Conjure up the image of a typical New England farm in your mind, and Hart Farm in Conway, MA, fits the bill: Green fields stretching wide under a bright blue sky. Precise rows of crops pushing through rich brown soil. A perfect calm, punctured only by the occasional clucking of chickens or the whirring of machinery.
But Hart Farm is anything but typical: It’s small. It’s new. And it’s woman run.
Anna Meyer established Hart Farm in 2013 – one of the just 14% of farms in the United States whose principal operator is a woman.* She runs it with the help of two part-time assistants, producing a range of crops that includes bok choy, carrots, beets, turnips, beets, scallions, summer squash, peppers, garlic, and okra.
Hart Farm sits on two pleasant acres just down the road from where Anna grew up, and she smiles as she shares its rich history. “See there? Those stones used to be part of the foundation of the old barn.”
Anna didn’t grow up in a farming family. She learned the basics through hands-on learning in high school and time spent on other farms. “Farmers are extremely resourceful,” she says. “They’ll find a hundred ways to use a broken tool.”
While Anna has built Hart Farm from scratch into a successful business in just a few short years, like all farmers she’s always looking for ways to develop her craft and run her farm better. That’s what led Anna to apply for funding through the LOCAL FARMER AWARDS.
Anna won her first Farmer Award this year...The ability to purchase something new was clarifying, giving Anna an opportunity to consider a machine that would address real needs. With a small farm and such a lean workforce, improving labor efficiency was a high priority.
Established by Harold Grinspoon in 2015 and now in its fourth year, the awards provide farms in the Western Massachusetts region up to $2,500 to fund infrastructure improvements. Major partners BIG Y and Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation fund the awards along with a group of sponsors that continues to grow: HOOD, FRIENDLY’S, PEOPLESBANK, SHERATON SPRINGFIELD MONARCH PLACE, Ann and Steve Davis, BAYSTATE HEALTH, FARM CREDIT EAST, and FLORENCE BANK.
Anna won her first Farmer Award this year, although it was her third time applying – exhibiting the persistence and resourcefulness her profession demands. The ability to purchase something new was clarifying, giving Anna an opportunity to consider a machine that would address real needs. With a small farm and such a lean workforce, improving labor efficiency was a high priority.
Anna chose to apply for and purchase a Quick-Cut Greens Harvester. The tool – a bag for crops affixed to a hand-held drill – allows Anna to harvest salad mix, arugula, and baby kale more efficiently, significantly reducing cut processing time and enabling expanded market quantity and planting frequency. Anna estimates the harvester, which boasts a 900% labor savings, will increase her profits by thousands of dollars each year.
While Hart Farm is in many ways a one-woman show, Anna has benefited from the supportive Western Massachusetts farming and business community she operates in. “There’s such a rich community here,” Anna says. “It’s awesome to have the support of the Local Farmer Awards sponsors and CISA [Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture.]” In addition to the Local Famer Awards, a group email list of Pioneer Valley farmers offers a steady stream of insights and helpful advice. Farmers markets serve as showcases for new approaches to test out and provide time for socializing with peers after long and sometimes isolating days tending to farms.
“Women contribute in my community. It’s that very inclusive sense of farming and collaboration,” Anna says. She credits a friend for encouraging her to take a course for women farmers through a CISA run Whole Farm Planning Course which helped her get started on the business aspects of farming like marketing and financing.
And it’s a farming community that’s more representative than most. In Massachusetts, 32% of principal farm operators are women – the third highest percentage nationwide and more than double the national average. While these numbers still place Anna and other female farmers squarely in the minority, there are advantages to being part of a large community of local female farmers. She notes female peers help each other and share ideas. “Women contribute in my community. It’s that very inclusive sense of farming and collaboration,” Anna says. She credits a friend for encouraging her to take a course for women farmers through a CISA run Whole Farm Planning Course which helped her get started on the business aspects of farming like marketing and financing. While male peers have also been welcoming and supportive, Anna notes: “I definitely feel like the ladies are my crew.”
“Female farmer” – rather than simply farmer – is a label that Anna isn’t quite comfortable wearing. She only recently started referring to her farm as “woman run” on the Hart Farm website. Rather, it’s “small farm” that really suits her. Anna enjoys being a small fish in the richly populated pond of Western Massachusetts farming. “It’s sustainable. We live in such an awesome area where small business is valued and small farms are valued and making connections with the people growing the things you’re eating is valued.”
With support from local agricultural ‘Buy Local’ organizations BERKSHIRE GROWN and CISA, the Local Farmer Awards program is announced in December to their member farmers; THE APPLICATION is open until the end of January. To be eligible, farms must be members of Berkshire Grown, CISA, or located in the Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, or Berkshire counties of Massachusetts, with gross sales of $10,000 or above. This is the first award for Hart Farm.
Hart Farm has a farm stand and farm store in Conway and can also be found on Instagram and Facebook
*2012 Census of Agriculture (the USDA’s most recent report on the industry)