CALENDAR
PROGRAMS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PHOTO ALBUM
OPEN FIELD FOUNDATION
A.P.E. LTD
CONTACT US
 

Programs

Old Friends Farm
Old Friends Farm is a small-scale farm in Amherst, growing Certified Naturally Grown specialty crops and cut flowers for restaurants, florists, and stores in the Pioneer Valley. Old Friends Farm chooses to grow crops we truly care about and sell only impeccably fresh, clean, and quality produce. All products are Certified Naturally Grown. Products include over 150 varieties of specialty cut flowers, a non-lettuce salad mix, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, and garlic. Click here for more information

Mr. McGregor’s Garden
In the spring of 2003, Nell Thorne, designed and planted a theme garden for the 3-5 year old summer fun campers of the neighboring Common School. She took as her motif Mr. McGregor’s Garden from Beatrix Potter’s classic storybook Peter Rabbit.

This garden was such a hit with the children that Bramble Hill Farm decided to continue and expand the project. Under the direction of Hans Leo, the project has grown into an over 6,000 sq. ft. teaching garden utilized by area preschools, public and private elementary schools, an environmental education center and a local middle school’s community based vocational education programs. For more information, contact Hans Leo at Bramble Hill Farm.

The After School
Anne Woodhull, Director of the After School, leads a children’s group for The Common School on Mondays after school investigating farm life and the natural world.
The After School also offers individual work with children by appointment. For more information please contact Anne Woodhull at Bramble Hill Farm.

Larch Hill Collaborative
Several years ago, the directors of the Open Field Foundation at Bramble Hill Farm, began a series of conversations with The Hitchcock Center and the Common School. (The Farm shares a border with The Hitchcock Center (an Environmental Education Center) and the Common School ( a private K – 6 elementary school with a curriculum based on “in-depth studies and experiential learning”). Amherst College which maintains several hundred acres of pasture land across Rt. 116 from the Farm, and the Town Conservation Commission which maintains land along another Border, soon joined these talks. In 2004 the Larch Hill Collaborative was formed, with Bramble Hill Farm at the center, to bring these entities together into a working group around shared concerns for the sustainability of the land and the ecosystems which form the core of all of our individual work.

The Farm welcomes projects and classes from The Hitchcock Center, The Common School, and other groups interested in learning about and creating from its’ diverse resources.
Common School: Click here for more information
Hitchcock Center: Click here for more information

Brookfield Farm
Brookfield Farm is a 500 member Biodynamic CSA which has leased land from Bramble Hill Farm and has provided advice and consultation since Bramble Hill Farm’s inception.
Click here for more information


What Is Bramble Hill farm?

Bramble Hill Farm is a 120 acre former dairy farm in Amherst, MA. The old farm buildings have been carefully renovated during the past ten years to provide living and working spaces for a range of people and projects. A new set of farm structures have been built to support several pasture based livestock initiatives and a range of organic growing programs. “The Open Field Foundation”, a nonprofit corporation which was created to legally hold the assets of the Farm, has absorbed the major capital costs of this project to date. The goal of The Foundation and the Farm is to test innovative ways to build a sustainable, healthy, creative farm centered community, accessible to and interactive with the larger community which surrounds it.

Bramble Hill Farm is very much a work in process. Each piece of the Farm has the potential to be developed in a myriad of ways. The form this development takes is determined in large part by the people and enterprises working and living there. The Foundation believes in the “value” of diversity to provide creativity and market stability, and the value of relationship to encourage diversity.

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.

The Farm shares a border with The Hitchcock Center (an Environmental Education Center) and the Common School ( a private K – 6 elementary school with a curriculum based on “in-depth studies and experiential learning”). Amherst College maintains several hundred acres of pasture land across Rt. 116 from the Farm, and the Town Conservation Commission maintains land along another Border. In 2004 the Larch Hill Collaborative was formed, with Bramble Hill Farm at the center, to bring these entities together into a working group around shared concerns for the sustainability of the land and the ecosystems which form the core of all of our individual work. The Farm welcomes projects and classes from The Hitchcock Center, The Common School, and other groups interested in learning about and creating from its’ diverse resources.


HOME | CALENDAR | PROGRAMS | ANNOUNCEMENTS | PHOTO ALBUM | CONTACT US | OPEN FIELD FOUNDATION | A.P.E. LTD |