The nature of work done with horses - sweet smells, gentle sounds, feet on the ground - lends itself to a heightened sensitivity to the subtle and dynamic qualities of the world around us. Enhancing this attunement is essential to good organic farming. Sharing work and life with our equine partners has a simultaneously grounding and uplifting effect.
Life Is Sacred
It is with a reverence for all living
things that we aim to raise every
plant and animal on the farm in
optimal health and vitality. To
this end, we begin by nourishing
the land with carefully made
compost, green-manure crops and
grazing animals. By enlivening
the earth in this manner, the food
and forage harvested tend to
yield an enlivening effect of their
own. It is this quality in our produce
that you can taste and feel.
In light of the belief that food is
our best medicine, it is our ultimate
hope that, by offering this
“medicinal” food, we are contributing
to the healing and enlivening of our culture.
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let us first nourish the land
so that in return it may nourish us,
for any sustainable culture has its roots in the earth
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