Mission
Plum Brook Farm’s mission is to build community by creating experiences on the land, sharing its bounty, and demonstrating good stewardship. Over time, we hope to increase the number and variety of on-farm events and experiences that our customers can enjoy, connecting you to not only our delicious fruit, but the land and people that produce it. We also plan to increase our use of soil-building practices that promote the health of our perennial crops, decrease the use of imported fertilizers, and increase organic matter and carbon storage.
Land Acknowledgment
Plum Brook Farm exists on the unceded homelands of the Pocumtuc Nation. This land and the surrounding lands and waters supported people and ways of life for millennia before the arrival of Europeans. Despite occupation and genocide over several centuries, descendants of those people maintain connections to their homelands and continue to resist erasure. We acknowledge that by “owning” this land under systems established by force, we are participants in this shameful history, and that there will always be people whose connection to the land has a legitimacy that cannot be replaced by titles and deeds.
Our Family
We are Tiffany and Clem Clay. We have lived in Amherst for over two decades, have seen six kids from our blended family through the Amherst public schools, with the seventh now at Crocker Farm. Our adult kids (and one grandchild) now live all over the world, but they visit and help out when they can, and love having a farm as a home base in Amherst.
Clem has worked in and near agriculture throughout his career, including as a vegetable farmer in the 1990’s, as director of Grow Food Northampton from 2015 to 2019, and as director of the Extension Agriculture Program at UMass Extension since then. Tiffany has a background in business that includes coffee roasting and event management. She’s been in the financial services world for much of her career and works for for Kemper Life in a national role from a home office.
People and Partners
We also inherited relationships with many others who have been involved with this land over the years, and are grateful for their continuing interest and advice:
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Bob and Sally Fitz, who owned the land and operated Small Ones Farm here from 2004 to 2021, establishing most of the practices we currently follow, as well as engaging the community with fruit and events like Orchestra in the Orchard.
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Matt Kaminsky, aka Gnarly Pippins, who served as farm manager under the Fitzes some years ago and has gone on to become an expert in a variety of apple-related topics. His deep knowledge of this orchard is invaluable.
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Brookfield Farm, which leases 13 acres of our land to supplement their other fields and grow delicious biodynamic produce that is sold through a CSA just a mile or so away. It is always a pleasure to see their tractors and crews coming and going and to know that land that we are not managing ourselves is well cared-for and productive.
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The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, which offers many services and grants for farmers, and runs the Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) program, which holds an easement over 61 of our 63 acres so that it will forever remain in agriculture.
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Partners at UMass Extension and the Stockbridge School of Agriculture conduct multiple research and monitoring projects on the farm. Helping to advance the understanding of pests, diseases, and climate change is a form of stewardship that extends beyond the land itself, and we also benefit from the expertise and enthusiasm of our academic partners.