Business Monday: Spotlight on Red Shirt Farm
Originally published by The Berkshire Edge, September 15, 2025. By Robbi Hartt.
Owners Jim and Sarah Schultz have just finished a nearly $800,000 project at Red Shirt Farm, a small diversified family farm in Lanesborough. However, their energy is still soaring as the summer season winds down and new adventures begin to ramp up. They’re already enjoying the fruits of their labor with their new Farm Market store, which opened on May 17. They are also eager to explore the possibilities the new community commercial kitchen will create when it opens in December—including value-added use of blemished produce in jams and sauces; the ability to lease space to other farmers, food pantries, and local organizations; and the opportunity for more education around health and nutrition, as well as food processing, preparation, and preservation. As Jim puts it, “We want this to be a community resource that provides an accessible venue for more remote farms and allows us to source food from farther away.”
Perched along a busy stretch of Route 7 just south of Mount Greylock Reservation, Red Shirt Farm offers 10 acres of nutrient-rich soil, where they grow 40 varieties of vegetables and herbs on two acres using no-till practices. The farm pastures heritage breeds (animals that can reproduce naturally and grow at a natural rate) of chickens, turkeys, and pigs. “More than just producing delicious meat, we’re committed to preserving these special breeds and their rich genetics, ensuring a future where quality and heritage thrive,” Jim emphasizes.
It’s also a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm where people buy shares to ensure their choice of nutritious food and ensure the farm has a steady income throughout the year. “There’s a resurgence in local food production,” he acknowledges, adding, “More and more people want to know where and how their food is grown.”
A roundabout route to find the right path
Jim was always passionate about farming, including seeking apprenticeships that allowed him to learn from pioneers in the regenerative farming movement. But the path to actually owning and running a farm was not a straight one. He interrupted his pre-med studies at Williams College with a year of studying small-scale sustainable agriculture at Sterling Institute in Vermont. Returning to Williams, he focused on environmental studies, soon leaving school again to apprentice on small farms around New England (including an apple orchard in New Hampshire, a maple sugaring operation in Vermont, and a horse-powered farm in Maine).
He completed his undergraduate degree at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he helped run the student organic farm and double-majored in Ecological Agriculture and Education. After earning a master’s degree in education from UMass Amherst, he took a job teaching and coaching at Taconic High School in Pittsfield, which evolved into an administrative position. “I wrote a grant to wire my classroom [with WiFi], followed by wiring the entire school with a colleague, which eventually led to getting all 14 Pittsfield public schools wired. Suddenly, I was the network administrator in charge of running all of the internet connections,” he explains, “but I missed the direct contact with students that I had as a teacher and coach.”
Jim’s ex-wife, Annie Smith, grew up on Caretaker Farm, gardening and raising chickens, rabbits, and pigs. For a while, the pair tended a farm in Williamstown while Jim worked in the schools and Annie worked as a nurse. “We always wanted our own place,” he notes. “Lanesborough was affordable, compared to other places in the surrounding region, while still being close to family and close to Williamstown.” In 2000, they bought and combined three parcels off Route 7 into their own small farm.
When it came time to name the farm, they tested several possibilities before landing on Red Shirt Farm. “In college sports, ‘redshirting’ is when an athlete delays officially competing in order to get bigger and stronger, learn the ropes, and gain an extra year of eligibility,” Jim explains. “When redshirt athletes finally take the field, they’re better prepared to make a significant contribution to the team.” Jim and Annie’s son, Dylan, had been a redshirt as a football standout at Williams College, giving the name an even deeper meaning for the family. The couple’s own three-decades-long ‘redshirt years’ prepared them to ‘take the field’ at Red Shirt Farm, ready to begin.
A new chapter
Red Shirt Farm’s “co-farmer,” Sarah French (now Schultz), grew up in Stephentown, New York, where her grandparents had a small farm with animals and gardens. “I grew up learning how things were grown and appreciating the difference in taste/flavor of food on a farm, not focusing on perfection,” she says. After watching Robert Kenner’s documentary “Food, Inc.” and taking an anthropology food course at SUNY Plattsburgh, she realized “how everything tied together—food production methods, kids’ health issues, and generational cycles”—and wanted to get more involved. She graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a major in environmental studies and a minor in farming/food systems.
In 2019, during her last semester, she passed Red Shirt Farm on her way to an appointment at Berkshire Medical Center. She saw that they were looking for an apprentice, applied, and landed an interview. “Then college was canceled [because of the pandemic],” Sarah recalls. “I got the apprenticeship and worked on the farm that summer, learning a lot all at once. Everything else shut down, but the food kept growing. People appreciated local efforts more than before, and we had a really profitable year.”
Expanding the farm and vision
“We work with nature, following natural cycles, avoiding chemicals and tilling, and keeping animals incorporated in the overall system,” Sarah explains. “In February, we start seeding in the greenhouses, maintaining five covered structures with heating so the plants can develop over time.” The Natural Resources Conservation Service program provided funding to allow them to build 90 percent of the greenhouses. “Without that program, it would be almost impossible to get fresh greens,” they admit.
But growing the food is only one part of the equation. Equally important is ensuring the farm can sell what it grows. While Red Shirt Farm enjoys high visibility along Route 7—”5,000 cars pass by on a normal day; 7,000 during tourist season,” according to Jim—something was missing. “People were often puzzled when they stopped, wondering where the farm store was.” The decision to add the store and commercial kitchen felt like a natural solution. State legislators welcomed the additions as a sign of growing community interest in agri-tourism and the farm-to-table movement.
Raising the money to make it a reality was not as simple. The total cost was projected to be roughly $700,000 for construction, with additional funds needed to buy equipment. They raised $370,000 in grants from the Farm Viability Enhancement Program, an FY22 Food Security Infrastructure Grant, a Healthy Food Financing Initiative Grant, and an Agricultural Food Safety Improvement Grant.
“Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) Berkshire County offered help developing a business plan and Patronicity launched a crowdfunding campaign, rallying the local community to help us reach our funding goal of $19,835,” Jim says. A generous two-to-one match from Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC) brought the total to nearly $59,505—”enough to buy all of the essential equipment for the Community Commercial Kitchen and the refrigerated displays for the Farm Store,” he notes. The store was open for business in May 2025.
Education—and re-education—are part of the vision for both the store and kitchen. Next May, the Schultzes hope to begin posting information about their small-group, hands-on workshop offerings with local chefs and food producers (including Michael Moreno, formerly at TOURISTS, Nick Rigger and Patrick Lang of Hexagon Bagels, and Michael Gallagher of Square Roots Farm) on topics such as how to break down a whole chicken, make your own marinade, or bake your own sourdough bread. “We’re still tackling the details—stools, equipment, curating the offerings for couples, parents with kids, and more,” he admits.
Challenges and commitments
Historically, Red Shirt Farm has relied on the apprenticeship model (offered to four interns for eight months), both for cost savings and to train the next generation of young farmers. “We did that for five or six years, but then two things happened,” Jim shares. First, the applicant pool shifted from young idealists to people who pursued farming but became discouraged and left after realizing it was hard work. And second, in recent years, Congress has begun to require an approved education curriculum and has forbidden farms from replacing paid laborers with apprentices.
“In 2022, we switched to a farm crew of hourly paid employees. Labor is now our top expense (we try to pay a living wage), followed by feeding the animals,” Jim notes. With two full-time employees and two seasonal employees, in addition to Jim (who manages the farm store) and Sarah (who manages the farm), there is no shortage of tasks—and there are very few “short” days. Betsy Kyle, who is in her early 70s, came to the farm’s annual plant sale in 2023 and noticed how busy they were. “Honey, it looks like you could use some help,” she told Jim, adding, “I’ll come back on Monday.” Another worker was referred by a CSA member, who suggested her niece might be a good fit. It’s not easy, but they’re making it work.
“More people are coming to realize that by paying now and supporting local farms and businesses, they can reduce what they pay in future medical bills,” Sarah acknowledges. Caring for the soil, which requires intensive hand labor, is equally crucial for our future, according to Jim. “We want to ensure that our local community has access to affordable, high-quality, farm-fresh food now and in the years to come.”
