Located in Chesterfield, Massachusetts, Stonebridge Farm has been using regenerative practices to produce orchard fruit and eggs, as well as grass fed beef, lamb and rabbit since their establishment in 2021. They wholesale their products locally to distributors such as The Chesterfield General Store, Oliver’s Farm Stand and the Hilltown Mobile Market. The farm sits on 22 acres, and is comprised of 18 acres of pasture, two acres of fruit production (apples, blueberries, peaches, pears, raspberries), a quarter-acre seed production plot leased to Keshtyar Seed, with the remaining acreage featuring vegetable gardens, woodlands, a farmhouse and farm structures.
Stonebridge uses regenerative and organic practices to improve soil health and promote biodiversity. They rotationally graze their livestock throughout their pastures to allow for mob grazing, pasture resting, manure deposit control and selective grazing of poor forage areas to encourage higher quality grasses. Even with their extant soil health practices, their fields struggle with heavy compaction, invasive species, drainage and erosion issues, poor forage, and lack the ability to sequester large amounts of carbon. In addition, their cattle and sheep currently have access to a large riparian zone (full of invasives) that they would like to restore by installing native species and excluding livestock from entering. The installation of native habitat in a number of areas of Stonebridge farm will help to reach their soil health and biodiversity goals.