Chang Farm is located in Whately, Massachusetts, a small rural community located in western Massachusetts. The Chang fields border a graceful bend in the Connecticut River, and are almost within shouting distance of Mt Sugarloaf, a tall spike of rock and earth rising high over the river valley and looking at times much like a scene from an ancient Chinese landscape painting. The locals don't know it yet, but we have renamed this well-known vista, "Mt. Schizandra"!

The land on which Chang Farm sits has been farmed for well over 200 years. The original farmhouse, showing its age a bit these days, was built in 1805. The land has greatly benefited from centuries of rich deposits left behind when the Connecticut overflowed its banks, flooding the land. We've dug trenches eight feet deep and never seen a stone! Anyone who knows New England realizes how unusual this is!

For years Dr Chang and his family farmed this land to provide fresh vegetables for their locally famous restaurant named Amherst Chinese Foods. How many other places are there where you find vegetables on your plate that were picked that very morning by the owner of the dining establishment? Perhaps none! But this is what Dr Chang loves to do. He wants his customers to have the best, and he has worked hard to deliver the best to them year after year since the late 1960s.

Dr Chang and his son Sidney also own and operate one of the largest Mung and Bean Sprout factories in the Northeast. It's located at the farm, growing and delivering well over a hundred thousand pounds of fresh sprouts every week from southern Maine down to northern Virginia. They've been doing this for more than 20 years.

Today Dr Chang is focused on one thing: growing the best schizandra berries in the world. His innovative methods of growing and harvesting have not been duplicated anywhere in the world. He was the first grower to plant schizandra like grapes - on post and wire in a vineyard setting. He was first to begin quick-freezing his berries to maintain their full color and vitality. He was first to serve his restaurant patrons a fresh juice he named 'Sandraberry'®. And, he is still innovating today with new ideas for his berries that will soon be ready for us to enjoy!

Chang Farm is a 'working' New England farm. It's not what one would call a picture book farm. Its beauty is in its soil and its worth is in what grows from it. Dr Chang is its caretaker and he's doing his job exceedingly well.