Innovator Stories
Meet Lisa MacDougall
This time of year is “slow” for Mighty Food Farm owner Lisa MacDougall: The farm’s winter shares program has ended, and she’s planning for the next season, using data from her summer CSA to analyze planting and staff needs.
MacDougall fell in love with farming 20 years ago, while attending UMass Amherst–she got a job at a vegetable farm in the Pioneer Valley and fell in love with the work and the values driving it. “The buy local movement was just starting,” she said. “The whole thing was just so rewarding and so fun.”
She changed her major to plants, soil, and insect sciences, then worked on farms in the valley until she found land to lease in Pownal, Vt. She leased that land for a decade until she found her current property in Shaftsbury, Vt., through the Vermont Land Trust Farmland Access Program.
Innovator Stories
Meet Avril Levesque
This time of year is “slow” for Mighty Food Farm owner Lisa MacDougall: The farm’s winter shares program has ended, and she’s planning for the next season, using data from her summer CSA to analyze planting and staff needs.
MacDougall fell in love with farming 20 years ago, while attending UMass Amherst–she got a job at a vegetable farm in the Pioneer Valley and fell in love with the work and the values driving it. “The buy local movement was just starting,” she said. “The whole thing was just so rewarding and so fun.”
She changed her major to plants, soil, and insect sciences, then worked on farms in the valley until she found land to lease in Pownal, Vt. She leased that land for a decade until she found her current property in Shaftsbury, Vt., through the Vermont Land Trust Farmland Access Program.
Since then, Mighty Food has grown to serve a 225-member community-supported agriculture (CSA) program in the summer, as well as smaller winter and spring CSAs. Mighty Food’s produce is at the year-round Dorset Farmers Market, and she has developed “a really great wholesale route” that includes Berkshire spots like Wild Oats Market and Mezze in Williamstown.
MacDougall has also grown her staff, with six people working full-time during the summer season and part-time in winter, plus several additional part-time employers as needs arise. Out of the ordinary for farm work, she keeps her staff capped at 40 hours per week. “I don’t ever ask them to work as much as I do–I never expect the farm to be the most important thing to them because it’s the most important thing to me,” she said. “My crew is like the most important thing on the farm. If things are going well with my crew, and things are organized and we’re happy, everything else falls into place.”
Innovation is a crucial aspect of farming, and MacDougall knows this well. During the pandemic, Mighty Food quickly transitioned to an online ordering system and custom-packed boxes to prevent COVID spread. It turned out to be such a great tool that she’s still using it today. Since customers use it to choose the produce in their boxes, the system has helped her track harvest numbers and identify what’s popular, allowing for more efficiency in crop planning.
MacDougall also initiated a curbside pickup process and helped her customers get grains, meat, and dairy, connecting with other farms and food producers in the area for sourcing.
“Farmers are innovators, and most farmers are such givers. They’re adaptable,” MacDougall said. “There were so many farms during the pandemic who really rose to the occasion. People needed food, we had food. We as farmers really felt that urgency.”
Other farm innovations that MacDougall has implemented include using more landscape fabric, and mulching more to protect the soil from major rain storms that can cause erosion, and finding new ways to deal with pests and diseases that are growing more common due to climate change. “Farming is a constant puzzle you’re figuring out daily,” she said.
That puzzle is MacDougall’s life, and she works hard to be intentional and present as a farmer. Like other farmers, her life revolves around the land. “I always think about the saying ‘how you do one thing is how you do everything, and anything worth doing is worth doing well.’ I try to apply that to everything I do,” she said.
She changed her major to plants, soil, and insect sciences, then worked on farms in the valley until she found land to lease in Pownal, Vt. She leased that land for a decade until she found her current property in Shaftsbury, Vt., through the Vermont Land Trust Farmland Access Program.
Since then, Mighty Food has grown to serve a 225-member community-supported agriculture (CSA) program in the summer, as well as smaller winter and spring CSAs. Mighty Food’s produce is at the year-round Dorset Farmers Market, and she has developed “a really great wholesale route” that includes Berkshire spots like Wild Oats Market and Mezze in Williamstown.
MacDougall has also grown her staff, with six people working full-time during the summer season and part-time in winter, plus several additional part-time employers as needs arise. Out of the ordinary for farm work, she keeps her staff capped at 40 hours per week. “I don’t ever ask them to work as much as I do–I never expect the farm to be the most important thing to them because it’s the most important thing to me,” she said. “My crew is like the most important thing on the farm. If things are going well with my crew, and things are organized and we’re happy, everything else falls into place.”
Innovation is a crucial aspect of farming, and MacDougall knows this well. During the pandemic, Mighty Food quickly transitioned to an online ordering system and custom-packed boxes to prevent COVID spread. It turned out to be such a great tool that she’s still using it today. Since customers use it to choose the produce in their boxes, the system has helped her track harvest numbers and identify what’s popular, allowing for more efficiency in crop planning.
MacDougall also initiated a curbside pickup process and helped her customers get grains, meat, and dairy, connecting with other farms and food producers in the area for sourcing.
“Farmers are innovators, and most farmers are such givers. They’re adaptable,” MacDougall said. “There were so many farms during the pandemic who really rose to the occasion. People needed food, we had food. We as farmers really felt that urgency.”
Other farm innovations that MacDougall has implemented include using more landscape fabric, and mulching more to protect the soil from major rain storms that can cause erosion, and finding new ways to deal with pests and diseases that are growing more common due to climate change. “Farming is a constant puzzle you’re figuring out daily,” she said.
That puzzle is MacDougall’s life, and she works hard to be intentional and present as a farmer. Like other farmers, her life revolves around the land. “I always think about the saying ‘how you do one thing is how you do everything, and anything worth doing is worth doing well.’ I try to apply that to everything I do,” she said.