East meets west: State officials get first-hand account of the struggles Valley farmers face

By AIDAN POOLE For the Gazette September 19, 2021 HADLEY — State lawmakers toured four farms in Hampshire and Franklin counties on Friday to better understand the challenges facing farming communities in western Massachusetts. The tour included stops at Simple Gifts Farm in Amherst and Reed Farm in Sunderland, as well as Barstow’s Dairy Store … Read more

Massachusetts lawmakers tour Pioneer Valley farms as agriculture bill awaits hearings

MassLive By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com September 17, 2021 HADLEY — Denise Barstow, a seventh-generation farmer, enlivened a tour Friday for state lawmakers, their staff, and advocates for the network of farms and retailers that make up the local food system by answering a question children typically ask. “What does a cow say?” Barstow, the … Read more

Barstow’s Longview Farm Virtual Tour

On Tuesday, October 13, a rainy morning, New England Dairy, a regional nonprofit, filmed a LIVE virtural tour with Denise Barstow at Barstow’s Longview Farm in Hadley, MA. The target audience for this video is students in grads 3-5 – but we think everyone will enjoy it! Check it out: Using video chat technology, students … Read more

Gratitude Journal: Travelling More Deeply

Backyard Tourist The summer of canceled vacations and postponed plans has officially (dare we say, finally) come to an end. Reflecting on backyard Barstow burgers with local sweet corn, hours in the pool, milkshakes on the porch at Barstow’s, campfires in the pasture, hey, maybe this summer wasn’t so bad after all? Here at Barstow’s … Read more

Live Virtual Farm Tour at Barstow’s Longview Farm

Length: 30 minutes (10-10:30 a.m. Eastern) Recommended Audience: Grades 3-5 Using video chat technology, students will get a behind the scenes look into life on a New England dairy farm. Students will join dairy farmer Denise Barstow for a tour of her family’s farm and learn how dairy farmers take care of their cows from … Read more

Building a Stronger Community On and Off the Farm

Kestrel Land Trust | Blog Denise Barstow just completed her year-long service year as Kestrel’s Community Engagement and Regional Conservation Coordinator through the TerraCorps AmeriCorps program. She also works at Barstow’s Longview Farm in Hadley, owned by her family for 7 generations. In 2014, when my dad and uncle called a family meeting to discuss … Read more

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