As we approach Thanksgiving, I’d like to start with a huge thank you to our CSA members and customers who supported and encouraged us throughout the past 27 weeks of farmers’ markets and CSA pick-ups. Sun or rain, warm or cold, you were there, and there’s nothing more inspiring than having a busy farmers’ market booth during rainy or frigid Saturdays! Even though it’s mid-November, our tables will be overflowing with 25+ different vegetables for tomorrow’s last Hingham and Braintree farmers’ markets of the year.
So what’s happens after Saturday? Hopefully welcoming a healthy baby boy into the world. He’s due on Nov 30th, which means he could come any day now! In order to preempt any negative consequences that my impending lack-of-sleep might have on crop planning, I’ve been diligently working on the 2018 farm plan in the mornings when it’s still dark and frozen. I’ve found that an unanticipated benefit to planning in the fall versus the winter is that the year’s shortcomings are still fresh in my mind, and so I’m able to make better adjustments than if I had waited until after Christmas. For instance, I’ll make sure to avoid planting broccoli in our field with high turkey pressure, and make sure to plant basil successions in different fields so any disease in one planting has a harder time spreading to the others. I expect 2018 to be the farm’s best year yet!
Though everything will be harvested by the end of today, there’s still a lot of work to complete next week before we officially wrap up the season – organizing our seedling house so it’s ready for activity next spring, putting tarps over our fields to prevent soil erosion over the winter, as well as cleaning up all the odds and ends that collect over the course of the farming season. It will be tough going back to buying produce from the grocery store, but my hope is that the promise of our fresh vegetables next spring keeps you going through the winter!
2018 CSA UPDATE
Thanks again to all our 2017 CSA Members whose spring investment laid the foundation for a successful year! We will open our 2018 CSA to returning members on January 1st, and then send out a newsletter on the 15th with a farm update as well a link to enroll in our 2018 CSAs. We will continue to offer Hingham, Braintree, and Norton pick-up options for 2018!
Thanks for reading and we hope to see you Saturday,
Adam
Susan and Nicole are very excited for head lettuce!
We'll have plenty of carrots for all your Thanksgiving needs!