September 2025 Newsletter: Concord Ag Day & Dried Floral Wreath Workshops
September finds the farm in a state of disarray, reeling from the triple whammy of heat, lack of rain, and insufficient workforce—but thus it ever was. (And yes, we are still hiring crew if you know of anyone looking) Cold and heavy rains in the early season gave way (as they often do) to brutal heat through much of July and into August which, combined with a pronounced absence of precipitation, led to some tense moments choreographing irrigation, and some hopefully temporary shortages of crops that are generally abundant at this time. Although crops like peppers and eggplant thrive in hot weather, and the season’s paucity of rain (along with consistent drip irrigation) has resulted in largely disease free, large and healthy plants, but when it comes to fruit production, extended periods of extreme heat lead to widespread blossom drop. The upshot of this unfortunate fact is that weeks to a month after the period of excessive heat, we experience a shortfall of the affected crops. Thankfully, this seems to be behind us now–our enormous, healthy plants are now flowering with abandon, setting tons of fruit that should be abundant for many weeks, or at least as long as the frost holds off.
Other crops have fared unevenly, with lots of successes but not a few failures. We’ve managed to nurse lettuce and other greens along successfully, heat-loving basil has performed exceptionally well, and our favorite ‘heat set’ bean variety has allowed this crop to thrive even though beans are prone to the same blossom drop reaction to extreme heat as eggplant and peppers. Corn has been delicious and mostly worm free and the tomato supply has steadily increased, but some other crops have had limited success. Celery has been a notable no-show at the farm stand as it suffered from heat and neglect—looks to be a complete failure this season. Also conspicuous in their absence have been cool-weather herbs like cilantro and dill, stubbornly refusing to germinate in the conditions that prevailed in July and early August. We have begun growing these crops with greenhouse grown transplants, which are easier to care for in their delicate early stages, and should have better supplies going forward. Germination issues have also bedeviled our carrots and beets, which have been sporadically abundant, then absent. We have several more plantings of these that still may perform acceptably in the weeks to come.
Unusually, our orchards are crowded with lovely apples, some a little small because of the lack of rain, but also, for the same reason, largely free of the usual fungal blotches and blemishes. We have yet to commence potato harvest, so the success (or lack thereof) of that crop remains to be seen, but I’m confident that it will be better than last year’s disaster.
The Saturday after Labor Day (September 6th) marks the return of Concord Ag Day, the annual one-day farmer’s market held in Concord Center right on Main Street from 10 AM-2 PM. Come join nearly the full roster of Concord’s farms (10 participating farms this year) along with many ag adjacent organizations as we celebrate our micro-regional bounty during the harvest season! (Our apologies to our Somerville customers, we wont be in Union Square that day – we will return the following week!)
Also upcoming in September is the annual Stone Soup Dinner at Verrill Farm on Sunday Sept 21st – tickets are on sale now (stonesoupconcordma.com) and as usual Hutchins will be participating by supplying some of the produce to our fantastic Concord chefs for this event. Proceeds from the dinner go towards supporting Concord Agriculture through the Stone Soup Dinner non-profit.
In other special announcement news – our flower growers – Huey and Abby – are offering a few special dried flower wreath making workshops at the farm this fall:
Fall and Winter themed everlasting wreath workshops at Hutchins Farm: The workshop will include the materials and instructions to make a wreath on an 8” frame with beautiful Hutchins Farm grown dried florals! At the end of the class you will go home with a long-lasting piece to enjoy for many years to come! Sign up in person at the farmstand, or email flowers@hutchinsfarm.com. $100+tax/ per person.
Autumnal themed Monday September 22nd:
Class A: 1pm-3pm
Class B: 4pm-6pm
Winter themed Monday October 13th:
Class C: 1pm-3pm
Class D: 4pm-6pm
As our crop roster grows with fall produce, we hope to see you soon at either the farmstand or at one of our farmers markets! As always, please check the “whats at the stand” tab on our website for the latest crop and seedling information – we try (as much as we possibly can!) to keep that page updated.
Happy September!
-Brian Cramer, Liza Bemis, and the rest of the Hutchins Farm crew
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