LANESBOROUGH, Mass. - Red Shirt Farm said their mission of providing locally grown food will be made easier with the addition of their new farm store and community commercial kitchen on Route 7 in Lanesborough.

“Our mission is very much values driven," owner Jim Schultz said. "It’s about growing good food, growing it well and distributing to our neighbors in our community.”

Schultz explained the many plans for the new facility during a launch event at the farm Friday.

“We want to do education, we want the community involved," Schultz said. "We want this to be a resource, a hub, for not only Lanesborough, but all of Berkshire County to learn the kind of things that we’re teaching and to get the kind of food that we’re growing.”

1Berkshire economic development director Ben Lamb said having the store and kitchen located on a heavily trafficked road will be great for the other local farms who plan to work with Red Shirt Farm to sell their products.

“From our perspective, this meets a huge gap in the region in terms of getting local food to local people," Lamb said. "Also supporting our agro-tourism industry where folks that come here are looking to access those really tasty, locally grown components that we have plenty of here in Berkshire County.”

Red Shirt Farm takes a “beyond organic” approach to their methods. Schultz said it’s important for people to know where their food is coming from and how it’s grown. It’s also important to him to help people eat well.

“Traditionally, agriculture is about killing things," Schultz said. "It’s about herbicides and pesticides and fungicides, about tillage, about changing it to be how we want it to be, but it does not necessarily grow good food. We’re about creating health in our soil, creating health in our land, keeping our animals healthy, because all of that produces foods that make all of us healthy.”

Construction on the store and community kitchen will begin in the coming weeks with a soft open planned for the end of the year.