MIDDLEFIELD — For more than 30 years, AzureGreen has been part of the fabric of this small town at the far western reaches of Hampshire County. The town’s largest private employer, the New Age supplier of products that range from candles to jewelry to books saw its business increase sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AzureGreen, originally known as Abiss Distribution, started out in Easthampton — in the storefront that now houses Mt. Tom’s Homemade Ice Cream. Co-owner Adair Laurel-Cafarella, a former engineer in the paper industry, started the business in order to stay home with his two children, and was soon joined by his wife and co-owner Tamarin Laurel-Paine.

Adair and Tamarin met in a coven, a community of witches, in Boston. The pair are initiated witches, but AzureGreen sells products to and employs people of all faiths, including selling frankincense and myrrh to Christian churches.

The couple moved the business to Middlefield in 1991 because it outgrew its Easthampton home. They also chose to move to Middlefield after touring stone circles in England, which inspired them to look for a site closer to nature.

“We want to find a place that feels like that,” Tamarin said. “Middlefield had the feel we were looking for.”

After years of running the business out of their Middlefield home, the couple began exploring an expansion. In 2001, residents agreed to enlarge the town’s business district to allow AzureGreen to construct a campus on Beltane Hill off Bell Road. Litigation in land court, however, delayed the construction of the new campus for another eight years before it opened in 2009.

Tamarin worked with a feng shui architect to construct the building that houses the business, which is heated and air conditioned using geothermal power.

The building also contains a glass pyramid, with the same angles and alignment as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Each item that AzureGreen sends out passes through the pyramid, in order to charge it with mystical energy.

Products that move through the warehouse at AzureGreen include crystals, essential oils, Tarot cards and books. Adair said that the product in the warehouse turns over every month.

Among the products sold at AzureGreen is “Initiation at Beltane,” a novel that Tamarin wrote about a magic school.

The heir to the business is Buffie Cafarella, daughter of Adair and stepdaughter of Tamarin. She manned the cash register when the store was located in Easthampton, and started working full time as an adult about 26 years ago.

“I believe in their principles,” said Cafarella, who has known a few customers since she was 9. “They raised me that way.”

Adair said that business at AzureGreen doubled at the start of the pandemic. “It was hell,” he said, speaking of dealing with the rapid increase in sales.

For her part, Cafarella said that she trained people for a year and a half straight as a result of the business increase, recently taking her first time off since the beginning of the pandemic.

Both the business and its campus, which houses a nonprofit community center, remain devoted to a vision of community service that goes beyond profit.

The community center, which is located in the same building as the business, has amenities that include a laundry room, a full commercial kitchen, gym, day care facility, Wi-Fi, showers and a bathtub.

The center is administered by the nonprofit Ezmereld, of which Tamarin and Adair are board members. Anyone who signs up can be a member, regardless of residence, and membership is awarded at no charge. Access to the community center is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and 24/7 for those with key cards.

“A lot of people in town have cards to the door,” said Adair.

The center is utilized for game nights and music events, and the Middlefield Fair’s organizers have their meetings in the space.

There is also a weekly community dinner on Wednesday, and before the COVID-19 pandemic 80 to 100 people would come to dine. Additionally, people are free to eat food from the kitchen that doesn’t have another person’s name on it.

“We’re integrating life,” said Tamarin.

Starting wages at the facility are $15.50 an hour, which goes up to about $17 an hour after a person is trained. Workers also log their activity on the job and a productivity bonus is given out quarterly. That means that some workers make what works out to be more than $30 an hour.

“We have people lined up to find a job here,” said Adair.

The facility currently employs around 20 people, and although it is not hiring at the moment, AzureGreen is taking applications in case vacancies arise.

One long-term employee is Steve Malachite, who grew up in Middlefield but now lives in Northampton.

“It’s nice that there’s places inside of 30 minutes of Middlefield to get a paycheck,” he said, adding that the community at the business makes the job “worth it.”

Another employee at the facility is Becky Benson, who has worked there for three years. “I really like the flexibility it allows for my family,” she said.

Starting in the warehouse, Benson was then moved into office work in a move that is apparently not unusual at AzureGreen.

“She has thrived amazingly upstairs,” said Cafarella.

Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@ gazettenet.com.]]>