Where do we find family farms in the Berkshires? Usually they’re just up the road. We can stop for a CSA share of greens and new peas. We can walk into a farm store and watch the cows come in at milking time. In late afternoon on a summer day, they line up to walk into the dairy. We can walk through the barnyard with the scent of mown grass and meet the calves and pick up cheese for a picnic.

Anyone who has ever felt a calf rasp her elbow with a rough tongue, or an ounce of week-old chick scuffle and settle to sleep against her collarbone, may understand why some of her neighbors get up early to milk the cows and let them out to pasture.

This morning, around the county, farmers are collecting warm eggs from nesting boxes — and pitching out the coop, and lining it with fresh straw. Some of them come to local markets, and some of them welcome you to stop by the farm for a fresh dozen eggs. Some of them have ways to watch, to look quietly at the animals, and occasionally to help.

Not all farms are set up for visitors. Farmers work long days, and farms are working places, so the ones that do welcome visitors have to make sure people are safe around the tractors and hay wagons, and the cattle and geese are safe around people, and that takes time.

Here are some farms that welcome casual visitors, though it always helps to check or call ahead. And some farm stands and orchards, pick-your-own and farmers markets and co-ops are open to all comers.

Farms in the Berkshires

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Courtesy of the Williamstown Farmers Market

Williamstown Farmers Market

Duck egg tacos with hot sausage and greens? Baklava and fresh moussaka? The Williamstown Farmers Market brings Farmers, food producers, artists and artisans to Spring Street from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday from May to October.

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Photo by Sandrine

Nutwood Farm

Seva and Kaylan Water are growing hazelnuts at their farm in cummington. Hazelnuts are not yet for sale at the farm (in part because husking them is still a process by hand), but the farmers hold harvest days in the fall.

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Photo by Kate Abbott

Windy Hill

The farm market carries blueberries and garden plants in the summer, apples and pumpkins in the fall, winterberry and wreathes and evergreens in the winter.

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Photo by Kate Abbott

Lakeview Orchard

Pick-your-own cherries, black raspberries, plums — David and Judy and Daniel Jurczak grow a wide variety fruit — blueberries, raspberries and blackberries too, and 15 kinds of apples in the fall …

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High Lawn Farm

High Lawn Farm

You can stop in for ice cream or farmstead cheese and sit at a picnic table, looking across the field where the young calves are out to pasture — High Lawn Farm in Lee now has its own creamery store.

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Photo by Susan Geller

Lenox Farmers Market

The 2020 Lenox Farmer’s Market returns on Friday afternoons from June to early October in downtown Lenox, with farm cheeses, meats and eggs, locally grown vegetables and cut flowersand more, layer cakes and fresh breads.

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Hancock Shaker Village

Hancock Shaker Village

From 1783 to 1960, a Shaker community lived and farmed here. Today the village is a living history museum known for its Round Stone Barn, with farm animals and CSA gardens, art and craft, and dinners and music.

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Photo by Kate Abbott

Hilltop Orchards

At Hilltop Orchards, the Vittori family grow apples and make cider and wine on 200 acres. A brother and sister, John and Wendy, bought the orchard more than 30 years ago and preserved the land. They have a farm store and trails open year-round.

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