TYRINGHAM, Mass. — Woven Roots Farm offered the ideal venue for the message Massachusetts' commissioner of agriculture wanted to deliver: the barn.

 

That is where Commissioner Ashley Randle addressed a group of about two dozen attendees at Berkshire Grown's Berkshire Farm Tour.

 

"With everything that is happening around us, it can feel very disheartening and very heavy," Randle said Wednesday after the group shared a meal in Woven Roots' community gathering room. "And two things that I've talked about have been leading in community and with compassion.

 

"And, certainly, Woven Roots has embodied that every day."

 

Jen and Pete Salinetti founded Woven Roots at the turn of the 20th century on a quarter acre of land they owned in Lee.

 

Today, they have almost 850 garden beds on 2 and a half acres in Tyringham, where they moved full-time in 2014.

 

The community-supported agriculture farm produces 70 crops and produces enough food for 1,600 people per week, Jen Salinetti said while leading a tour of the property the couple leases on McCarty Road.