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By PAT JAMES

Visiting his great-uncle’s farm in central India was a “magical experience” for Piyush Labhsetwar, Grow Food Northampton’s new farm and land stewardship manager. He relishes memories of picking ripe mangoes and oranges, drinking fresh cow’s milk, and...

By PAT JAMES

Kathleen Chapman (“KC”) and I met under a clothesline near her patchwork garden behind McDonald House in downtown Northampton. I wanted to learn more about her artwork, what brought her to Northampton, and how she connected with Grow Food Northampton...

By PAT JAMES

After moving from the city into a rural home with land 25 years ago, I was excited that the property was mostly bare ground that I could bend to my will and create beautiful gardens over time. As a kid, I’d helped in the garden a lot, so how hard...

By PAT JAMES

Community gardens grow on all kinds of land. Many gardens start as derelict lots, long abandoned by owners who sometimes reclaim the property after community gardeners reveal its beauty and productivity.Schools and parks are common sites for community...

By PAT JAMES

Some gardeners may think their summer gardening isn’t done until the soil is weeded and raked bare before the snow flies. For them, putting the garden to bed is more about tidiness and less about garden health. But the bare-ground approach isn’t good...

By PAT JAMES

The flood. I head to the Grow Food Northampton Community Farm with some items for the Organic Community Garden garden shed, but I’m stopped at the bridge on Meadow Street by rising water from the Mill River. Neighbors gather and urge a drifting...

By PAT JAMES

This past Tuesday was one of those days at the Grow Food Northampton (GFN) Tuesday Market farmers market when you wanted to linger even when your shopping is done. Warm in the sun, cool in the shade, the gentle guitar music of Alvaro Olvera Sanchez...