Rob Lynch

I grew up in Scituate, MA eating Twinkies and hot dogs when my mom wasn't looking but always knowing something was wrong with our global food system. When I was in 3^rd grade my parents brought me to Sturbridge Village (maybe you’ve been there it’s one of those places that people are living the way rural new englanders did in the early 1800's). I met this woman who was tending her garden and I was hooked. When we got home I made my mom bring me to the hardware store and we got some carrot seed. It was probably September but I planted them anyway… what did I know I was in 3^rd grade. So I experienced my first crop failure at the ripe young age of 8. I didn’t let it get me down. Throughout high school I was always into growing things so much so that I ended up majoring in Agriculture at UMASS never really thinking that I would become a farmer. Before I graduated I started working at the Food Bank Farm in Hadley where I met Michael Docter, Meghan, and a slew of other soon to be very important and influential people in my life. The farm became my inspiration and education. I learned volumes about growing vegetables, operating and fixing tractors, and what it meant to eat good food. I worked there for 3 years with a one year hiatus as a grower/instructor at Maggie’s Farm (The Farm School) in Athol, MA. After The Food Bank I worked for a friend and former Food Banker, Ben Perrault in the inaugural year of Mountain View Farm in Easthampton/Hadley, MA before starting at Riverland in 2007.

Meghan Arquin

My interest in farming began after taking a class at UMass called Nutritional Anthropology. We were given a project
that led me to volunteering at The Food Bank Farm in Hadley, MA. My first task was to pull massive fall storage beets out of the ground. I fell in love with the sights, sounds and smells of farming almost instantly. I met an amazing community of people working there. The following season I became an apprentice at The Food Bank Farm and began to condition my body and mind to a life of farming. I learned so much in that first season about plant identification the ones you pull out of the ground as weeds; and the others that you let stay and to grow and harvest from. I witnessed the cycle of a season where the soil comes to life, florishes, and then goes dormant for the winter.

Since I was sure that farming was the life I wanted to pursue after that first season I decided that I should get a little wanderlust out of my system before I put my own roots down. I saved some money and bought a ticket to Italy for 8 months. I found a few farms to work on through a program called WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms). This is a great way to travel and see the food culture anywhere. I fell in love with the landscape, the people, the language, and of course the food.

Upon my return to the U.S. I found myself back at the Food Bank Farm for another season. This is where I met Rob. We worked together up at the Farm School in Athol the following season, and I stayed for another season after that. In 2006 I came to work with Scott and Ferdene at Riverland where I met the community that supports the farm and our neighbors. Rob and I now live in our own farm house that rests on 12 acres of beautiful vegetable growing land. I am now ready to put down my own roots.