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11/28/2016

ON THE GROUND UPDATE:Winter EVENTS with UMass Permaculture

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​Although the gardens on campus are closed for the season, UMass Permaculture is still hosting some exciting educational events to wrap up this semester:a film screening of Fresh, and a Handmade Holiday Gifts workshop! ​Both will be free and open to the campus community! 
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​Fresh is an uplifting, critically acclaimed documentary that explores our current food system and ways to eat like a locavore even in a Massachusetts winter. The film peers into the hopeful world of sustainable agriculture. The film screening will be held on Monday, December 5th in the Berkshire Room located in Berkshire Dining Commons from 5pm-7pm and will follow with a short discussion afterwards. 

FRESH trailer from ana joanes on Vimeo.






UMass Permaculture also welcomes you to hand make customized holiday gifts on Monday, December 12th from 5pm-7pm in the Hampshire Lobby Meeting Room located in Hampshire Dining Commons. These gifts will include sugar scrubs, soaps, lip balms and sachets - all using herbs grown in the five permaculture gardens! Personalize your handmade gifts at the event's wrapping and decorating station.
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11/25/2016

Farmer of the Week: Four Star Farms

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The L'Etoile family in one of the their grain fields.
Located in Northfield, Massachusetts with breathtaking views of the Connecticut river and the surrounding hillsides is Four Star Farms, a family enterprise that has been passed down by 14 generations. Four Star Farms provides sustainable and locally grown grains, freshly milled flour, hops, and turf to the Western Massachusetts area. Four Star Farms is committed to environmentally sound agricultural practices while managing 280 acres of land. They are also dedicated to connecting with their local community through the resources, education, and quality food they provide. Four Star Farms’ products are available online and through nearly 20 different retailers and restaurants. Anyone can go to a local joint like the People’s Pint, located in Greenfield, MA and have bread, pasta, or beer that is made with Four Star Farms grains and hops! UMass Dining is a new customer of Four Star Farms and sources ­­­­­­whole grains and flour for the UMass Bakeshop from them. We are so grateful to have this amazing farm close by to give our customers access to such delicious and quality flour. 
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Liz L'Etoile, Director of Sales and Marketing
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Liz L’Etoile, Four Star Farms’ Director of Sales and Marketing, was gracious enough to speak to us about their farm. Liz never thought that she would end up working on a family farm and even said, “If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would be a farmer I would have laughed at you.” However, Liz loves living on their farm and working with her family to do what she is passionate about. Liz spends most her time overseeing the farm’s sales, marketing, customer service, education and outreach initiatives. Using her background in social work, Liz works hard to inform consumers about the importance of a sustainable food system and the role that we each play in it. 
During the summer, the farmers at Four Star Farms all work 6 or 7 days a week, starting before the sun comes up and not finishing until long after the sun goes down. Though farming can be draining work, what keeps Liz going at Four Star Farms is interacting with their customers. Four Star Farms hosts events and tours consistently to encourage customers to visit their farm and to facilitate a conversation about the importance of eating local and seasonal food. ​Liz believes “the pricing of our current food system is really not fair for those that don’t have access to good food [or] to farmers who don’t get a fair price for what they are growing.” ​
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Fresh bread made with Four Star Farms flour.
Liz feels it is essential for the costs of paying employees a livable wage, offering them insurance, and using sustainable practices to be added back into our food system. Four Star Farms does everything they can to educate consumers about the real cost of food and how “dollars go so much further when going into your local community.” ​​
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Four Star Farms grains field.
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Four Star Farms hops yard.
Everyone at Four Star Farms loves what they do and envision doing it for a long time. They find farming rewarding and feel that they are doing what they can to make the world a better place. In these “trying times,” Liz finds hope in her family and customers, and in the “younger generations that are concerned about the environment and food insecurity.” In addition to providing local ingredients for delicious foods, Four Star Farms shows us that by connecting with each other and working hard for our values, we can alleviate our fears for the future and find hope. 
 Many thanks to Liz and the rest of the farmers at Four Star Farms for working with us!
​Visit Four Star Farms' website for more information about them. 

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11/17/2016

ON THE GROUND UPDATE: WELCOMING TWO NEW MEMBERS TO OUR TEAM

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Jess Yu is a junior Economics major with a minor in Environmental Science. Growing up, she loved to tend to her vegetable garden with her parents, pick flowers, and play in the park. And as she started to learn about environmental degradation and issues such as climate change - she wanted to play an active role in promoting conscientious thinking and environmental education. She believes that raising awareness of ecological and environmental issues will act as a driving force of successful and feasible change. After all, “you have to know a system before you change it.” 

Through her Economics background, Jess hopes to bridge the gap between environment and business, She is intent on fighting against greenwashing in popular culture and committing the principles of sustainability to heart. In particular, she also cares deeply about issues such as poverty, social inequality, and food insecurity.

In her free time, Jess enjoys binge watching sitcoms, hanging out with her beloved sorority sisters, exploring new places, drinking tea, and reading humorous celebrity memoirs. On campus, she facilitates a sustainability-focused seminar called Eco-Rep and is involved with cultural groups. She also volunteers to give back to the organizations in and around the Pioneer Valley.

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Kayleigh Boucher is a sophomore and a Natural Resources Conservation major. She is from Beverly, Massachusetts and grew up visiting her family's farm in Vermont. She has always loved animals and nature. Kayleigh is passionate about social justice, human health, and the environment and how these issues are all connected. She is especially interested in studying food systems, food justice, and sustainable agriculture. 

Kayleigh hopes to empower others to care about social and environmental issues and inspire them to do all that they can for each other and the natural world around them. She believes, as Jane Goodall once said, that "what you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." 

In Kayleigh's spare time she loves making art, cooking, spending time outdoors, visiting the ocean, and being with her friends and sisters. On campus she is involved in the UMass Divestment from Fossil Fuels Campaign, Talking Truth, the Real Food Challenge, Plant-Based Nutrition Club, and the iCons program. She is also an Eco-Rep facilitator and the Vice President of the Climateers, a student group on campus for students that care about the environment. 

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11/7/2016

ON THE GROUND UPDATE: COMMISSIONER & KENDALL FOUNDATION

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​Last week, we had two important visitors to our UMass Campus. The first was Commissioner John Lebeaux of the Department of Agricultural Resources. The second was Andy Kendall of the Kendall Foundation.
​​We informed our guests of the vast improvements we have made to our dining halls in the past fiscal year, more specifically in local and sustainable purchasing. $2 million was spent on Massachusetts farms & businesses - a 17% increase from last fiscal year. Including Massachusetts, a total of $3.5 million was spent on New England area farms and businesses - a 30% increase from FY 2015. Along with the increase in total expenditure, there were increases in spending for sustainable alternatives in every single food category from FY 2015. The most notables increases were exhibited through spending on dairy (68% more than FY 2015) as well as produce (55% more). 
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Local farmers, head chefs, auxiliary directors - all in attendance for the Commissioner event
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Commissioner Lebeaux participating in an apple crunch on National Food Day with the team
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The UMass Dining team presenting a gift basket to Grantor, Andy Kendall

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11/2/2016

Farmer of the Week:

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​UMASS STUDENT FARM PART II

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UMass Student Farmers.
It has been a full year since we have focused on UMass Student Farm, but for them, it has proved to be a successful one. A new portable Wash Station recently built which can be transported between their two locations, allowing CSA shares to grow from 60 to 100. Equally impressive, the Agricultural Learning Center has a new solar powered greenhouse that will allow three-season production of greens and tomatoes throughout the year! Student Farm has also become Commonwealth Quality-certified, another immense achievement. 
UMass Dining chefs love receiving beautiful, fresh Student Farm produce twice a week in the dining commons and students love eating it. UMass Dining is so grateful to Student Farm for providing our community with sustainable, nourishing food grown with such care.​

​Jason Silverman is the UMass Student Farm Manager. Jason started as a student in the program in 2011, marking this season his fifth working with Student Farm. Jason has “always been an agriculture enthusiast” and is deeply connected to his work. Jason has an innate passion for what he does, saying that he has been “obsessed with hay production since the age of two and a half.” Growing up with such love for food and farming, it is no wonder he is so good at what he does.

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Jason spoke highly of Student Farm and the experience it gives UMass undergraduates to “become true farmers.” Student Farm is a “tight-knit family” with “a great community dynamic."
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Jason Silverman, Student Farm Manager
Students gain experience working long, hard days, mastering the skills to run a business cooperatively, and learning to operate tractors and equipment. Jason said they are conscious to manage the farm in a way that balances the scale of the program with the immersive experience of students and sense of ownership that goes with it.
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Student Farm's new solar-powered Wash Station.
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Student Farm peppers.
Another new initiative that Jason mentioned was a plan to introduce “animal components” to make local, sustainable, and healthy meat options more accessible to their customers and the UMass community. He pointed out the barriers that so many families face to be connected to where their food comes from, and stressed the importance of local, sustainable, and healthy accessible food. And for those that can, the best thing is to meet their farmers and “ not hesitate to ask questions. Most of us are thrilled when people take a genuine interest in what we're doing and want to know more."
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​Thanks, Jason for your time and for all that you do!

Want to be a part of Student Farm?
The application for the 2017 UMass Student Farm Program is open NOW until November 15th! To apply, or for more information, click here: http://stockbridge.cns.umass.edu/SFE-class.

Visit the Student Farm website to learn more: https://stockbridge.cns.umass.edu/student-farm.

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  • About
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    • Our History
    • News >
      • Awards & Publications
    • Contact Us >
      • New Vendor Application
  • Initiatives
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    • Our Gardens >
      • Franklin
      • Berkshire
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