Farm Store and Community Commercial Kitchen
Coming Soon!
It doesn’t have to be hard to eat healthy
Our new Red Shirt Farm Store will be your convenient one-stop shop for year-round farm fresh food products from us and our farm friends around Berkshire County. Our community commercial kitchen will enhance food security, local resilience, and your cooking skills! Let's make this a reality together!
"Everything at the grocery store seems heavily processed and shipped a long distance.”
“I try to make it to the farmers market, but that doesn’t always fit my schedule.”
“I want to shop at local farms, but most farms are located in remote areas with no public transportation options.”
"Using fresh, natural ingredients is important, but I'm intimidated by the thought of cooking with them."
“I wish I could find a nearby farm that’s easy to get to and offers a variety of fresh local foods as well as cooking classes! It would be great if this place also did something to increase food access for everyone in my community.”
Our Farm Store & Commercial Kitchen
We've got the local farm-fresh, naturally-grown products you crave in a convenient location!
3D renderings of what the store and kitchen might look like.
About the Kitchen
Enhancing Local Food Options
The Kitchen will provide a licensed top-of-the-line facility for converting vegetables, fruit, eggs, honey, and meat into value-added products that extend shelf-life, diversity, and consumer appeal. We’ll create jams and jellies, salsa, pestos, pickles, and other fermented products, canned fruits and vegetables, dried herbs and teas, as well as grab-and-go meals, bread, and baked goods.
Food waste will be reduced as cosmetically deficient produce is incorporated into other products like soup or preserves.
Our locally accessible commercial kitchen will be available to fellow farmers, food pantries, and organizations addressing food insecurity.
Reconnecting you with your food
At Red Shirt Farm we know that it's not enough just to grow good food; it’s essential that we teach our community how to use it to nourish themselves and their families.
We envision the Kitchen as a community resource to reconnect people with their food and culinary traditions. The Kitchen will be a training lab for ethnically diverse and culturally-aware workshops engaging community members of Asian, Latino, and African diaspora cultures. A sliding scale fee program will make workshops affordable for all participants. Education will cover a range of topics including food preparation, preservation, fermentation, and ethnic cuisine.
The Farm Store and Kitchen will make our community more resilient by:
Supporting Local Food Production
The Farm Store and Kitchen will sell produce grown on our farm as well as products sourced from other local farmers and food producers. That means greater selections for you, our customers, and greater visibility and profitability for farmers. Amplifying local food production reduces dependence on food sources from distant locales. This promotes food sovereignty and strengthens our local economy, making our community more resilient to economic downturns.
Increasing Access to Fresh, Healthy Food
The Farm Store will feature fresh produce harvested within hours of being sold, ensuring high quality and peak nutritional value. This is especially important in early spring, fall, and winter when fresh food options may be limited. By increasing access to nutritious food, the Farm Store and Kitchen will improve the overall health and vitality of our community, making it more resilient.
Promoting Food Sovereignty and Food Security
Sourcing local food contributes to food sovereignty, which says all people have a right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods. This reduces dependence on outside food sources and increases self-reliance within the community. Red Shirt Farm and its Farm Store and Kitchen will provide regional food security because the food we grow is not dependent on tenuous supply chains and fragile distribution networks.
Job Creation
The Farm Store and Kitchen will create two to four jobs in our community, from retail staff to cooks and bakers, to additional farm workers and other food producers. These jobs can help boost our local economy by providing employment opportunities and a source of income for residents.
