Celebrate Hadley Massachusetts

 

Harvest

 

Hadley's harvest season lasts from May when the first asparagus is cut to the end of autumn when the last potato is dug out of the ground.  The season extends more if you include maple sugaring and, in former days, cutting ice. Today, crops include summer squash, winter squash, onions, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, turnips, corn, melons, berries, fruits, greens, cucumbers, peppers, beans, peas, tomatoes, tobacco, asparagus, flowers, hay, and more.   Hadley farms start with wonderful soil, which the farmers nurture.  Each year the weather affects the harvest, with some plants thriving and some not.  This year, the wet, cool season affected most plants, making for a poor year overall.  The tobacco crop was a total loss in the valley.  The tomato virus made local fresh tomatoes scarce.

Hadley produce is sold at local farm stands and supermarkets, and is packed and trucked farther away.  Area restaurants and schools try to use as much fresh, local produce as possible.  The dairy, pig, sheep, cattle and horse farms use the hay and corn that is harvested.

Several areas in Hadley have been farmed continuously since the 1660s when the settlers came, and by Native Americans before that.  These include the Great Meadows, the Hockanum flats, and the "Forty Acres" fields near the Porter-Phelps-Huntington house.

Here are some photos of harvests through the years.

Harvesting Tobacco 1938, courtesy of Patricia Lewis

Tobacco 1952, courtesy of Patricia Lewis

Rocky Hill Road, photo by Mary Thayer

Paradysz Farm, courtesy of Ellie Niedbala

Cabbages, Handrich Farm, courtesy of the Handrich family

Courtesy of the Handrich family

Onion Field, courtesy of Miriam Pratt

Workers on the farm, courtesy of Ellie Niedbala

Harvesting, Jekanoski Farm, courtesy of Frank Zalot

Bundles of corn, River Road, courtesy of Miriam Pratt

Husking corn by Clifton Johnson,
Courtesy of the Jones Library, Inc of Amherst

Photo by Clifton Johnson, circa 1890s,
Courtesy of the Jones Library, Inc of Amherst

Icing, North Hadley Pond 1935
Rudolph Hahn and Tony Michalak
Photo courtesy of Cindy Hahn Caldwell
 

North Hadley Sugar Shack, photo by Rick Thayer

North Hadley Sugar Shack, photo by Rick Thayer