The first  Maine wild blueberries of the season will be available starting the week of August 9th! The wild blueberries are from Burke Hill Farm in Cherryfield, ME.  They will be available until the first frost which typically arrives in mid-September. As in the past, we anticipate irregular availability and will fill orders as best as possible. Order here!

These are lowbush blueberries and grow in the glacial soils of Downeast Maine. The lowbush variety are known to be a superfood because of their high levels of antioxidants that are believed to protect against disease and promote healthy aging. A lot more information can be found here

This week (July 26th-July 31st), we will be offering certified organic red and purple potatoes (2 lb bags) as well as English peas (1 lb) as add-ons..

The peas need to be shelled (pods can not be eaten).

These will be provided to us by Charlie’s Redhouse Farm located in Winchendon, MA. The farm is operated by the same people who own the Red House Restaurant and Charlie’s Kitchen in Cambridge.Their intent is to supply their restaurants with their very own local, certified organic produce. They are pretty low key about their farm to fork efforts but we think it is very cool and worth highlighting.

This is their first year at it and they have some extra produce. We are very happy to have connected with them and hope this is only the beginning.

As this was not planned, we only have access to a limited supply and were not able to get the items into any of the boxes (except for peas in the Dogma box).

Also, as is often the case with many smaller, local organic farms, it is more costly for them to grow and harvest their fruits and vegetables as almost all the labor is manual with little automation/mechanization. In addition, most of these farms do not utilize subsidized labor.  This requires them to charge a price that makes it difficult for us to get the items into your boxes; but in the least, it allows us to offer them to you as an add-on.

We learned yesterday that green beans from Plainville Farms in Hadley, MA have been cancelled for the rest of this week.

The growing conditions proved to be too hot despite farmer Wally Czajkowski’s best estimates and planning. It’s  a bummer as the quality was excellent. We’ll try to get them in the boxes again as soon as we have a more reliable supply.

In the meantime, we’ve made a last minute substitution of North Carolina sweet potatoes that we are able to get from one our partner suppliers.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

This week’s broccoli rabe from Pedersen Farms is looking really nice.

Use exactly as you would Broccoli – steam, roast, braise, sautée, and let your taste buds appreciate the difference

Broccoli Rabe is a bitter, zesty-tasting broccoli-like vegetable. Like the Chinese broccoli and broccolini that it resembles, broccoli rabe has long, tender stems that are topped by broccoli-like florets and a profusion of delicious leaves. It is prized in Italy, where it is known as broccoletti di rape or broccoletto, and it is becoming increasingly well-known in the United States thanks to its reputation as a great source of vitamins A, C, and K, as well as potassium, calcium, and iron.

Storage: Wrap in a wet paper towel in a plastic bag in the crisper.

If all goes as planned we’ll have NY grown asparagus from Pedersen Farms in many of the produce boxes next week! We’re psyched to have more and more local items on the way!

We featured Pedersen Farms on our blog a while back, but here’s some more great backstory c/o Red Tomato…

Rick Pedersen knew he wanted to farm from day one. Growing up on his parents hobby farm Rick worked with all kinds of livestock but somehow growing vegetables really got his attention. Rick went on to work in forestry and earn a Bachelor of Science in vegetable crops – all the while working on farms and gaining the experience he needed to get out on his own. Along with his wife Laura, who also grew up on a farm, Rick found the right spot in 1983 and the Pedersen’s have been the owners, operators and masterminds of Pedersen Farms ever since. When they started, the farm spanned 60 acres. Today, they grow both organic and conventional grains and vegetables on 1,500 acres – 400 of which are certified organic.

Always interested in growing organics, the Pedersens got serious about it in 2002 when the National Organic Program was approved. Pedersen Farms does all of their business as a wholesaler, so increased consumer demand from retail stores helped seal the deal. The Pedersens now grow organic heirloom tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant, garlic, winter squash, corn, soy beans, barley, spelt, asparagus and cauliflower.

Since the wholesale market also demands non-organic vegetables Pedersen Farms obliges with many of the same crops for the conventional market. However, many practices from the organic standards are universal on the farm. We don’t use GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and we use organic fertilizer because it just works better,” says Rick. “If the crops are managed properly, you have yields that are about the same or even a little better [than conventional practices].” Another novelty that can be found on Pedersen Farms are 10 acres of hops which are harvested and sold to local breweries. With a roaring market for local, sustainably grown products, Rick and Laura Pedersen, as one of the largest organic growers in the state, can rightfully say that they are at the forefront of a movement.

After visiting Atlas and Winter Moon Farm we stopped in Whately, MA, at the main site of Enterprise Farm.

And James let us know a little bit about plowing these fields…

And told us about different plants in the greenhouse…

Our next stop was Winter Moon Farm in Hadley, MA! We’ve received some really great carrots this past season that Michael Docter of Winter Moon Farm grew over at Joe Czajkowski Farm/Lakeside Organics in Hadley. Michael formerly worked with the Food Bank Farm in Hadley, but is now working on getting Winter Moon Farm up and running and getting their transitional fields certified. We’re looking forward to great things!

Michael also shared some info about the new fields…

And his storage facility…

And let us know about the farmland where he’s digging parsnips…

During the summer we have access to lots of wonderful local produce, and we’re getting closer and closer every day! We are stoked about this growing season and we checked in with a few of our growers in Western Mass last week. For the most part things are looking pretty mellow right now, but we wanted to share what we saw behind the scenes! Our first stop was Atlas Farm in Deerfield…

Gideon Porth owns and operates Atlas Farm and he had some nice things to say about us!

Check out this awesome story/video about Wintermoon Farm! Michael Docter has been supplying us with top-notch carrots for the last few weeks!

Over the weekend Jeff stopped in at Atlas Farm in South Deerfield, MA. Check it out!