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| Afternoons end early in November, the sunset seems to set the remaining leaves ablaze for a brief while before the autumn evening descends in earnest. Farm and farmers alike breathe a sigh of relief as the hectic cycles of planting, weeding, and harvest run their final course and the fields ready themselves under blankets of oats and cereal rye for their winter sleep. Released from the frantic pace of spring and summer, we take some time to see what we can glean from the experience of another season, like and unlike all those that have come before, full of mysterious happenings, patterns and anomalies, hidden lessons and false leads. We congratulate ourselves on what successes we can, quietly recriminate ourselves for those failures we imagine we could have avoided, and absolve ourselves of those that we imagine were beyond our control. Previous seasons accumulate in memory like archaeological strata, perhaps to be mined for precious clues to current and future problems. The contours of the most recent seasons are most easily discerned—disastrous floods and deluge in 2023, heat and drought for large parts of 2024 and 2025—but provide few clues to what may come in future seasons. Along with the heat and the lack of rain, we will remember 2025 for the abundant and beautiful (by our standards) apples, as our new high density orchard (visible from the farmstand) seems to have begun what we hope are many productive years ahead. Blueberry, melons, and cut flower crops were likewise impressive, with record yields and high quality. Sweet potatoes and winter squash shrugged off the drought (with some help from irrigation), and our successions of sweet corn, lettuce, arugula, radish, kale, and other greens were remarkably consistent. Less impressive were long season root crops (carrots, parsnip, beet), which can germinate and grow erratically under the conditions we experienced this year, and other “minor” crops that suffered from inattention as we focused our limited resources and time on the more “important” crops. Potatoes were a far cry from the bumper crops of 2023, but were an improvement over last year’s almost non-existent crop. As always we are gratified and humbled by the continued loyalty of our customers, who, after all, are the ultimate reason for all of our efforts. Self-serve on the honor system will continue as long as the weather allows – please check our “what’s at the stand” tab on our website for available and updates if we have to close it due to cold weather. Also please remember it is exact change or check only – very sorry but we cannot take credit cards or make change. We will be at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market on Saturdays 9:30am-1:30pm, and the Cambridge Central Square Farmers Market on Mondays 12pm-6pm until Thanksgiving as well – we also post what we sent into those markets on our “what’s at the farmers market” tab on our website. As we head into winter, we turn out attention to the long put off projects around the farm – our incredible season crew is wrapping up final field projects and buttoning down the farm, and our year-round employees are making to-do lists and planning for next year. And everyone is looking forward to a restful winter. We hope you are able to rest too, enjoy the change of season, and we hope to see you refreshed and renewed in the spring! Thank you all for a great season! -Brian, Liza and the Hutchins Farm Crew |
 Self-Serve on the honor system is open on the porch! |
 Cleaning off dahlia tubers for winter storage |
November 2025 Newsletter: Self-Serve & Farmers Markets