Concord MA - Organic Since 1973
Just a brief note to update you all on the season in progress-in a word, it has been wetter. Which might seem like a positive thing, but definitely not an unmitigated blessing: many fields have remained too wet to work until recently, foliar diseases have appeared earlier than usual on tomatoes and potatoes, weed […]
Near weekly nor’easters and cold cloudy weather have characterized this spring, with one brief heatwave to keep us guessing. After two dry springs, our comfortable assumptions of where we might be able to plant our early crops have been punctured, to the detriment of our beautiful, orderly planting plan, now shredded and mingled with other […]
Spring is an uncertain season, full of promise and betrayal in equal measure. Never more uncertain, it seems, than this season, with expectations confounded, concerns about whether the world actually works the way we thought it did, suspicions that something fundamental has shifted-a tipping point has been passed, the rules that used to […]
The drought didn’t end with the summer, but gloomy, chilly weather and periodic rains have brightened our outlook considerably. Our steps are a bit lighter as we can discern the outlines of the end of the season coming closer, mercifully closer each day. Signs and portents are everywhere: frost on the shadowy grass before the […]
Just a short note to let you all know that our annual bulk potato sign-ups will officially begin today, Sunday the 9th of October. We usually have a sign-up for carrots as well, but the difficult weather in July when we were seeding our end of season carrots resulted in poor germination and thin stands, […]
Part of my job description at the farm I worked at before Hutchins involved giving occasional farm tours to various groups of people. These tours were generally off the cuff, unscripted affairs with questions entertained and answers attempted. On one particularly memorable occasion I was asked where I lived, which I answered by pointing to […]
The long, slow warm up continues—I usually conceive of spring and fall as transitional periods, but the year seems to have stalled and settled into endless spring: Cold mornings, winds with an edge of winter, slowly unfolding buds and leaves, the sun, already high overhead, yet stingy with its warmth. And, as was the case […]
With the weather wildly careening from warm to wintery, the calendar tells us it’s time to think about the growing season. Already, we’ve taken advantage of the dry, temperate weather to get some fields worked up, and our greenhouses are starting to fill with eager little plants. Last year’s persistent lack of precipitation means that […]
I’m writing on a gray November day, with the 2015 season mostly behind us-just a few loose ends left to tie, a few projects left to complete, a few markets left to attend, a few veggies left to sell. And, of course, this newsletter left to write, a summing up and synopsis of the growing […]
Just a short note to let you all know that our annual bulk carrot and potato sign-ups will officially begin today, Saturday the 3rd of October. As usual, we’re taking names from folks who are interested in picking up one (or more) 25lb bags of carrots ($28 per bag) and/or one (or more) 50lb bags […]