About Us

Our Story

The Kitchen Garden is a family farm run by Tim Wilcox and Caroline Pam. We bring a love of good food to our passion for growing it! We have both spent considerable time living in Europe and our culinary experiences in France and Italy inform and inspire our products and philosophy. We met during our time at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City; being both foodies, italophiles, and farm geeks, the match was a simple one.  In 2005 we started farming on a piece of overgrown land we cleared by hand behind our house in Hadley, along the bike path. The next year we grew on two rented acres and in 2007 we got married, purchased 7 acres and a farmhouse and moved the farm to Sunderland. We put the land into permanent Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR). We had our daughter Lily in 2008 and our son Oliver was born in 2009.  

Caroline Pam

Caroline grew up in New York and earned a degree in English Literature from the University of Chicago.  She worked as a journalist before discovering her passion for food and farming.  She studied French cuisine at the French Culinary Institute and has also worked as a market manager at the Union Square Greenmarket in NYC, where she shared her enthusiasm for cooking with seasonal ingredients in cooking demonstrations. She spent a summer working on an organic farm in Italy before moving to the Valley to apprentice at Food Bank Farm.  She was the Valley Advocate’s restaurant critic for almost two years and currently writes a farm journal for Edible Pioneer Valley. 

Tim Wilcox

Tim is originally from Oneonta, NY and came to the Pioneer Valley in 2001 to attend Hampshire College.  He spent time working at the Hampshire Farm and went to Italy to do research with radicchio farmers in Treviso for his thesis project. Tim is passionate about Italian cooking, and his desire to farm comes from the necessity of fresh ingredients for his favorite dishes like pasta with broccoli rabe and "risi e bisi"--risotto with fresh peas. Tim has also spent time farming in New Paltz, NY and selling the products at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City.  

The Farm

The Kitchen Garden is located on Silver Lane, a quiet side street about a mile from the center of Sunderland and five miles from UMASS Amherst. The farm consists of 7 prime tillable acres of Sunderland’s rich river bottom soil. The land is a long, narrow strip sliced out of a large open meadow, surrounded by pieces of land farmed by other growers. The land has been divided into small, half-acre sections to allow many different types of crops to be planted, in contrast to the vast fields of sweet corn, parsnips, and potatoes that surround. The field offers many shifting vantage points from which to enjoy the sweeping views of nearby mountains.

Our Growing Practices

Are we organic?  We only use products and techniques that have been approved for organic agriculture.  But technically, we cannot call ourselves organic because we have chosen not to certify with the USDA.  We think this is an unnecessary step because we have such a close relationship with our customers. They know us and what we care about, and our vegetables speak for themselves.