Photos by Michael Piazza

Life’s choices sometimes happen by accident. Tim Hildreth was educated and trained as an environmental and geotechnical drill specialist. His wife, Jacki, was a nurse and hospital supervisor. That is until 2015, when they found themselves starting Central Mass Locavore, quite by accident.

“I was recovering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and was trying to eat better,” says Tim. “I wanted more local vegetables and fruit than the supermarkets could provide, so I started researching local farms in Western Massachusetts. I had had a few bad years there and wanted to make a healthy change. We first started with a CSA at Red Fire Farm, but cycled through a few different farms—all of them in similar areas in Western Mass.

“We would go pick up our CSA [share] and then bring one home for Jacki’s mother—who was our first unknowing customer.”

“It’s really my brother who gave us the idea to start Central Mass Locavore,” Tim says. “He had just come back from Switzerland and noticed that we were picking up a few CSA shares each week from Western Mass to deliver to Central Mass. No one was coming to Central Mass at that time with fresh produce and we didn’t have the same variety of farms here. So, he suggested we start a home delivery service for CSAs.”

“He got us thinking and we went out to the farms in Western Mass for a larger bulk run where we got 15 pounds of onions and 25 pounds of carrots, things like that. We then came back and divided it amongst some family and friends. People seemed interested and excited at the opportunity for access to such local and fresh food. So, we decided to go for it. We went to Florida on vacation, and then came back and started Central Mass Locavore.”

With a new refrigerated and insulated van and word of mouth, Central Mass Locavore was launched.

“We didn’t even have an online store,” he says. “We would find out what the local farms had that week and relay it to our customers. They would then pick what they wanted. We would package their order and deliver it to their homes.”

Eight years later, things are quite different. Central Mass Locavore is a fully online curated retail marketplace that serves approximately 100 clients each week with local goods varying from produce and meat to dairy and even some beauty goods. Customers choose what they want from the online store. Orders have to be placed by 11am on Sunday and a $75 minimum order is required for free home delivery to the Central Mass towns that they serve. Monday and Tuesday are spent visiting the farms. The Hildreths then sort and deliver the orders on Wednesday and Thursday.

Central Mass Locavore offers more flexibility than a traditional community-supported agriculture (CSA) harvest subscription, as clients choose their products each week and can also suspend their order if needed. But unlike an online grocery shop, their products can often be limited and unavailable the following week.

The pandemic changed the scope of the business.

“It was simply insane. Jacki and I followed the strictest COVID protocols because we knew that all of these people were counting on us for their food. We also learned how to streamline our processes, packaging, etc. … and this helped us accommodate more people.”

Now Central Mass Locavore carries products from across New England down to New York and Pennsylvania. There is cheese from Vermont, bread from New Hampshire and hand-woven baskets from New York. The website has the vibe of an online weekly farmers market, with changing variety and a section that highlights different producers.

“We are proud of what we have built, but mostly we are grateful for the community … on both ends— from the farms to the kitchens.”

centralmasslocavore.com

This story appeared in the Summer 2023 issue.