Berkshire Agricultural Ventures

06/16/2026

🌈🏳️‍⚧️This month and throughout the year, BAV stands in allyship with our LGBTQIA+ farmers, partners, staff, Board, and wider community. Individually and collectively, we are committed to being a safe space in which all people feel confident they will be accepted, respected, and understood.

As part of that commitment, BAV staff recently took part in the Berkshire Pride Certified Safe Space Project. This education program helps individuals and organizations in our community build confidence in their knowledge and understanding of LGBTQIA+ identities, struggles, and joys.

BAV staff members each completed all three courses to attain our Berkshire Pride Certified Safe Space Project series completion certificates. We are committed to putting our learning into practice and working internally and with our community partners toward our shared goal of safe and brave spaces for all people.

💚💙🩷🧡Our thanks to Berkshire Pride for their knowledge, teaching, and advocacy!

06/11/2026

🎉🎉We're excited to share that we're hiring!

BAV seeks an experienced, detailed, and solutions-oriented Development and Operations Associate to manage core components of resource development and operational support. This pivotal role focuses on data integrity, gift processing, and systems coordination in support of strengthening the organization and achieving fundraising goals.

Please refer to our job description for more details.
➡️berkshireagventures.org

Applications will be reviewed as they are received. Priority will be given to applications received by July 7, 2026.

06/09/2026

Today we're time traveling back to January! ❄️❄️

🐂🐑As an active member of the New England Grazing Network, BAV was thrilled to be a co-organizer of their 2026 Winter Conference - a deep dive into topics specific to raising pasture-based livestock in the Northeast.

If you didn't get to attend, or want to revisit some of the material, you can now do so! We are excited to share that a selection of conference recordings are now on YouTube - watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXhWVtI2hAI

Check out the great keynote address by Loren and Lisa Poncia of Stemple Creek Ranch, the agroforestry farmer panel, insights on building and managing a team, and more.

The New England Grazing Network uplifts, supports, and advances regenerative grazing as a viable and sustainable approach to farming and a valued part of regional food systems.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

06/02/2026

🎉🎉We were THRILLED to spend time with Mary Berry of The Berry Center this weekend!! Mary was in town for the Berkshire International Film Festival's screening of Fork in the Road, an inspiring documentary by filmmaker Lisa Holmes that follows small farmers and other innovators working to heal the land and improve our food systems.

Mary Berry - the daughter of Wendell Berry - is the Executive Director of The Berry Center, a nonprofit organization she founded in 2011 to put her father's writings to work by advocating for small farmers, land-conserving communities, and healthy regional economies.

We had a wonderful, intimate conversation with Mary and a circle of BAV friends, including several local farmers, at a private home. (Followed by the BIFF festivities: film screening, panel, and lovely reception/afterparty!) Thanks to all who took part!

A few key takeaways from our conversation:

*Nonprofits are playing a critical role in supporting smaller farmers and shifting our local food system.

*We need to support mid-sized farmers - the missing middle between startup farmers and industrial-scale agribusiness.

*We need to restore the culture of agriculture - the interwoven agrarian practices, relationships, values, and ideas rooted in respect for farmers, land, and the carrying capacity of the earth.

*The joy is in the work! Farming is the joy.

➡️Look for more highlights and excerpts from our conversation in BAV's June newsletter - coming out next week!! Not yet a subscriber? Sign up here! berkshireagventures.org/newsletters

05/26/2026

🍸🍸Big thanks to Steeple City Social for supporting BAV's Market Match Fund through sales of their special Earth Month cocktail during April!! We are so grateful to Andrew and Meghan at Steeple City - and all our local partners - for helping to make SNAP matching possible and sustainable across the Berkshires!

Visit your local farmers market today and use your SNAP benefit to double your purchasing power up to $30 - for a total of $60 to spend on local produce, meat, dairy, eggs & more! 🐔🥬🍅🧀

If you'd like to support local food access and farmer economic development through BAV's Market Match Fund, you can make a gift online via berkshireagventures.org/support.

05/22/2026

✨✨BAV is thrilled to welcome our newest staff member, Rose Cherneff! Rose joins us as Program Lead for a brand-new farmer business education program we'll be announcing over the summer and launching this fall. (Shhhh....) More details soon!

Rose brings an abundance of experience as a farmer and educator devoted to building connections between the past and the future through growing food, caring for the earth, and building community.

In addition to their work with BAV, Rose runs an annual, cohort-based program through their business, Gardening for the Future, where participants learn timely, climate-resilient growing skills and support each other to create land-based projects that serve their communities. Learn more here: gardeningforthefuture.com

Great to have you with us, Rose! 🌱🌿

➡️Stay in the know!! Subscribe to our newsletter to receive fresh BAV news, MA-NY-CT farmer resources, and special content on farms and food!
Sign up here: berkshireagventures.org/newsletters

05/20/2026

🌸🌿BAV's May newsletter is here!!
berkshireagventures.org/newsletters

This month, we're delighted to spotlight .... seedlings!!! 🌱🌱 BAV was so glad to partner with and support Laura Meister of Farm Girl Farm to give her seedling business a boost this winter with a small loan for seeds. She is repaying us all with thousands of beautiful veggie, herb, and flower starts - and she will continue to sow lettuce, beans, cukes, and squash so that plants are available for gardeners throughout the growing season.

You can order online - check out the Farm Girl Farm website here!
➡️farmgirlfarm.com

Her seedlings are also available at Ward's Nursery & Garden Center, Berkshire Food Co-op, and right on the farm at North Plain Farm.

05/18/2026

🥬🐖🌿🐔💐Great day at the market!!

BAV was thrilled to kick off the outdoor market season with North Adams Farmers Market on Saturday! It was so much fun connecting with farmers and customers - hearing their stories, sharing highlights of our work, and of course finding delicious local food to bring home.

Thanks to all who stopped by, including Rep. John Barrett III, Ben Lamb & his amazing kid (who has raised hundreds of dollars for BAV's Market Match Fund!!), Glenn Bergman & Dianne Manning, Molly Comstock of Many Forks Farm, Michael Gallagher of Square Roots Farm, Laura Tupper of Full Well Farm & many more! We feel so lucky to be living and working in this wonderful agricultural community. 💚

05/15/2026

🍅🥕🐔🌱Can't wait for TOMORROW!! BAV is tabling at the North Adams Farmers Market on Saturday, May 16 - opening day! A number of local farmers markets are opening tomorrow - in north county, here's looking at you, Williamstown Farmers Market! We wish we could be everywhere all at once...

Please stop by to say hello and enter our raffle for a chance to win local products plus a BAV hat!! We'll be giving thanks for our community's support for Market Match Fund - and celebrating the overall wonderfulness of farmers markets as food access points, economic drivers, community spaces, and so much more!