Woven Roots Farm

About this land node

Overview

Project Vision

We see Woven Roots in twenty years with its community barn full of learners, its no-till soils richer each season, solidarity shares reaching every neighbor who needs them, and a generation in the Berkshires who learned from it that farming and justice grow together.

Project Purpose

To grow nutritious food with regenerative, no-till practices while building relationships to the land and skills of resilience, treating farming as an act of social justice and ensuring that vulnerable community members share in the harvest.

Project Title

Woven Roots Farm

Ecoregional Location

Northeast US Coastal Forests, Northeastern American Mixed Forests (NA10)

Local Location

Central Berkshires

Political Location

Tyringham, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States

Ecology & biodiversity

Biodiversity context

The Berkshire–Taconic region holds large forest blocks, calcareous wetlands and rare limestone-loving plants, and its valley farms sustain grassland birds; land trusts and farms together keep the valley floor open.

Ecological corridors

The Taconic and Berkshire ridges form a north-south forest corridor linking the Hudson Highlands and Connecticut to the Green Mountains, with the Housatonic and Hoosic rivers as valley corridors.

Natural boundaries

The farm lies in the small valley of Tyringham in the central Berkshires, along McCarthy Road near Hop Brook, surrounded by the forested hills of the Berkshire plateau and the Appalachian Trail corridor.

Ecosystem unity

The site lies in the Berkshire–Taconic landscape of western Massachusetts, in the Northeastern American Mixed Forests bioregion at the transition between the Northeast US Coastal Forests and New England-Acadian Forests ecoregions, where fertile valley farmland meets forested hills.

Climate & water

Climate Zones

Humid continental climate with warm summers (Köppen Dfb); the Berkshire hills are cooler and snowier than the Hudson Valley to the west.

Rainfall patterns

Precipitation is spread evenly through the year with no dry season; late summer and early autumn are slightly wetter, often boosted by thunderstorms and the remnants of tropical storms. Winter precipitation falls as snow, sleet and rain, and spring snowmelt drives peak streamflow in March and April.

Average Rainfall

Approximately 1,150 to 1,300 mm per year, with heavy winter snowfall.

Temperature Extremes

July highs typically reach 26 to 28°C with occasional heat waves above 32°C. January lows average around -11°C, and cold snaps below -22°C occur in most winters.

Average Temperature

About 8°C annually, from roughly -6°C in January to 20°C in July.

Watershed

Within the Housatonic River watershed, which flows south to Long Island Sound, or the Hoosic River watershed in the northern Berkshires, which flows west to the Hudson.

Nearby water bodies

Hop Brook flows through the Tyringham valley to the Housatonic River near Lee, a few kilometres northwest; Goose Pond lies in the hills to the south.

Land & terrain

Elevation & slope

Gently rolling lowland and low hills, mostly between roughly 50 and 200 metres above sea level.

Landforms

Glacial valleys floored with marble and limestone, bounded by the schist ridges of the Taconic Range to the west and the Berkshire plateau to the east.

Soil Types

Loams and silt loams formed in glacial till and outwash over marble and limestone in the Housatonic and Hoosic valleys, with stonier acidic soils over schist on the hills; the valley soils are among the most fertile in New England.

Soil health

Permanent no-till beds built up with compost and hand-scale management have raised organic matter and soil biology on former hill-farm land.

Erosion risk

Very low on permanent no-till beds; low on surrounding meadow and forest.

Renewable resource potential

Solar on barn roofs and field margins; composting of manure and crop residue; soil carbon in pasture and cover-cropped fields.

People & history

Land Acknowledgements

Woven Roots Farm lies within the homeland of the Mohican people, the Muhheaconneok, whose communities lived along the Housatonic and Hoosic rivers. We acknowledge the Mohican people and their descendants in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, whose relationship with this land continues.

Recent land history

Tyringham's valley was farmed by Shakers and hill farmers from the 1700s and later became a summer retreat. Jen and Pete Salinetti established Woven Roots as a no-till farm and CSA in the 2000s, grew its education programs over more than fifteen years, formalized a community center and in 2023 launched the Rooted & Rising campaign to build a community barn.

Regenerative practice

Regenerative Focus

Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health, Community Regeneration & Resilience Building, Education, Indigenous And Traditional Knowledge

Regenerative Methodologies

Hand-scale, no-till vegetable, herb and flower production on permanent beds; a seasonal CSA with solidarity shares; educational intensives, workshops and courses for over 15 years; programs in the local school system; the Solidarity and Sustainability Program created with BRIDGE (Berkshire Resources for Integration of Diverse Groups through Education); the Seeding Solidarity collective with Finca Luna Búho; a community center and planned community barn.

Environmental objectives

Build soil health and biology through no-till, hand-scale growing; farm 10 acres in a Berkshire hill town without synthetic inputs; model regenerative practice that others can learn and copy.

Community objectives

Feed CSA members and vulnerable community members through solidarity shares and a vegetable prescription program; teach regenerative growing to adults and schoolchildren; honor and center the agricultural knowledge of Indigenous people, people of color and immigrants; build a community gathering space.

Community engagement

CSA members pick up weekly, and solidarity shares reach patients through Community Health Programs' Vegetable Prescription Program and the Seeding Solidarity collective. The farm runs workshops and educational intensives, partners with BRIDGE and local schools, hosted the state agriculture commissioner on a Berkshire Grown farm tour, and launched the Rooted & Rising fundraiser with Finca Luna Búho in 2023.

Economic Model

A family-run farm business supported by CSA shares, education programs and donations, with a nonprofit community center arm raising capital, including the $1.7 million Rooted & Rising campaign with Finca Luna Búho, to build a community barn and fund solidarity programs.

Impact

Expressed Impact

Woven Roots shows that a small no-till farm can be a center of community, feeding neighbors who could not otherwise afford fresh food, teaching regenerative growing for more than fifteen years and naming farming as an act of justice rooted in the knowledge of Indigenous, immigrant and communities of color.

Key impact metrics

10 acres in no-till production; seasonal CSA with solidarity shares; more than 15 years of workshops and courses; partnership with Community Health Programs' Vegetable Prescription Program and BRIDGE; Seeding Solidarity collective with Finca Luna Búho; $1.7 million Rooted & Rising campaign launched 2023.

Visiting & links

Nearest urban centres

Pittsfield (population about 44,000) and Great Barrington are the nearest centers; Albany is roughly 60 km west and Boston about 200 km east.

Website

https://www.wovenrootsfarm.com

Connections

In the same bioregion

Nearby