Jack Kittredge has always been interested in a self-sustaining lifestyle. In 1982, he and Julie made the decision to move the family out to the country to raise their kids in connection to the land and grow their own food. Jack believes it is best if: “people raise their own food, raise their kids that way and live closer to nature.” While Jack was never a strong proponent of running a commercial farm and selling raw crops in New England, he was determined to support Julie’s passion and contributed his skills of budget management and machine repair, and labor in construction. Jack was the editor of the NOFA newspaper, The Natural Farmer, from 1987 through 2020, was the policy director of the Massachusetts chapter of NOFA for 28 years, and intermittently continued working with his partners from the 1970s designing board games. He feels fortunate to have been able to develop such opportunities for work at home to support the homestead’s success.

In Jack’s ideal world, more people would be able to pursue a lifestyle such as his and Julie’s. Many people have expressed that desire over the years, he says, but feel that is not possible for them. He thinks it can be done by many more, however. He says, “I think we’re vastly under farmed in terms of the people involved in farming. We need more hands-on people and less machines, diesel fuel, and chemicals.” Jack continues to be constantly aware of environmental impacts and has written a number of papers and articles about carbon sequestration and how it relates to soil building.

Since leaving Kentucky to go to college in Vermont, Clare Caldwell has been interested in sourcing local food. This passion was reenergized after returning from France where she was first introduced to farming through WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). Although originally she wanted to teach English to ESL students, after working outside in France, it became clear that working in a classroom wasn’t for her. Clare says that beyond just organic food, she was focused on quality and the nutrition value in food. Since then, Clare says that her interest has grown “more and more on human health, my own health and staying healthy during pregnancies and feeding young kids.” Now well into a farming career (spending the last 13 years at Many Hands) Clare is constantly thinking about what more there is to learn. Currently, she is thinking about how to improve production inside the hoop houses and planning for a significantly larger CSA this coming season.
The community element of farming and growing food is a primary motivator for Clare. She commented that something she loves about working at Many Hands is the daily ritual of meal prep, food preservation, and eating together around one table. “It’s pretty unique— I don’t think there are many places like it,” she says. She wants to pass this on by encouraging customers to cook and preserve their own food to eat throughout the winter. She always enjoys working with volunteers and the working shareholders and finds that Many Hands is more than a place of work— it’s a community.

Paula spent her entire life in Somerville, a city known for, among other things, its high population density (@91000 people living on 4.2 sq. miles of land). Being only minutes away from Cambridge during the seventies and eighties she was fortunate to have access to holistic health practitioners, places to learn about and buy alternatives to medicinals and co-ops that had much healthier foods than the typical supermarket. All of this helped build a foundation for a holistic health consciousness and organic lifestyle that has deepened over the years. In 2018 Paula moved with her husband Danny and their cat Ginger to Gardner, still a city but a far cry from the density of Somerville. Once settled she began to search for an organic farm to buy a CSA. Reading through various websites she quickly realized that Many Hands Organic Farm was the only place she would do a CSA and so her love affair with everything MHOF began. Paula’s first weeks of volunteering on the farm were filled with sub freezing temps and snowy conditions, yet this born and bred city girl fell in love immediately with rural farm life! She counts her farm blessings in many ways - breathing fresh air, getting hands and feet deep into rich, healthy soil, becoming one with animals and plants, honoring and caring especially for those who will later grace her dinner plate. Farm life is romantic and damn hard! There‘s a lesson waiting around every corner and slowness is not a virtue, though amazingly it can feel like time stands still when one’s on their knees weeding the blueberries and grape vines under a blazing July sun. On the other hand, one learns quickly that sharing in tarp duty is colder, wetter, dirtier and heavier than one would imagine. Through it all, the "icing on the cake" is the opportunity to partake in healthy, homemade meals around a big table with folks who seemingly love to be there too and most importantly–a community of people who share her values and beliefs.

Leslie started working on the farm in February 2021 to get outside and as a sort of respite from life challenges. Shortly after, she brought along a few friends who continue to volunteer on the farm; and she also became a pick-up location for the CSA. Good health and wellness is important to her and the work on the farm gives her physical exercise outside that she enjoys. “Working on the farm is my therapy, I feel part of the family and inspired by Julie to be more creative.” Leslie explains.

Jennifer has been studying food from an Western and Eastern perspective for most her life. She grew up on farms and orchards where she had the pleasure of eating fresh foods daily. She is a Yoga Teacher, Ayurveda Practitioner and Reiki Master. She shares her love for food with her clients. It seems fitting to have the opportunity to work for MHOF as it aligns with her mission to teach people how to eat healthily and locally.

Prior to working in her current profession in holistic arts, she worked in marketing, fundraising and development for over 30 years in various industries. Her experience and love for great health allows being part of the MHOF team fitting.

After several years of passively participating in Community Supported Agriculture, Matt decided to take a more active role, and volunteered to be a working shareholder at MHOF in 2022. He has a growing desire to be more self-reliant and self-deterministic concerning the quality and origin of the food he eats. Due to his constraints of time and land, working at MHOF provides him with a “loophole” to achieve this goal. Trying to be a better steward of the land that he inherited from others before him and will someday leave behind, Matt is applying the principles of regenerative agriculture/landscaping he learns, to transform his small, urban “lawnscape” into something more beneficial to the beings with whom he currently shares it. Hopefully his neighbors will be inspired to do the same. His time spent on MHOF has become a therapeutic respite from the challenges that modern life sometimes gives us.

Originally from Pittsfield, MA, Matt now lives in Worcester and works for the city as a firefighter. He makes a home with his wife, Meghan, and their two Shar Pei’s, Saki and Mo’i.