Harvest Time!

powisset peas!

It’s the day before the start of our eighth season growing vegetables for the Powisset Farm CSA.  Like every year, I am running around with about 1 million things on my to do list, which reads something like: clean entire barn, weed entire farm, plant all of the tomatoes…just a few little things to get done before you all join us at the farm this week and for the rest of the season!  As you may have guessed, I am a little behind in getting my fantasy ‘to-do’ list completed.  So, I’m pausing for some lunch, and a slow walk around the vegetable fields to get one last look at them in their pristine, un-harvested, state, to which they will never return.   The day before the first harvest:  not only is it a day of last minute preparations and managing my queasy belly, nervous for the launch of another season full of big expectations, but it is also the last day that the fields and rows of vegetables will look this beautiful and untouched.

I think it is fair to say that the goal of growing vegetables is to get to that point when you can harvest them; to let the vegetables nourish our bodies and taste their sweetness.  However, I will say that harvest, for me, is not necessarily the most beautiful part of the cycle of being a farmer of vegetables.  I find deep beauty in a freshly weeded bed of tiny, growing carrots.  I relish the dark soil that emerges from plowing a new field or running the cool steel of a cultivating shank in between adolescent beets, leaving only their green, glowing, greens peeking out of the soil.  I am in awe lately, of the rows of almost-ready-to-be-harvested lettuce; bright and bushy and clean.  Inch upon inch of uninterrupted deep- green spinach greets me when I look out at the fields from the barn.   And it looks as perfect as it ever could be.

oh, beautiful spinach!

Once the harvest begins, the neatly packed lines and beds of plants will be pulled and chopped and bunched and left empty as our truck pulls out of the fields and drives away with what was, only moments before, living in our fields.  As I write this I am filled with sadness for this coming change, yet bursting with joy for the triumph that we made it to this point.  We made it to the harvest!  In a spring as cold as we’ve had, I wondered what, if anything, we would have up in that barn for you this week.   But, as I say to my crew as they learn how to plant each spring; plants want to grow, we are merely helping them do what they are programmed to do…and grow they have!

growing fava beans!

By the end of today, I will have taken my last farm walk of the “pre-harvest” season and will turn my attention to the next phase of the farm season, the harvesting.  I hope you enjoy what comes from these incredible fields this season. I can’t wait to see what we harvest!

See you in the fields,

Meryl & the Powisset Farm Crew

**special note about distribution hours**
Hours have been extended on Thursdays and are now 10am-6:30pm.

All pick ups;
Tuesday: 1:30-6:30,
Thursday: 10am-6:30pm,
Saturday: 10am-5pm

What’s in the share:

Full share: lettuce, bok choi, radishes, turnips, green garlic, arugula, tatsoi, spinach

Small share:  lettuce, radish, turnips, green garlic, choice or arugula or tatsoi, spinach

Nothing yet in the pick-your-own fileds!

A note about small and full size shares:

Welcome to our first season of doing two differently sized shares!  It is our goal that our full share is the share that you have come to expect from Powisset Farm—one that is designed to feed a family of four or two adults who do a lot of cooking at home with fresh produce.   

The full share will range from about 8-14 items per week. 

The small share is designed for folks with a smaller household, or with less time to deal with the many vegetables in the full share!  This share will have about 6-9 items per week—roughly two-thirds the size of the full share.  We are tracking the value of each share to make sure that you are getting what you paid for!  There will be some weeks, especially at the beginning of the season, when the shares will be very similar—we don’t have a lot of variety right now—so don’t be alarmed if the shares seem very similar at first.   

 As usual, we welcome your feedback about our shares, both positive and things to improve. We are looking forward to this exciting change at Powisset this season!

CSAs within a CSA!

Milk Shares, Pie shares and Chicken Shares!

Pies!

2014 Bushel + Crumb Pie Shares - Sign ups ongoing!

It was great to see some of you at the recent Powisset Spring Fest.  We were excited to be there to share samples of our pies and hope that those of you who stopped by our tent enjoyed a little taste of what it’s like to be a Bushel + Crumb pie share member.  We are gearing up for the start of the season - eagerly awaiting the ripening of the first fruits. Strawberries! Sour cherries! Pie season is right around the corner! 

We are still accepting sign-ups for pie shares for pick up at Powisset with your CSA share.  Sign up by the beginning of June to ensure a spot in this year’s share which begins on June 19th.

Bushel + Crumb offers members one sweet and one savory pie a month from mid-June through mid-October. Pie flavors and ingredients change with the season and always feature locally grown fruits, vegetables, dairy, and grains. A sample of some of the flavors of pie we might offer this season includes: Strawberry Balsamic, Roasted Beet & Carrot with Za’atar, Apricot Almond Frangipane, and Butternut Squash, Goat Cheese and Sage.

You can find out more about a Bushel + Crumb share and sign-up online at http://bushelandcrumb.com

Milk and Fresh Chicken Shares:

This season we are offering an Appleton Farm Milk Share! It is a 20-week share for $100: a half gallon of either whole, 1%, or skim milk made right at our own dairy in Ipswich, MA!

We are also working with Eden Pond Farm in Bernardston, MA to provide fresh, free range chickens, monthy to you!  

You will find more info and flyers at the farm when you come this week with information on how to sign up for these incredible products!

Barn Changes!

 One of the biggest changes this season will be our barn! We are excited to welcome you all to your new barn/kitche/classroom/bathrooms!  Take a tour this week to find out more about what’s going to come in our new barn space!

old barn, before renovations! Come to see how it has changed.