Strawbale Café - We Are Open and Serving!

413-527-3210
Hours: Year Round Fri,& Sat, 8 am to 1 pm
           Sun 8 am to 2 pm
           Friday is Senior's Day receive 10% off your meals

Welcome to the Strawbale Café here on Hanging Mountain Farms. Hanging Mountain Farm has been in the Aloisi family now for 3 generations, starting with Leo's father, who worked here on the farm in the 1930's as a teenager. He purchased the farm, when it was still a working dairy farm back in 1947, from C. G. Loud. Leo and his three brothers were all raised and worked on the dairy farm, until the cattle were sold in 1971 when Leo, the youngest, enlisted in the Army.

Leo bought the farm, from his father, with his wife, Anita and two daughters in 1983. Their daughter's Jennifer & Missa were 5 & 7 when they moved to the farm from Enfield, Connecticut. The years have passed quickly and now the girls are grown and are undertaking projects to bring the farm into the world of Agritourism.

Missa (our youngest daughter is the architect) who designed and built the Strawbale Café structure you are now dining in. It took nearly 4 1/2 years to build with the help of many volunteers, that have included John & Angela Callahan, Elaine Katz, Dick Loomis, Nick Tambone, Alan Singer, and many many others who donated their weekends from time to time. We could not have done this project without the help of all the volunteers and family members. We are truly indebted to all of them. Of course the family has played a big part in building the Strawbale Café. Anita (the cook) did most of the mud mixture on the inside walls, while the rest of the family, friends, and volunteers did the outside. The walls are made of straw bales, which is then covered in an earthen plaster. This is put directly onto the straw bales, and then natural clay paint is applied. These walls are considered living walls, so the material that was used to build them was natural and specially formulated for the straw bale walls. Jennifer (our oldest daughter) is now married and makes a whole line of natural bath and body products (Delights of the Earth) available here in our little gift shop. Jen and her husband Edlin are the proud parents of a baby girl (Ishetia Rose/Izzy for short) who was born on June 29, 2008. We are so proud and happy to have Izzy and Edlin as part of our family.

Straw bales are different from hay bales, since straw bales are composed of the tubular shaft of grain bearing grasses and has no seeds, nutrients, or foreign matter that hay bales usually do. Hay bales are feed to animals, where as straw bales are used for bedding, & insulation as is shown in this building.

Behind the carving on the wall (hand carved by Matt Lesko) near the exit door is our truth window. Opening the doors will reveal that the walls are indeed made entirely out of straw bales. Every three rows of bales are stacked and then compressed with high-tension plastic straps tied around them to squeeze them together so that they will be more airtight. This building would sustain only water damage if it were to ever catch fire, since there is not enough oxygen in the walls for them to burn, as in a conventional construction.

The Cafe opened for business, weekends only initially, during Maple Sugaring season March 3rd, 2006 and has been going strong since. We have since decided to remain open with regular year round hours of Friday, Saturday, 8am to 1pm & Sunday 8am to 2pm. We are closed the remainder of the week.

The month of March is part of our sugaring season, when the number of visitor's increase dramatically. In order to accommodate all of our guest, we switch to a much smaller choice menu. It is truly a sugarhouse menu featuring Pancakes, French Toast, Eggs, Toast, Homefries, Bacon, Sausage, Turkey Sausage, and Veggie Sausage. We also offer a children's menu and our delicious baked oatmeal. During the month of March we do not however, offer our Senior's their 10% Friday discount.

We hope you enjoy your visit to our farm. Ask any questions you may have about this uniquely wonderful building. Enjoy a walk on our property, where it is not posted, either before or after your meal. We thank you for being respectful of our home and our property, and hope you will come back soon and often.

We welcome your thoughts, & feedback about our undertaking here, so please feel free to share them will all of us. We want you to be happy with your visit and your meal. Thanks.