"It's 5 o'clock somewhere" being the mantra of good wine and celebration!  Quality "hand crafted wines from hand tended vines” is what Mount Warner Vineyards Farmer Winery is all about. Located in the farm heritage community of Hadley, Bobbie and Gary Kamen’s artisan winery produces award winning wines from grapes they grow and harvest in their own one acre vineyard. The vineyard and winery was the Kamen’s “What’s Next” adventure as they embarked on the next phase of their lives. Gary retired from UMASS as a Professor of Kinesiology and Bobbie retired from AARP as a Senior Strategic Advisor.
 
Their winemaking passion began in their basement about 17 years ago and their grape growing passion began shortly after when they planted about 25 vines from cuttings of wine grapes from their dear friends Brenda and Peter at Jewell Towne Vineyards in Southampton, New Hampshire.  While the short growing season defines the varieties that can be grown here, these cold-climate varieties - developed at Cornell University for the New York Finger Lakes area and in Minnesota - are well suited to the Hampshire County mesoclimate.  They have continued to experiment with trellising systems and expanded the vineyard to over 725 vines including a number of varietals such as Cayuga White, Chardonel, Seyval Blanc, Traminette, Marquette, Marechal Foch, Leon Millot, Corot Noir and Petite Pearl. In addition to the grape wines, they supplement their own harvest of raspberries with ripe berries from local farms to make a “to die for” raspberry port-style dessert wine – Raspberry Rhapsody and a Positively Peach dessert wine made from locally sourced ripe juicy peaches in the style of a classic dessert wine.
 
As a “nano winery” their small scale production ensures that the vines will be hand tended and the wines will be hand crafted. Their wines can be sampled at several summer Farmers’s markets in Amherst, Springfield and Westfield.  For more information contact Bobbie Kamen at 413-588-1329.
 
Gary Kamen and Bobbie Kamen, Winemakers and Owners
Mount Warner Vineyards LLC

Roundhill Orchards is comprised of two farms, both century family farms. The homestead is in Southampton Massachusetts, and the other in Holyoke Massachusetts. Planting began in Southampton in the early 1980’s, by Kate Miller Carl and Alfred Rupert Carl Jr. and continues to this day. The Holyoke branch of the orchards was planted by Marian and Alfred Carl Sr., with help from Kate and Alfred Carl Jr., through the early 1980’s as well. 

In the early days of the orchard Kate and Alfred pollinated many local farms and orchards throughout New England with numerous hives. While currently focusing on small fruit production, the apiaries are still in production. Round Hill Orchards are currently owned and operated by Kate Miller Carl, and managed by Andrew Douglas Carl. Currently Roundhill Orchards raises numerous berries, stone fruits, apples, pears, vegetables, and honey bees, while also working to cultivate paw paws, persimmons, and hardy kiwis. The orchards practice IPM (integrated pest management), which is between an organic and conventional approach, but leans much closer to an organic approach. 

Roundhill Orchards attends the Florence and Amherst Farmers markets, with a farm stand located at 1 Douglas Rd. Southampton Massachusetts. Offering already picked fruits and vegetables, and for thrill seekers pick your own berries, apples, and pumpkins in season. Andrew makes for the third generation to attend both the Amherst and Florence farmers markets. The Orchards are largely worked by Kate and Andrew, with additional help from Jenny Kapinos, sister of Andrew, as well as Elizabeth and Thomas Kapinos, grandchildren of Kate and Alfred Jr.

​The family tradition continues, as Andrew and his fiancée Tricia Brown are soon to be wed, in a ceremony on the farm. Tricia will be known to many at the Market, since she has come to help out on busy days.                    

Sam Sherer lives and works in Orange, Massachusetts, making bowls from local wood — cherry, walnut, maple, and birch, hand-turning them on a lathe.  As a 'second' career, Sam has been turning bowls, large and small, for about 5 years.  He learned his craft on Vashon Island in Washington State, mentored by friends - David, Jim, and Curt.

Looking out his window in June 2007, awaiting a laminectomy for an L 4/5 disc in need of repair, Sam gave thought and had time for a pause; retiring, "now what in my life?"  At the same time, his neighbor, Patrick, was turning 80 years old.  Everyday when seeing each other, Patrick would point to a big leaf maple tree in the distance, the tree being old and arthritic, a history unto its own, and say “widow maker!  That’s what that tree will be someday.”

Those years have long since passed, the surgeon having fixed his spine and Patrick got his wish, not that the tree would make a widow-maker out of itself, but that before so, the tree would be transformed, just like Sam, himself.  As Sam was in the search for cabinet makers and finding no one who would immortalize this wonderful tree, fruitfully, three men showed up one day out of the blue, during his convalescence, all being wood turners.  Three men, three different styles, three different philosophies, and they all welcomed the tree as an art-form, ready to take on a metamorphosis, as the tree evolved into a new 'life.'   That tree was the catalyst for Sam as they opened their shops, and hearts, teaching him the fine art and craft of making that transformation happen.  Sam's 'new career' now fosters that transformation with his wood, his lathe, his re-claimed trees, turning them, literally AND figuratively, into beautiful wooden bowls. 

The lathe and the process has given Sam an appreciation for beauty, form, function and a reason, in general.  The shape of a bowl, the use of a bowl, the grain or age of the wood, the finish are all part of being open to what life presents.  Sam continues making himself  happy with the process and hope the meditation of movement finds you joyful.

Now being retired, once a public schoolteacher and now currently teaching  yoga part-time. This spring Sam was part of a feature on Chronicle about the North Quabbin area with his feature section being toward the end of the segment.  Sam would love to meet you and hope to be able to show you his work and will be at the Amherst Farmers' Market, along with his brother & sister-in-law, Bruce and Rachel of Little White Goat Dairy, on Saturday's to do so! Feel free to stop by and talk with Sam, or he can also be contacted to set up an appointment if there are any comments or questions.  Visit here to see an online gallery of his current work.

In gratitude,
Sam Scherer

About ten years ago, when Ben and Laura Wells-Tolley moved to the Valley, they immediately enjoyed partaking of the local harvest. They first lived in downtown  Northampton, only a walk away from the farmers’ market, and a short drive away from a number of farmstands and farms. The first tastes of the Valley totally swept their hearts away and gave them a vision for participation in the local food movement. Picking strawberries, warm from the sunshine and bursting with life, and cultivated high-bush blueberries from branches heavy with fruit, were beautiful moments in that first summer. Frequenting Hatfield and Hadley farmstands for watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash brought new meaning to eating seasonally. 

Ben and Laura were first introduced to the concept of a CSA at the Food Bank Farm. After gathering buckets of glowing sunflowers from the pick-your-own fields and getting into the weekly rhythm of going to the farm to get food freshly harvested with many other people from the community, Laura and Ben knew there was no going back to eating tomatoes in December and shopping primarily at the grocery store. As so many have found to be true, having tasted living food, food that is still vibrant with the life that it has drawn from the soil and sun, their appetites completely changed. 

Soon after participating in the CSA at Food Bank Farm, Ben and Laura began to consider how they could delve even deeper into the heart of local agriculture. It was a chilly windy October afternoon when Ben and Laura took their first farm walk at Simple Gifts Farm in Amherst, after Ben’s interview there with farmers Jeremy Barker-Plotkin and Dave Tepfer. Little did they know that day how precious that farm would become to them. 

Ben began working at Simple Gifts as a farm apprentice but with a focus on the livestock. Dave and Jeremy were incredibly supportive of Laura and their children being present on the farm, out in the fields, in the flow of CSA, and taking front-row seats at every opportunity to see how a farm works at the ground level. Ben stayed on the crew for subsequent years and worked even more closely with Dave on the livestock side of the farm. Dave and Jeremy encouraged Ben and Laura to begin exploring their own livestock enterprises within the context of Simple Gifts. These ventures included having their own beef cows, sheep, broilers and a family cow, or two.
     
While living in Amherst, Laura and Ben discovered the gem of a farm called Upinngil Farm in Gill, MA. They began frequenting Upinngil for their delicious raw milk and cheese, and struck up a friendship with Clifford Hatch (previous vendor at the Amherst Farmers' Market) and his daughter Sorrel, the farmers there. Ben soon began working with the Hatches learning the art of dairying. It wasn’t long before Ben and Laura were sure that their future dream farm was going to have a dairy herd as its centerpiece. This was further solidified in their vision when they had the opportunity to attend an open house at Chase Hill Farm in Warwick, MA. During the open house, Farmer Mark Fellows described the Chase Hill Dairy as being seasonal, 100% grassfed, and certified organic. Ben and Laura left Chase Hill that day saying it was their dream farm. 

After almost five years at Simple Gifts, Ben and Laura began to look throughout the Valley for a spot to establish a dairy and ended up making the move to Northfield, MA, when the historic Parker farm on route 63, came up for rent there.  It was in Northfield that South Wind Farm was born.  With a fantastic roadside location, a gorgeous view of the Connecticut River and a beautiful landmark barn on the property, the Wells-Tolley's hoped South Wind Farm would flourish.  Unfortunately they were unable to secure additional pasture adjacent to the farm property and the farm’s limited land base put great limitations on the scale of the operation. Laura and Ben began to consider if again a move to a new location might be necessary for their farm to truly thrive.         
         
In the winter of 2016, Jeannette and Mark Fellows approached Ben and Laura with the offer of a job for Ben with the goal of transitioning ownership of the farm over the next several years. Ben and Laura eagerly agreed and began the process of moving their pigs, chickens, cows and family to Warwick.  After less than a year working together it became clear that the farm transfer would take place sooner than later.
     
Earlier this month Ben and Laura purchased Chase Hill Farm from the Fellows.  The farm property is approximately 270 acres of certified organic APR land.  The herd is comprised of certified organic Normande, Jersey and Normande-Jersey crosses.  These cows happily graze on lush green pastures and produce delicious milk that is consumed in its raw fluid form sold directly to the consumer on the farm.  Normande milk is excellent for cheese-making.  A variety of artisan cheeses are made and aged on the farm.  Ben and Laura are integrating their own livestock enterprises with those of Chase Hill.  They are thrilled to have a diversified livestock farm with a 100% grassfed certified organic dairy herd as its centerpiece.  The farm is producing raw milk, artisan cheese, beef, pork, chicken, and eggs. 

Come by the Amherst Farmers' Market Saturday's to meet Ben and his family!

It's 4am on a Saturday morning and Twin Oaks Farm is awakening for the Market day.  Two vehicles to load and then head in two different directions north; one vehicle to Northampton and the other, with John Spineti piloting, heading to the Amherst Farmers' Market.  It’s a warm, humid morning, perspiration sets in just looking for the car keys, much less having to load and prepare.  John, Twin Oaks’ long-time owner, already with a cool towel around his neck for the drive, is dreaming about breaking his fig tree 'record!'  12 trees sold in a Market day!  Many other thoughts are also going through as he heads north on I-91.  Shell peas.  Snap peas.  Japanese eggplant.   Roma tomatoes. Persian cucumbers. Perhaps one of the seemingly limitless varieties of potatoes he grows with lyrical names like French la ratte and Russian banana fingerling.  

Rolling along the highway, a two decade old Subaru Legacy wagon and a converted Coleman pop-up camping trailer, older than the very Market itself, heading towards the day's sales. The car and trailer, both loaded with more than ever anticipated by either manufacturer, has been making this trip every Saturday morning for years now.  Which is to say that by all outward appearances, right now, John, listening to NPR on his way, seems totally at ease. Like there’s no place on earth he’d rather be.

John’s reeling off the laundry list of vegetables, herbs and other herbaceous wonders he grows at Twin Oaks. “…Peruvian blue potatoes, very unique; genuine Japanese eggplant, thin, two feet long; banana trees, fig trees, pomegranate trees, rubber trees…three or four varieties of snap peas, snow peas, sun gold tomatoes.”  A very eclectic assortment on offer.
This year’s seemingly endless winter pushed the planting season back a couple weeks or so, but such is the life of New England farmer.  And John Spineti would know.  He’s been the standing president of the Amherst Farmers’ Market longer than Franklin Deleno Roosevelt was in office and has been selling at the market, since its inception, the market he helped found 45 years ago.

Farming is in John Spineti’s blood. His father farmed the same property John farms today. “My family always farmed…my Dad, his ancestors in Italy. They were all farmers,” John says. “I can trace my family’s ancestry all the way back to Croatia in the Sixteenth Century. These little agrarian villages.”

John remembers his family’s Victory Garden celebrating the end of World War II (“Roses, v-shaped”). But though he has fond memories of childhood summers spent helping his family on the farm, when it came time for John to look for a career, like so many sons and daughters, he set out to blaze his own trail.

Setting his sights on the burgeoning technology sector, John studied chemical engineering where he received a B.S. from MIT in Cambridge, and then eventually earning an Ed.D from UMass and a coveted job with Pratt and Whitney, where he helped design fuel cells for the Apollo Lander.  It was the late 60's, the Cold War and the race to put a man on the Moon was fraught with any number of geopolitical consequences.  And here was this farm boy from Agawam, helping brave young men and women slip their terrestrial binds.  But all the while, John felt his heart drawn to the familiar gravitational-pull of the family farm.

So back to the farm he went.  And to the classroom.  John left Pratt and Whitney for newly opened Springfield Technical Community College where in addition to teaching, he helped design assorted science and math curriculum's.  And after the school day was finished, he’d farm.

“Classes would finish at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and I’d run home to the fields and green houses,” John says.

Amongst his neighbors, his penchant for plowing into the evening hours earned him the nickname, “the Night Farmer.”

In 1972, John and several local farmers had an idea. Let’s organize a farmers’ market in downtown Amherst. 

“We pre-dated the local food craze by a few years,” John chuckles.

The Amherst Farmers’ Market was the first of its kind in the state.  And now, 45 years later, it’s the state’s oldest and surely amongst its most beloved markets.

“Where else can you shake the hand of the farmer who planted the potatoes or raised the lamb that you’re going to have for dinner tonight?”

John retired from teaching in 2000 and along with his wife Linda, devotes much of his time to the tireless, year-round work of operating Twin Oaks Farm.

“We don’t have any employees on the farm. So the work is 12 hours a day, every day of the year, selling, growing, preparing, weekends and holidays,” he says.

And John doesn’t have any plans to hang up the keys to his (impromptu) tractor collection, now at the number 14 mark, any time soon.

“I could go another 10 or 15 years,” he says. “I love talking with families who have been coming to the market for years and I think they enjoy seeing all of us. Nowadays, you can buy organic food just about anywhere it seems, but there’s only one place where you can chat up the farmer - at the Market.”

Indeed it’s these relationships, forged over countless Saturday morning conversations, that drive John and the rest of his brethren at the market to get up way too early week after week. It’s the sense of community, of home, of building something enduring and meaningful.  That sense of commitment comes through in the vibrant colors and flavors at the market every Saturday.  Stop by, say hi and see for yourself.  Always at the ready with a quip, prepared for banter and can converse about any topic!  Meet the man who, while never having traveled more than a half-days' distance by car, has encyclopaedia knowledge of a truly global capacity.  John Spineti of Twin Oaks Farm....