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| New Announcements |
Visit our new Chestnut Farms Forum
Starting this week, we have added a forum for our CSA members. Learn what our customers are saying about our meats, and get connected with our growing community! Just click on the image below.
Visiting the farm policy
Chestnut Farms runs a fully transparent operation. We birth, feed, water, pet, love and raise our animals here in the heart of MA. We welcome visitors and do our best to be accessible. As a CSA member, you are welcome to visit our cows, pat our pigs, hug a chicken or hold a lamb. We are always here welcoming visitors on the FIRST TUES of the month from 3 to 7 pm. This is also the time for on-farm share distributions. We also have two open houses each year for our members. The next one is scheduled for Sunday, June 8 from noon to 5 pm.
Kim and Rich run a working farm full of animals - our animals need to be fed and watered twice a day, fences moved, pens built, stalls cleaned and waterlines run. Not to mention barns built, fields seeded and animals housing constructed. While we welcome visitors at other times, we do ask for advance notice and a confirmation. In addition to being our farm, it is our home. With three children including a teenager, they sometimes have playdates; we occasionally have our own company to visit and we are off the farm at times running to and from the slaughterhouse. We really want to be available to ensure all your questions are answered and you have a chance to meet all of our animals. Due to liability concerns with animals (which is different for vegetable farms) we ask that you make sure a member of our family is with you when you enter our barns. Unfortunately, our animals do occasionally escape.
Thanks so much for your support.
Kim and Rich |
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About Chestnut Farm
Chestnut Farm is located in Hardwick, MA, on the shores of the Quabbin Reservoir. Historically, Hardwick has long been the center of progressive farming. Today, many farms, including organic vegetable farms, maple syrup, organic dairy and even a winery call Hardwick home.
Chestnut Farm consists of 106 acres about a mile and a half from the Hardwick Common. It was a dairy farm for most of the past 200 years. At one point, 16 hired hands lived in a bunkhouse and milked nearly 200 cows by hand each day. During the 1980's the farm fell on hard times as milk prices plummeted. The last dairy cow was milked on the farm in 1984 and the farm lay fallow for nearly 18 years. In 1996, the previous owner moved away and the farm was left vacant.
 Rich and Kim took over the 106 acre farm and began a monumental clean-up task. While simultaneously building their herd of cattle and raising piglets, they removed over 28 tons of scrap metal, 550 tires, a schoolbus, several trucks, a hearse and many, many loads of plastic debris. They also replaced a roof on a barn, painted the equipment shed and began cutting trees for new barn siding. Currently they are cleaning up a barn that collapsed the day they closed on the farm. The idea that there might be a use for a spare part had reached new heights on Turkey St.. Their goal is a rehabilitated, clean and healthy land for all creatures.
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| Quick Questions to Chestnut Farms |
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| Announcements |
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Read the newspaper article from The Springfield Republican by Stan Freeman on the growth of livestock farms in Western Mass |
Story Link Here |
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See us mentioned in the 'Foodie' Blog,
CHOWHOUND |
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