Makana Farms has been going strong for eight years. Seven years ago, first generation farmers Pierre Belhumeur and his partner Keri Gauvin planted 600 grapevines. Choosing for delicate taste plus winter hardiness, they planted 300 Petite Pearl red grapevines and 300 cold-hardy Itasca white grapevines to withstand their farm’s Williamsburg, MA, climate.

They sell their grapes to Mineral Hills Winery at Red Hen Farm in Florence, MA.

“We had our first real harvest in 2022. We lost every grape in 2023, due to the frost, like everyone else. 2024 was our last harvest,” Belhumeur said. They’ve harvested 6,000 pounds of grapes so far, and await autumn for this year’s harvest.

Their first harvest has already made its mark in the vineyard and winery world.

Mineral Hill Winery entered their wines made of Makana Farms grapes harvested in 2022 into the 2024 Eastern States Exposition Wine Competition, winning two gold medals (among the many Mineral Hill Winery finalist entries).

“The Petite Pearl won gold against 155 others in New England, 100 wineries in the Northeast and 55 vineyards, and gold for best red wine in Massachusetts,” said Belhumeur. “We didn’t even know they’d entered it until after the 18-day event was over. We were very surprised. After the 2023 freezes and frosts, it’s one of the reasons to keep going.”

(Find the full results at thebige.com/p/competitions/pre-fair-contests/wine-competition/2024-wine-competition-results.)

The farm is known for their signature Peruvian ginger that customers buy in autumn, usually to make kombucha, and their tall stiffneck garlic, just now available.

Their aim is to develop a farm-based beverage, alongside developing an agritourism site on their farm, using their ginger to flavor hard cider pressed from apples grown in their orchard. They aren’t there yet, so they sell their grapes to Mineral Hill.

One of the stepping stones toward this aim was erecting a farm stand last October. It has been officially opened for three and a half months, giving them an idea of what their customers want.

“One of the main things is that we let other farms utilize our location, and carry other people’s stuff. It’s an avenue to sell their product,” said Belhumeur, who believes supporting other farmers supports their aim toward diversity.

Among others, they sell Hatfield’s Bardwell Farms’s spring onions, Deerfield’s Mycoterra Farm’s mushrooms, Hadley’s Plainville Farm’s asparagus, carrots and rhubarb, Chesterfield’s Jewel Brook Farmstead eggs and Colrain’s Pine Hill Orchard cider donuts and apples.

On their five acres, Belhumeur and Gauvin planted and grow apples, peaches, pears and grapes.

In their subterranean greenhouse they grow three types of bananas, Valencia oranges and guavas, including purple guavas. A quarter of the greenhouse’s space is used for the tropical plants. They also grow six kinds of tomatoes inside the greenhouse using a hydroponic system.

Their Peruvian ginger and turmeric are cultivated outside in the soil, not in the greenhouse.

The greenhouse was Belhumeur’s brainchild. During the pandemic, he designed the 30-by-50-foot greenhouse with 18-feet-high ceilings to allow space for the growing bananas. It has an insulated one-foot-thick concrete foundation geothermal system.

“Our air-to-ground geothermal heating and cooling system utilizes six-inch pipes that go through the foundation to outside of the greenhouse, flanking it but still deep in the ground for several hundred feet, that uses fans to circulate the air – cooling or heating it depending on the time of year,” he explained.

A contractor by trade and owner of his company BEI Enterprises, Belhumeur starting building the greenhouse three years ago. It sits five feet into the ground, with a sloping back entrance that cannot be seen from the road but high enough to allow a tractor to drive into.

The farm’s endeavors are self-funded, primarily through his contractor business as the farm grows. “This is the first year that we are eligible for grants, but they have dried up,” said Belhumeur.

It took him a while to find the property that came with a house close to the flourishing Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts with a vast customer base seeking fresh, homegrown produce.

“Three weeks before the closing, on April 13, 2018, the house burnt down, making the contract null and void,” he said. Nonetheless, it was where he wanted to be. The site was perfect.

The seller allowed him to rebuild the house, using his contracting skills, so the sale could go through. “I started rebuilding in June and we closed in November,” he said.

The farm derives its name from the word makana, which is Hawaiian for “gift” and “reward,” and in honor of his 12-year-old faithful Australian shepherd, Makana.

Belhumeur wasn’t with Gauvin when he started looking for sites to start his farm. They had been high school sweethearts at age 16 when they worked at the same job, but then they went their separate ways. Gauvin had since married and divorced. Then Gauvin and Belhumeur ran into each other in spring 2018.

In May, shortly before the final closing on the house, they were together again – for keeps this time. Gauvin helped with the decorating of the house and the planting of the farm.

Now age 42, “We’ve been together since that May. Eight years. That how old we say the farm is, eight years,” said Gauvin. “The garlic and ginger are my favorite part.”

For more information, access her updates for customers on their Makana Farms Facebook page.