Bramble Hill Farm

 
Bramble Hill Farm provides living and working spaces for a range of people and projects that test innovative ways to build a sustainable, healthy, and creative farm centered community that benefits the broader population.

The 120 acre farm is located in Amherst, MA and is supported by the Open Field Foundation.

Find us here.

Land & Buildings

The Land
Land is the Farm’s most valuable asset. The land was certified organic in 1998-2002, and although certification has not been renewed, nothing has occurred which would compromise certification again in the future. A great deal of attention has been directed at preserving and rebuilding the fertility of the pastures and gardens, as well as rebuilding roads and culverts to stabilize a history of damaging erosion. A high tension electric fence was installed in 1998 inside the Farm’s perimeter. In the winter of 2004 the perimeter outside the fence was cleared back to the Farms original fence line, a project which netted 20 cords of fire wood and several thousand board feet of hard wood lumber. The result is a maintainable twenty foot wide walking path around the whole 120 acre farm, open and accessible to the community.

Original Farm Buildings
The Foundation began the restoration of the Farm by rebuilding and restoring the chestnut framed post and beam section of the old dairy barn in 1997. A new wing was added on the foot print of the connected hay barn in 1999. With all the restoration work the mission has been to expose repairs made and to use materials and technology which are consistent with the original construction.

• The Blue Barn  is a 2300 sq. ft. open structure supported by a series of Wells trusses designed by architect Tris Metcalfe, built on the foot print of the original hay barn.

• The Morton Building is a generic storage barn which was partially insulated in 2005 to house a machine/welding  shop.

           
New Farm Buildings
A 2600 sq. ft. green house and head house complex was built in 1998 and a 24,000 sq. ft. free stall livestock barn was constructed in 2001 creating a new farm center with easy access to pastures and agricultural fields.

Houses
There are four houses at the Farm, identified by their numbers. All have undergone significant renovation.

• #569, Marian Jacque’s house was purchased March 10, 2006, and renovations were completed in May, 2007. 

• #575, the original farmhouse was renovated in 1997. Work on the mechanical systems was completed in 2005.

• #593 was a small farm house that had been cannibalized over the years by bad additions and repairs. It was totally gutted in 2004, finished in 2005, and a  large addition was added in 2006 to house the Farm office, a large heated space for workshops and a space for a potential Farm store. Photovoltaic and hot water panels were installed on the roofs.

• #599 originally build on the ruins of an old burned farm house, was designed as a “home for unwed mothers.” It had been rented by the room to college students for a number of years when the Foundation purchased it in December of 2002. It was totally renovated in 2003 to provide three separate apartments for farmers and personnel working at/on the Farm.