Down to earth; Many Hands Organic Farm dedicated to community.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Frank Magiera

Even in the dead of winter, Julie Rawson's greenhouse is literally a garden salad.

Lush green leaves of lettuce and spinach sprout from beds of loam to kiss the humid air warmed only by the sun, or on this particular day, just the gray specter of daylight mustered by a drizzly December afternoon.

Down the hall, caches of potatoes, carrots, beets and sauerkraut slumber above the dirt floor of her root cellar. Elsewhere there are freezers filled with fruits, vegetables, poultry and pork, jars of tomatoes, and vats of home-brewed wine.

Whole Foods it isn't, but it's awfully close. This is the bounty of Many Hands Organic Farm.

Rawson's homestead, located in Barre just after the pavement of Sheldon Road ends, is one of about a dozen organic farms in Central Massachusetts dedicated to community farming. Not only does it provide enough organic food for the family year-round, there's also plenty left over to feed hired farmhands, as well as to barter and sell to local markets. And like many other organic producers, the farm works hard to educate the rest of us about how essential locally produced, organic food is to the survival of the planet.

Every year Rawson leads workshops in various phases of organic gardening from preparing the soil to raising poultry to pruning, weeding and fertilizing. She hosts tours of the farm for community organizations, students and anyone else who wants to learn about growing food without chemicals.

"There are a lot of people," she says, "who call and say, `I want to talk to you about your farm and organic farming and learn things.' And I say, `Well, show up on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday between 7 and noon and we'll work and we'll talk.'"

The farm's name notwithstanding, there actually aren't that many hands that run the place. There are Rawson's two, of course, plus those of her husband, Jack Kittredge, and their son Dan Kittredge; a half dozen seasonal apprentices; and 10 shareholders, who barter a few hours of labor every week during summer for food. Although the farm

is 55 acres, most of the produce is grown on a mere 2 acres where just about every vegetable, fruit and spice that can survive in New England is rotated among beds packed high with rich, fecund soil.

For the heavy lifting, there are a couple of old tractors and a rototiller. The most-used tool, however, is the old-fashioned garden hoe. And Rawson extends the stingy northeast growing season by efficient use of an extensive...