Mountain View Farm Flood Damage Fund

We are so sad to report that the impact from the flooding on our fields is pretty much the worst case scenario. Both our fields on the Mill River and the Connecticut River are underwater and will be unsalvageable. This is catastrophic for the farm as these fields total around 45 acres and not only contained our summer CSA produce, but our fall and winter crops as well. While we have weathered storms and challenges before, this degree of loss is very difficult for us to absorb, and we are struggling to adjust. We want to say first that we have been honored to be your farmers for the last 16 years, and we have been so proud to be stewards of such a beautiful and productive community farm. Farming in the face of increasingly more frequent extreme weather events and climate change has been a challenge, but this event took us by surprise with its rapid onset and force.

We have never had to close our doors on a distribution day in the 16 seasons we have been farming in the Pioneer Valley. We have worked hard to build a thriving community farm and we have taken so much pride in the work that our team has been able to accomplish over the years including our long term partnerships with both The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary.

We plan to continue to provide our members with the best CSA share we can for as long as possible this season. We do have some crops in the ground in Hadley and elsewhere in Easthampton that were not affected by the flood and we will continue to distribute farm shares with our heads held high for as long as we can with what we have left. Keep an eye out for upcoming communications from the farm with more information about what to expect. Although it is difficult for us to do so, we are also asking for financial support from our community to get us through the coming months so that we can continue to operate as a CSA farm. While we do have some security from our CSA income, we rely on our winter share income to get us through the fall and winter months. We not only lost all of our summer crops including eggplant, sweet corn, tomatoes, sweet peppers, celery, and a large portion of our squash and cucumbers- We also lost crops we rely on for the winter share including all of our potatoes, celeriac, storage onions, leeks and our winter carrots. We are hoping to continue to be able to employ our farm crew, who are the most wonderful and hardworking people in the world, for as long as we can in the face of this disaster. Some of these amazing people have worked for the farm for the last 12 seasons. We are asking our community of farm shareholders and friends for financial assistance and help staying in business so that we can continue to operate a CSA here. We know that many of you have asked how you can help, and we can’t tell you how much the support, kindness, and encouragement of our community means to us at this time.

With So Much Gratitude,

Liz, Ben, Ollie and Nate and the crew at Mountain View Farm