Square Roots Farm

Looking toward the farm from the back pasture on our wedding day

We are Michael Gallagher and Ashley Amsden, and we've been operating Square Roots Farm since 2010.

Michael, a Berkshire County native, grew up in Cheshire and got his first taste of farming while baling hay over the summer in high school.  After graduating from Williams College and teaching math for a couple of years in the Mississippi delta with the Mississippi Teacher Corps, he turned his attention to agriculture. He spent two years apprenticing on diversified, organic farms in New York and Vermont, before returning to the Berkshires to start Square Roots Farm. 

Ashley is a transplant from Vermont’s Champlain Valley. After earning a degree in music and spending a couple of years traveling around the country doing trail work and environmental ed, her path crossed Michael’s when they spent a summer together as farm apprentices in 2009. She earned her Master’s in Elementary Education from Antioch University New England and has taught various ages in a variety of settings. She currently works as a Math Specialist at a local independent school.

We started Square Roots Farm in 2010 with 30 CSA shares, some feeder pigs, and a bunch of meat chickens. In 2013, we purchased the old Fletcher Farm from Berkshire Natural Resources Council, land just two miles from Michael's childhood home, and we were married here on the farm later that year. We continue to farm joyfully on these 185 beautiful and diverse acres with our two children, Maggie and Everett.

   Our Story