How It Started

In 1976, Michael Buzerak, along with a few like-minded friends, bought the land where Starry Ridge Farm is today with the hopes of creating a community-based living space that had a focus on agriculture and traditional building practices. In 1981, he married Joan Caverly, and in 1983 they moved to the property full time. By then, they’d started Starry Ridge Timber Frames together, and were building beautiful timber frame homes around the region. They had three boys Matthew, Kolin, and David. Eventually, the other original purchasers sold their shares to Michael and Joan, which meant they had the opportunity to expand their gardens, and so Michael and Joan decided to start their first CSA in 1994.

Even though this venture only lasted one season due to the complications of running two demanding businesses, it was still a huge success.  Eventually, Kolin moved back to the farm after years of adventuring, and in the spring of 2018, Kat and Kolin met. 

With so much of their joy centered around local food, Kat and Kolin decided to give the CSA another try for the 2020 season. Even though Kat had never farmed before, she learned from Kolin, his parents, and a lot of podcasts. Together, Kat and Kolin figured out how to run a farm business together, as well as created a local culture and community (some of whom are the original CSA members from 1994) around organic farming and food.

Kat Ragone

Kat grew up on Cape Cod spending her summers working at a bustling roadside vegetable stand - Bogside Farm. From spending so much time around the daily farm, Kat couldn’t help but imagine what life would be like if she had her own farm one day. After receiving a degree in business and accounting, she moved to San Francisco and worked in business development, alongside the restaurant and cannabis industries, before hopping on a plane and going to live in Australia for a few years.

When she came home, she moved back to Martha’s Vineyard so she could be closer to her family–and just a few weeks after meeting Kolin, she purposefully missed her flight back to Australia and moved to Petersburgh to become a farmer on Kolin’s family farm.

Kat spends most of her time on the farm inside the plant nursery, managing their CSA, going to farmers’ markets, and helping Kolin with infrastructure and livestock, though she’s happiest in her flower field. When she isn’t busy farming, she’s practicing yoga by the pond, spending time with family (including her cuddly, orange farm kitties!) or down at the river, or catching a bluegrass show.

Kolin Buzerak

Kolin understood nature’s beauty from a young age, and was always eager to help his parents on the farm, whether it was spending time in the gardens or giving people tours of the vegetable varieties that were tucked into the farm’s terraces. It began his love of producing food and helping to educate his community about soil health and the abundance that can be found through dedicated, hard work.

But Kolin didn’t stay on the farm his whole life–as soon as Kolin was able to work, he got a job at a local ski hill so he could pursue his other passion: snowboarding. Eventually, when he was 20, he moved to Telluride, Colorado with only a little money in his pocket and an old Jeep packed with gear and food from the farm. This was only the beginning of his seven-year journey of traveling and working his way around both the country and the world, sustained by his passion for snowboarding.

In the spring of 2018, Kolin decided that even though he loved his nomadic lifestyle, he needed to move back home–his parents were getting older, his brother Dave became a father, and his dreams of buying land and starting a farm out west were unrealistic, given land prices and lack of resources in the area.

Back on the farm where he grew up, he expanded the gardens and began thinking about what kind of infrastructure he would need to make his farming dream come true. In August, during a trip to visit a friend in Martha’s Vineyard, he met Kat, and the two quickly realized how much they had in common. After a few trips to Martha’s Vineyard, Kolin invited Kat to the farm for a visit before she left for Australia, but she ended up moving to Petersburgh instead, and they started their farming life together.

Now, Kolin spends most of his time on the farm taking care of the livestock, in the growing fields, or working on countless infrastructure projects. When he’s not farming, he still loves to snowboard, as well as play guitar and drums, cool off by the river, and go to bluegrass shows.