The Seeds of Atlas Farm
Inspired by work experiences on CSA farms and exposure to the great challenges facing the modern food system, farmer/owner Gideon Porth began farming in order to connect people more closely to their food sources, and to be part of the vanguard of sustainable agriculture.
The seeds of Atlas Farm first germinated in 2004, on a 2.5-acre plot of rented land in Montague, Massachusetts. The farm’s first harvests were sold at the Copley Square Farmers Market in Boston. Over several years, Atlas Farm acquired additional rental land on River Road in Deerfield, now the base of our operations. As the farm grew in size and scope, vegetable sales expanded to include local and regional wholesale customers.
In 2013 Atlas Farm opened the Farm Store in South Deerfield, a vibrant marketplace for our own certified organic produce and other regional and sustainable farm products. In 2022, ownership of the Farm Store passed to former general manager Kelly Hickey, who is committed to growing the business in continued close partnership with Atlas Farm.
Today, Atlas Farm consists of 120 acres of owned and leased land in Deerfield, South Deerfield, Sunderland, and Hadley. The main farm — including production fields, greenhouses, staff housing, packing facilities, and the main office — is located on scenic River Road in Deerfield, along the west bank of the Connecticut River. We are proud to be part of the vibrant agricultural heritage of the Connecticut River Valley, which is blessed with some of the most fertile agricultural soil on the East Coast.
Atlas Farm operates year-round. We harvest from our fields and high tunnels during the spring, summer, and fall, and from our greenhouses in the winter months. Our goal is to provide our community with the freshest local produce possible, even in the depths of winter. To this end, we store potatoes and root crops through the winter, and harvest high tunnel greens from November to April. The environmental and economic impacts of shipping produce from all corners of the world to New England are of great concern to us. We're part of a growing community of local agricultural producers working to change that paradigm.
All of our products are certified organic by Baystate Organic Certifiers under the USDA National Organic Program.
Atlas Farm strives to be a model of ecological food production. We engage in organic farming practices that sustain the ecosystems around us, and we work to minimize our resource consumption and environmental impact with constant improvements to our farm systems. To read more about our commitment to sustainable practices, please visit our sustainability page.
