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Woven Roots Farm owner Jen Salinetti, left, talks with Massachusetts Agriculture Commissioner Ashley Randle, during Wednesday's farm tour.
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Some of the fresh produce for sale at the Woven Roots Farm store.
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The nearly completed barn at Woven Roots Farm aids the agricultural operation and provides a space for community gatherings.
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Woven Roots Farm offers CSA members a chance to pick their own flowers.
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Woven Roots Farm offers CSA members a chance to pick their own flowers.
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Staff from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and the non-profit Berkshire Grown are led on a tour of Woven Roots Farm by Jen Salinetti, left.
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Jen and Pete Salinetti started Woven Roots Farm on a quarter acre in Lee before moving to a much larger parcel in nearby Tyringham.

South County Farm Grows Community

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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Participants in a Wednesday farm tour in South County file into the community room in the new barn at Woven Roots Farm in Tyringham.
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.
 
While she delighted in talking about the variety of crops and the couple's commitment to no-till, hand-scale production, she also told participants in the tour, "I can talk about community for hours and hours."
 
And that is where the barn will be a game-change for the farm.
 
"It is so important to not take lightly what it means to be in relationship with one another," Jen Salinetti said.
 
The nearly completed barn will help Woven Roots provide a space for community gatherings. The Salinettis Wednesday showed off the meeting room and the 2-week-old farm store that soon will be open to the general public.
 
"CSAs are not for everyone," Jen Salinetti said. "We wholesale, all within 13 miles of the farm. But we wanted to create another access point.
 
"Accepting [Massachusetts' Healthy Incentives Program] and [federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits will help that as well."
 
Woven Roots was one of four stops on Wednesday's tour. Randle and her Department of Agricultural Resources staff started the day visiting Gaetano's Organic Farm in Becket and headed to Lila's Mountain Farm in Great Barrington after leaving Tyringham. The day ended at the Stockbridge Farmers Market.
 
The tour was postponed a week due to last week's heavy rain, which gave Jen Salinetti a chance to talk about how Woven Roots is adapting to a changing climate.
 
The farm received 7 inches of rain in a 32-hour period last week and took on another three inches just before hosting the tour. But you could not tell from the condition of the tomatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, lettuce that were nearly ready for harvest as she led the group through the farm's beds.
 
"When I think back to 2014, we went 40 days of no sun and mostly rain," Salinetti said. "It was so bad, I needed to pick up another job in the winter to pay the mortgage.
 
"In the last 10 years, our soil practices have continued to improve. When we get 7 inches of rain, it doesn't wipe out crops anymore. You can see the crops growing. Ten years ago, that wouldn't have been the case."
 
Salinetti credited financial and technical support from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and Berkshire Grown with helping to get Woven Roots Farm where it is today.
 
"2019 was the first year we actualized a grant through MDAR, and it's no small feat," she said. "It literally changed everything.
 
"So often, we're forgotten about here [in Berkshire County], but not by MDAR."
 
A Farm Viability grant from the commonwealth helped provide seed money for the barn that will allow Woven Roots to better store its crops and better foster community for years to come.
 
The Salinettis maintain a, "commitment to community and education about what it means to be a farmer and what it means to eat local food," Berkshire Grown Executive Director Margaret Moulton said.
 
"This barn, to me, is a manifestation of that vision. Yes, it's about farming, but it's so much about community."
 
Randle agreed.
 
"I'm really grateful for the work that you do here, because community is our greatest asset," she said. "And whether it's connecting youth and beginning farmers or customers who become friends and part of our families and networks, I think the community aspect is really what grounds me every day.
 
"And that is how we can continue to make positive change in agriculture and the food system and our communities at large."

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Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
 

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director. 

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said. 

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