Farming Practices

Woven Roots Farm recognizes that agriculture itself is rooted in the long-standing cultural practices within communities of Indigenous people, people of color, and immigrants. We acknowledge that the US was built on stolen land and that all US systems are built on the stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other people of color.

Woven Roots Farm is a traditional, hand-scale vegetable farm, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, and education center located on unceded Mohican homelands in the so-called southern Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts. Through a deep relationship with the land and one another, we at Woven Roots are committed to feeding, educating, and empowering our community members by co-creating equitable pathways to become healthier individuals, ethical growers, and caretakers of the earth and one another.

Our agricultural practices are centered in the ancestral ways of acknowledging nature as a part of us, just as much as we are a part of nature. We recognize the interconnectedness of all life—soil, plants, microbes, insects, and animals. We embrace these connections and seek to enhance them, not to disturb them. In direct opposition to colonized agriculture, we move through a space of reciprocity that prioritizes our responsibility as land stewards and caregivers.

Situated on 10 acres, our farm has 2.5 acres in cultivation in a permanent bed, hand-scale farming system. This system is tended by a dynamic team of 10 farmers that grow over 70 different crops throughout the year. Our fields and unheated greenhouses are established in 30-inch rows and 12-inch aisles. Once these spaces are defined, they remain this way. This creates compacted soil in the aisles which discourages weed growth and nutrient-rich beds for our seeds and seedlings to thrive.

Throughout the season, we offer the fields rich, local compost, nourishing cover crops, mulches, tender care, and love. At each planting, our beds are aerated by hand, using a broad fork (also known as a u-bar). Amendments are lightly incorporated into the top inch of soil. This ensures that the dignity of the soil structure below is not disturbed. Microorganisms, animals, and insects thrive, providing an optimal location for the roots of our crops to grow. When the soil is aerated, but not disturbed, water and nutrients percolate through with ease, and carbon is invited back into the soil, creating a perfect environment for our crops.

In tandem with providing produce full-time, Woven Roots Farm also creates space for community members to reconnect to Earth’s natural rhythms and teachings from toddlerhood through elderhood. Our programming offers people a safe and nourishing environment to grow and transform while cultivating food, community, and everyday activism. We create space for individuals and businesses seeking in-depth knowledge in successful hand-scale and ecological farming practices that produce abundant and vibrant vegetables on a small plot of land. Our farm offers intensives and workshops for both beginner and experienced farmers and those interested in building their skills in self-reliance, food sovereignty, and environmental leadership.