AGAWAM — The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation and its Local Farmer Award partners have announced the 2026 award recipients, granting more than $270,000 to 128 farms across western Massachusetts, including 43 farms in Franklin County.
With this year’s awards, the program’s total investment in local agriculture surpasses $2 million, marking a major milestone in its 12-year commitment to strengthening the regional food system.
“Reaching the $2 million mark reflects our foundation’s and our partners’ deep, ongoing commitment to supporting the hardworking farmers of western Massachusetts,” Harold Grinspoon, founder of the Local Farmer Awards and the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, said in a statement.
Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farms in Deerfield with a Honda pump that will suck water out of a pond to spray on budding orchard trees preventing them from getting below 32 degrees. PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farms in Deerfield with a Honda pump that will suck water out of a pond to spray on budding orchard trees preventing them from getting below 32 degrees. PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Dan Greene of Good Bunch Farm in Charlemont uses a seeder to plant a flat of 72 cells of Swiss chard. PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Dan Greene of Good Bunch Farm in Charlemont. PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo
Since the program’s launch, the Local Farmer Awards have helped fund improvements such as infrastructure, equipment and production upgrades to help farmers grow and sustain their operations.
“It’s really been an amazing help to hundreds of farmers over the Pioneer Valley,” said Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farms in Deerfield, a multi-year award recipient.
The 2026 winners represent a diverse mix of farms of varying sizes across the four counties of western Mass.
From a tractor-mounted feeder at Just Roots to harvesting crates at Kitchen Garden Farm, the awards of up to $2,500 supported purchases to speed up day-to-day tasks.
At Good Bunch Farm in Charlemont, the approximately $1,200 award helped cover the cost of seeders for the greenhouse. Instead of continuing to place the vegetable seeds in trays by hand, a task that took Good Bunch Farm owner Dan Greene three to five minutes per tray, the seeders drop the seeds of an entire tray in 10 to 30 seconds.
Greene stressed the importance of saving time in an industry where “time is probably the most valuable resource.”
“Every year, it’s something that really makes a big impact,” Greene said. “The Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the man himself care about farms.”
In past years, Good Bunch Farm bought a flail mower and Paperpot Transplanter with the award.
For Greene and other farmers, the awards allow them to invest in expensive purchases they “keep putting off” due to the price, as Greene said.
“Systems or pieces of equipment that were maybe a little bit out of your budget, this can close that gap,” added Clark. “They’re all about prioritizing infrastructure, food access.”
With the farm’s $1,900 award, Clark purchased a portable gasoline-pump to protect against frost and serve as a backup for the electric irrigation pump during power outages. In a process that may seem counterintuitive on the first read, the pump protects plant buds against frost by freezing them with a layer of ice. The pump then runs water through the crops to ensure the temperature remains at 32 degrees.
As the farm faces weather like the overnight frost on April 20 that hit cherry trees at Clarkdale the hardest, Clark described the pump as “a necessary item.”
“There’s more and more extreme weather events and weather challenges, and as farms are providing our local food supply, I think it’s great that the Grinspoon Foundation led by Harold Grinspoon started this,” Clark said. “He saw this need in terms of helping farmers out.”
Dan Smiarowski runs D.A. Smiarowski Farms in Sunderland with his wife Penny Smiarowski. With the $2,500 award, the couple purchased a forklift for loading vehicles with produce.
“People like to see farms in their communities,” Dan Smiarowski said. “Especially this year with fertilizer going up, fuel costs going up, it’s good to get something like this. It helps you to increase your business where maybe you may not have invested that money into your business.”
According to Dan Smiarowski, investments in farms ripple out to the broader community by “stimulating” local economies.
“I’ve been saying this for most of my adult life that we need to support local farms and food, so we can rely on having those producers there when we need them,” explained Julia Coffey, founder and owner of Mycoterra Farm in South Deerfield.
For Coffey, the award was “perfectly timed.” With demand for wholesale dried mushrooms ramping up, the $2,500 grant for a commercial dehydrator will help the farm’s crew keep up and “continue with [their] momentum.”
“In the past year, we’ve really been focusing on building this aspect of our production, because it supports the sustainability of our fresh mushroom sales,” Coffey explained.
Since mushrooms have a short shelf life, Coffey and the farm’s employees turn around the crops in only five days between harvest and shipment. Dehydrating the mushrooms helps the farm meet demand with the finicky fungi, stretching the mushrooms’ shelf lives to up to two years while curbing food waste.
The rest of the $2,500 helped cover a new pneumatic filling machine for Mycoterra’s organic mushroom tinctures that customers can add to coffee, tea, smoothies, baking recipes or take as a supplement.
Like Dan Smiarowski, Coffey emphasized that the benefits of investments like the Local Farmer Awards do not stop with the crops, addressing issues like local and global food shortages.
“We’re very fortunate here in western Mass. to have a really vast and diverse local food system,” Coffey said. “Investing in these local producers helps keep our local food options open.”
The full list of 2026 Local Farmer Award recipients is available at hgcf.org/media/s2nl5vnu/2026_farmer_awards_winners.pdf.
