Dear Friends,

BAV’s team recently gathered for our annual staff retreat. It was an opportunity to celebrate successes, share lessons learned, plan for the year ahead, and reflect on the deeper meaning of our work.

Taking inspiration from the poetry of the late Wendell Berry and other writers, we thought about how our local landscape is shaped by generations of farmers, each contributing agricultural knowledge, stewardship, and care. BAV is honored to join in this work by helping local farmers navigate business challenges, rising costs, unpredictable weather, shifting federal support, and much more. Like farming, our work is both practical and personal, both on-the-ground and rooted in deep layers of human experience with and on the land.

It is in this spirit that I am delighted to share BAV’s latest Impact Report. The report offers a snapshot of our work, touching on some of the key areas where we are focusing our efforts and making a difference with our farmers and across our rural economy and community. Please click on the report cover and links below to download the report and read more about our deeply engaged and evolving work.

As always, we are so grateful for our farmers, partners, friends, and supporters. It is a pleasure to live and work in community with all of you.

Warm regards,

Rebecca Busansky

Executive Director

Your support for BAV makes our dedicated services for local farmers and food producers in our four-county region possible. Please consider making a gift today.

Photo: Butternut squash galore at MX Morningstar Farm. Photo by Stephanie Zollshan.

JUST RELEASED: 2025-26 IMPACT REPORT

We invite you to download and read our latest Impact Report to learn more about how BAV supports local farmers and strengthens our local food system. The report features an expanded format and more visuals to share the impact of our work. Highlights include:

✅ “By the numbers” for the impact period and over the past nine years

✅ A page dedicated to our newly expanded farm-to-institution work, with two projects launched

✅ Infographics and quotes showing the scope and impact of our work

STAFF AND BOARD UPDATES

Stevie Lazarus hired

We are delighted to welcome Stevie Lazarus to the BAV team as our Development and Operations Associate. Before joining BAV, they worked in development and communications for nonprofit arts and youth-serving organizations in New York City, including the All Stars Project and Naked Angels Theater Company. Stevie relocated to the Berkshires in early 2026, drawn by the intersections of agriculture, food, the arts, and social justice in our region.

Katharine Millonzi joins Board

BAV warmly welcomes Katharine Millonzi to our Board of Directors. Katharine designs programs, facilitates gatherings, and coaches leaders working toward ecological and social wellbeing, partnering with start-ups, academic institutions, and philanthropic ventures to bring new initiatives to life. She is currently on the Impact team at Community Food Works, strengthening regional food infrastructure to make local food accessible across the Hudson Valley. She has supported leaders with organizations including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Yale University, and the Volgenau Climate Initiative. Katharine brings a multidisciplinary lens to collaborative capacity, rooted in hospitality and a relational approach to systems change. 

BAV is hiring a Lending Director

We are bidding farewell to our wonderful Director of Lending and Finance, Shannon Smith, who is leaving in January 2027. Shannon helped build our revolving loan program into a robust resource that has circulated over $3.6 million of low-cost capital to our farms and food businesses. We are sad to see her go, but excited for her next steps.

As part of this transition, we are looking for the next Director of Lending to lead and grow BAV's flourishing lending program, providing low-cost loans to farms and food businesses in our four-county service area. This role is ideal for someone with commercial lending experience who is excited to work in a mission-driven environment addressing financing gaps in the food system. Priority deadline is October 26. Read the position description here and share with your networks!

FINAL DEADLINE: OCTOBER 15

There is one week left to apply to BAV’s Farm Business Accelerator — our new cohort-based program designed to help farmers in our four-county service area build practical, farm-specific business and financial planning skills. Click on the links below to learn more and submit your application! Or share this information with a friend.

🚜 Program overview: Check out our webpage for full details.

📅 Info session: View a recording of our info session to hear more about this program directly from BAV staff.

🧑‍🌾 Application: Apply here! Final deadline is October 15.

ℹ️ For more information: Read our FAQs or email Program Lead Rose Cherneff.

FARM SPOTLIGHT: FAB 413 VISITS WOVEN ROOTS

The Fabulous 413 team visited Woven Roots Farm in Tyringham last month to spotlight the incredible work of co-founder Jen Salinetti and her team to create and grow the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture program and community center. BAV joined the conversation to share the inspiration and thinking behind our new Farm Business Accelerator, which Jen is helping to shape as a member of our program Advisory Board. Some of our favorite quotes from the interview follow below; listen to the whole podcast here (interview starts around 25:45).

Farmer Jen Salinetti on the origins and mission of Woven Roots Farm:

• “The immense gratitude and joy from the community was the impetus. We use hand-scale methods so that we can grow in a way that is more connected, more intensive, and maximizes growing in a small space.”

• “For Woven Roots, food justice is an essential component to social justice. It’s about reclamation and reconnection and access to culturally relevant food.”

And sharing a perspective on BAV’s work with farmers:

• “One of the things that I admire so much about Berkshire Ag Ventures — you create the space for people to ask the hard questions and open up in a more vulnerable way.”

RECENT EVENTS: RECAPS AND HIGHLIGHTS

FODDER: Stories from the Fields

More than 60 farmers and community members gathered in Greenagers’ beautiful barn to hear the funny, poignant, and thought-provoking stories from a wide array of local farmers and young people. In one highlight, farmers from BRIDGE’s Solidarity Farm & Garden shared agricultural traditions passed down through their families in El Salvador and Haiti. “I learned to take pride in what I could produce with my hands,” one farmer said. Coproduced with Berkshire Grown, BRIDGE, Greenagers, and Farmstead for Farmers, with storytelling maven Sheela Clary and generous support from sponsors Edible Berkshires, Housatonic Heritage, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, and Village Green News, this second annual showcase of stories was deeply inspiring. Read our complete report and view more photos from the evening!

Photo: Ashni Sunder of Mumbet's Freedom Farm shares stories and reflections. Photo courtesy of Beth Carlson.

Film Screening: Fork in the Road

BAV was proud to partner with the Berkshire International Film Festival for an encore screening of the award-winning documentary Fork in the Road at the Triplex in Great Barrington, part of BIFF’s Environmental Film Focus Series. Following the film, BIFF Programmer Lillian Lennox moderated a lively conversation with BAV’s Ben Crockett and Rebecca Busansky, Elizabeth Keen from Indian Line Farm, and film producer (and BAV supporter!) Lisa Holmes. The panelists explored how increasingly unpredictable weather is reshaping growing conditions in our region, why healthy soil matters for climate resilience, and how diversifying products and markets can help farms weather uncertainty.

MEAT LITERACY WORKSHOPS FOR FARMERS

Get ready to dive into all things pork and beef at two FREE workshops presented by BAV with The Meat Hook in Hudson, NY. Join us for cuts, cooking tips, and tasty bites in two fun hands-on events. Click on the links below to learn more and register.

Meat Literacy: Pork (Oct. 29) | Meat Literacy: Beef (Nov. 5)

LAND CONSERVATION 'SPEED DATING'

Berkshire Natural Resources Council is hosting a Conservation Speed-Dating Workshop in collaboration with local and regional partners, including BAV, on Friday, Nov. 13, 10am-1pm. The workshop will be in a “speed-dating” format allowing for 10-minute discussions with a variety of experienced and knowledgeable folks. 

Ideal participants should have 20+ acres of land in northern Berkshire County, including a mix of field, forest, farm, and/or wetland habitats. Landowners may apply here for this free opportunity.

FARMER EVENTS & RESOURCES

Workshops & Events

Saturday, October 17, 8:30am-3pm

New York Nut Growers Association Fall Meeting. Willow Water Farm, 4091 West Glenville Road, Amsterdam, NY. Hosted by Brian Ellis and Gary Ellis. $20 for members, $25 for non-members. Includes light breakfast and lunch.

Wednesday-Thursday, October 28-29

NY State Buyer & Supplier Mixer. This convening is designed to strengthen relationships between institutional buyers and New York’s farmers, producers, processors, distributors, and aggregators. $25 for emerging partners and community members. Syracuse, NY.

✨Thursday, October 29, 12-3pm

Meat Literacy: Pork with BAV at The Meat Hook in Hudson, NY. See flyer above.

Wednesday, November 4, 1-2pm (online)

Tax 102 - Tax Planning and Strategies for Farmers, presented by NY FarmNet. This webinar focuses on tax concepts and strategies that can improve tax outcomes for the current year and the tax years ahead.

Wednesday-Thursday, November 4-5

New York State Agritourism Conference. Presented by Cornell Cooperative Extension to help farms build and strengthen successful visitor experiences. Held in Geneva, NY; $125 for both days.

✨Thursday, November 5, 12-3pm

Meat Literacy: Beef with BAV at The Meat Hook in Hudson, NY. See flyer above.

Thursday, November 19, 12-1pm (online)

WBDC of CT: Orientation for Agricultural and Farming Businesses. Learn more about the resources that the Women’s Business Development Council (WBDC) offers to help both male- and female-owned farm operations in Connecticut.

Friday, November 20, 12-3pm

Growing Homes 2026 Convening: Laying the Groundwork for Farmer Housing. A discussion for stakeholders in agriculture, housing, and land conservation. Poughkeepsie, NY. Free.

Programs & Grant Opportunities

🎯BAV provides grant-writing and business planning support to help farmers submit competitive grant applications to access federal and state funding. Reach out to us to learn more.

Wolfe Neck’s Center Northeast Farmers Fund. Funding to support projects related to expanded regenerative production and market opportunities, with a focus on small and mid-sized farms transitioning toward regenerative or sustainable production. Applications are open until October 14.

✨BAV’s Farm Business Accelerator Program. Business education, 1:1 technical assistance, and implementation funds for a cohort of farmers in Berkshire, Columbia, Dutchess, and Litchfield counties. Final deadline October 15. Apply here.

Deadline extended: Natural Disaster Recovery II (NDRII) Program for Agriculture provides financial assistance to help Massachusetts agricultural operations that suffered weather-related losses in 2023 and 2024 rebuild and recover. Crop, infrastructure, timber, and other losses totaling more than $2,500 may be eligible. Applications are open through the extended deadline of October 30.

PASA Sustainable Agriculture: Conservation Practices & Business Development and Marketing. PASA’s USDA Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) project provides technical assistance and implementation funding to help Northeast farmers adopt or expand regenerative practices while strengthening farm viability and expanding market opportunities. PASA will enroll up to 2,000 producers and distribute approximately $34 million directly to farmers through 2027. Farmers can start their PASA intake here.

Resources

✨BAV’s Livestock Farming Resource Directory. A free regional tool to help farmers across the Berkshire-Taconic region find and share vital agricultural services including: meat processors and co-packers; animal health and veterinary services; feed sources and fiber processors; transportation, cold storage and equipment; wholesale buyers and commercial kitchens. Browse current listings or add your organization or business. Need help updating your listing? Contact Jake Levin.

Farmer Mentorship Survey. Farmers are invited to participate in a research study about farmer mentorship experiences in Massachusetts. Participation involves a one-time, 60-minute interview where you can share your experiences. Participants may be eligible for $100 in compensation. Complete a short intake form (English version or Spanish version) to determine eligibility.

Your gift to BAV supports local farmers, expands local food access, and creates a more vibrant and viable local food system. During a time of challenge and change in our world, thank you for making a difference!

CONNECT WITH US!

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