Hampshire County
Community Story Archive
Sharing Stories, Creating Change
JESSICA
Jessica is an independent, energetic community-involved woman who has lived in Westhampton for 30 years. While cooking and gardening are her passions, she understands and is staunchly supportive of the small farmers in our area. She cares deeply about her town and the people in it and maintains strong relationships while working an extensive garden.
“It's becoming less and less viable for people to make a living doing any kind of farming and we're going to see less and less of it, if we don't figure out more ways to support farmers, and local growers…With farming, you're, spending all your money before you even have a product. You can only do so much anticipating and if you don't have the support upfront when you're preparing for the season, then you lose out on the other end.”
Check out some interview excerpts below:
“We had fresh food at a time where we really needed it and we were able to share with other people who needed it. Even if I don't grow much in the garden, I'm not going to starve. The fact that I can grow it, I can share it did make me feel much more self-reliant and like I had a little bit of control at a time where in every other way we really had no other control.”