Stories

In recent years there have been instances where seafood marketed as local or as a specific species has turned out to be neither. Red’s Best, a Boston-based seafood distributor has an astute understanding of local seafood marketing and is emerging as a leader in tackling seafood mislabeling and building markets for lesser-known seafood species. Committed […]

Bessie Tsimba came to the U.S. from Zimbabwe in 1988, and now has a successful vegetable farm in Harvard, thanks to access to resources, equipment, and the Farm Business Planning Course, all offered by New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. She grows crops for New Entry’s CSA, as well as crops native to Africa to sell […]

Greenfield’s Real Pickles is a real success story and a model for increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. Founder Dan Rosenberg and his wife Addie Rose Holland have run their business with social and ecological responsibility always in the forefront. Founded in 2001, their delicious, northeast-grown and -distributed fermented vegetable business outgrew […]

Town farms – or poor farms – provided a support system for society’s poor in the 1800s through the mid-1900s in New England. Often on the outskirts of town, the poor farm provided a sense of purpose for paupers who then provided labor for the farm. Just such a poor farm was owned by the […]

Friends of the Homeless (FOH) in Springfield provides critical services, including serving over 150,000 meals every year. FOH serves three meals a day, seven days a week. Their licensed kitchen operates 365 days a year. On a typical day, 180 dinners are served. FOH operates with the support of dedicated partners and hundreds of volunteers. […]

More than a dozen food policy councils in the state function as forums where people from different community organizations, neighborhoods, and government agencies can work together to help make local food more accessible and increase opportunities for healthier living. Efforts are wide ranging, depending on local needs. The Springfield Food Policy Council, for example, is […]

The freezer at the (WMFPC) is cranking out flash-frozen, locally-grown, sliced carrots, broccoli, and peppers at a rate and quality that the WMFPC has never seen before. With their Individual Quick Freezer, the Food Processing Center produces 40 pounds of deep-frozen, high-quality produce in five minutes. In a year, WMFPC has the capacity to freeze […]

Craft brewing businesses are springing up across the state – at recent count there were over 60 craft brewers in Massachusetts, according to the Massachusetts Grown and Fresher website. Savvy farmers, such as Nate L’Etoille at Four Star Farm in the Connecticut River Valley, are growing hops to tap into (pun intended) this growing industry. […]

When Pam and Ray Robinson decided to start building a creamery to make cheese on their Hardwick dairy farm in 2010, they ran into multiple unexpected expenses. While most creameries use PVC pipes for plumbing, the Massachusetts Building Code considers on-farm creameries to be commercial operations versus agricultural or residential and so required the Robinsons […]

Gurry is what’s left over after a fish has been filleted. This mixture of fish heads, skeletons, scales, and fins was once loaded on boats and disposed of in the sea, a practice that polluted the ocean environment and was costly to fish processors. Recognizing the value of this byproduct, Ocean Crest Seafood in Gloucester […]