A few years ago I took a week off from Farm Aid to work on a real live farm. Dominic Palumbo, an organic farmer in Sheffield, Massachusetts, agreed to let me camp in his field and show me the ropes. I was totally green, having no real farm experience. But by the end of the week, the only thing I hadn’t done was milk the somewhat cranky milk cow Butterscotch. In the course of my week at Moon in the Pond Organic Farm I weeded, harvested, helped woman the tent at the weekly farmers market, rounded up errant Scottish Highland cattle and reset their acres-wide electric fence so they wouldn’t break out again (they did!), collected eggs, fed and watered the pigs, ducks, chickens, sheep, cows and ox, planted corn, started seedlings, and felt the good work deep in my bones. It is a week I fondly recall.
So this morning I was thrilled to see Dom’s smiling face looking out at me from the
Boston Globe’s food section. Dominic was doing amazing things two years ago, when I met him, and he’s only been doing more and more since. The article describes how he’s providing a local restaurant in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with the freshest (and tastiest) homegrown produce and heritage breed meat. Now, I’ve got even more incentive to get back out to Western Massachusetts. If you’re in the area, eat at Route 7 Grill and then head over to Moon in the Pond Organic Farm to see from where your dinner came. In addition to being a “heartthrob,” as the article calls him, Dom’s a brilliant farmer with a passion to share his vision of sustainable agriculture.
