Pre-ordering postponed until early next week!

We are excited to have an experienced crew back on the farm for full days, as preparations for the regular season are ramping up. Last week we seeded our first successions of carrots, beets, spinach and peas out in the field, and we continue to prepare fields for more direct seeding successions, as well as for the transplanting of leeks, onions, cabbage and lettuce beginning next week!

A combination of cold damage and vole damage means that we are taking this week off from harvesting high tunnel crops. We had hoped to be harvesting high tunnel spinach this week - we had a beautiful stand of seedlings popping up when we pulled our covering off in mid February. After admiring the greenery, we covered the spinach seedlings up again to protect from the cold, but when we pulled our row cover off a week later to check again, we found that voles had eaten almost the entire planting! We also had an extreme cold snap in the last week of March that impacted the growth of our last succession of arugula. The arugula seems to have mostly recovered, but it just means that early next week will be a better time for us to harvest it. Fortunately, it looks like our high tunnel radishes and our second succession of pea shoots will also be ready next week, and we’re crossing our fingers that some of the fancy daffodils will bloom soon. We are planning to offer pre-orders for pick-up on Tuesday April 19th, with orders opening on Monday. Look for an email Monday morning with details!

Pre-order arugula, kale, pea shoots, and mushrooms for pick-up Friday!

Activity is picking up on the farm! As you drive or walk by you have likely seen that we have begun turning in cover crop to prepare beds for the first field seeding successions of the season. This week we have already seeded carrots, beets and sugar snap peas! The crew also started up this week - just in time to help out with the increasing work load in the greenhouse and high tunnels. They’ll also be helping out with harvesting and packing orders, as we have new beds of arugula, kale, and pea shoots ready for harvest in our high tunnels!

Online ordering will open Wednesday April 6th at noon for pre-orders for pick up Friday, April 8th from 2pm-4pm and 4pm-6pm (ordering will close at 7am Friday). Pick-ups will again be on the porch of our farm stand at 449 Barretts Mill Rd. Concord, MA.

To order visit: https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop

Available for pre-orders:

• Arugula - Half pound bags, unwashed. Certified organic, grown in our high tunnel!

• Pea shoots - 0.15lb, unwashed. Certified organic, grown in our high tunnel!

• Kalebration kale mix - Half pound bags of baby sized kale, unwashed. Certified organic, grown in our high tunnel!

• Fat Moon Mushrooms - Farmer’s Mix, 8 oz bags. Certified organic, grown in Chelmsford, MA

• Double B Honey - From hives on the property.

• Raspberry vinegar infusion - From Silferleaf Farm in Concord, MA. Certified organic.

Online ordering tips and reminders:

• Orders are open to everyone! You do not need to be a member to purchase.

• You do not need to create an account to place an order.

• Be sure to choose your pick-up time (there is a red drop-down menu in the upper right-hand of the screen). If you don’t choose a time, you won’t be able to see the items in the shop.

• Once an item is sold out for the day, it disappears from the online shop.

• Payments are made by credit card unless you are a Barrett’s Bucks member. Barrett’s Bucks members may select the “Bucks” payment option. (it says “free” in parentheses behind both payment options - this just means that it is free to use that payment option, not that the product is free!).

Available this week: Arugula and Kale Mix!

Arugula and Kalebration mix growing in our high tunnel is ready for harvest! We will open online ordering today (Wednesday March 30th) at noon for pre-orders for pick up Friday, April 1st, 2pm-4pm and 4pm-6pm (ordering will close at 7am Friday). Pick-ups will be on the porch of our farm stand at 449 Barretts Mill Rd. Concord, MA.

To order visit: https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop

Directions:

• Orders are open to everyone! You do not need to be a member to purchase.

• You do not need to create an account to place an order.

• Be sure to choose your pick-up time (there is a red drop-down menu in the upper right-hand of the screen). If you don’t choose a time, you won’t be able to see the items in the shop.

• Once an item is sold out for the day, it disappears from the online shop.

• Payments are made by credit card unless you are a Barrett’s Bucks member. Barrett’s Bucks members may select the “Bucks” payment option. (it says “free” in parentheses behind both payment options - this just means that it is free to use that payment option, not that the product is free!).

Available for pre-order:

• Arugula - half pound bags, unwashed. Certified organic, grown in our high tunnel!

• Kalebration kale mix - half pound bags of baby sized kale, unwashed. Great for salads and light cooking. Certified organic, grown in our high tunnel!

• Fat Moon Mushrooms - Farmer’s Mix, 8 oz bags. Certified organic, grown in Chelmsford, MA

• Double B Honey - From hives on the property.

• Raspberry vinegar infusion - From Silferleaf Farm in Concord, MA. Certified organic.

March Farm Updates

We are approaching the official start of spring and while the fields are still in winter mode the greenhouse and high tunnels are starting to show some green growth! Now sprouting in the greenhouse are leeks, herbs, onions, fennel, and stock flowers. In the high tunnels, kalebration mix, arugula, spinach, radishes and carrots have germinated. The spring tasks of venting and watering have returned to our daily schedule to keep these new farm seedlings happy in their new homes.

The crew will start in just a couple of weeks! Before they arrive we (Lise and Melissa) are calculating amounts and ordering everything we will need for the season such as fertilizer, irrigation supplies, growing supplies, farm store bags and boxes. Almost all of these items have gone up in price dramatically this year (many items including fertilizer, greenhouse trays, irrigation drip tape and plastic mulch are 30% more expensive than last year!) so we are particularly thankful that we have so many memberships already paid for the season in order to cover these large upfront costs. While prices in the farm stand will need to go up in response to these increases, we are hoping to bridge the remainder of this gap by capitalizing on years of investing in improving efficiency on the farm and our all-start returning crew to grow and sell more veggies than ever.

We do still have some sign-ups available for Main Season CSA, Barrett’s Bucks, and Spring Mushroom CSA memberships (Flex and Extended Season CSA memberships are sold out). Barrett’s Bucks purchased before April 15, 2022 (with a minimum purchase of $250) will receive a bonus credit. There are also a few PYO Flower CSA memberships still available if you’d like to join us in the flower field this summer! Memberships sign-ups are available here: http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/sign-up.

Arugula sprouting next to a drip irrigation line in our high tunnel.

2022 Mushroom CSA!

We are excited to be offering a 10-week spring Fat Moon Mushroom CSA at our farm stand this season! Sign up and you'll receive one pound of Fat Moon's fresh, organic mushrooms each week for 10 weeks beginning April 26th. The contents of your share will vary weekly, so over the course of the season expect to get a taste of varieties like Shiitake, Chestnut, Lion's Mane, Pioppino, various Oyster mushrooms, and more! 

The Mushroom CSA is open to the public and there is no requirement to be a member of any other program to participate. For the first 5 weeks pick-ups will be labeled with your name and set out at our self-serve farm stand Tuesdays 11am-6pm (April 26th, May 3rd, 10th , 17th, and 24th). For the remaining 5 weeks (starting May 31st) mushroom shares may be picked up any time during open farm stand hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. Throughout the Mushroom CSA season we will be receiving our delivery on Monday afternoons and they will be kept in our cooler until pick-up, so Tuesday or Wednesday pick-up is recommended for the longest shelf life. We will include information about what varieties are in the Mushroom CSA bag each week in our newsletter. For more information about Fat Moon Farm as well as mushroom variety information and recipes visit https://fatmoonmushrooms.com.

The 10-week CSA costs $170 and runs from April 26th until July 2nd. Sign-ups are available now on our website: http://www.barrettsmillfarm.com/sign-up. We plan to offer another Mushroom CSA in the fall, with details to come in early summer.

Also available right now are a limited number of 2022 Main Season CSA, PYO Flower CSA, and Barrett’s Bucks memberships. Email Melissa for more information if you are not sure what membership is right for you this season! As usual we will be open to the general public for cash and credit card sales at our farm stand in May, and we will also continue to offer mushrooms for retail purchases in our farm stand as we have in previous years.