Happy New Year!

Wow! How ever did we get to mid-January? As usual, we have spent several weeks wading through seed orders and are 98% complete – woo hoo!!! Some of the seed ordering takes place back in October, but the fussy, smaller orders happen now. Surprisingly, companies sell out of certain items early, so if you snooze, you lose. Also, there are crop failures to contend with, and then one must really be on the hunt to ensure we have it for planting time. For example, our preferred kale variety has struggled with crop failures the past couple years, so we started calling companies the day after Christmas to see if we could get the seed we needed. We did, but it took two weeks! Last year we grew Lemondrop (aka Aji Limon, or Amarillo) peppers for the first time and I loved them! it helps that a lot of you did too, so we’ve added more to the crop planning this season. What can we grow for you? Please email or FB any special requests for the veggie you wish we would grow 🙂 For our flower lovers we have several new begonias, a few gorgeous peonies, a kickin’ collection of Clematis, new succulents and so much more. I am really excited about planting my containers and gardens this season because they all took a back burner last year when we were setting up BPM. The Boston Public Market keeping us busy… If you are just tuning in, we have three stalls there and are rocking it out with all sorts of apples, radishes, turnips, pears, cabbages, carrots, mesclun, kale, spinach, Bok Choi, Pak Choi, assorted other Asian greens, potatoes, honey, wheat flour and berries, dried beans and so much more. We hope you can make it part of your neighborhood shopping (if you live in the neighborhood) or venture in on the Orange line, or make a trip of it and park in the garage. We can validate your parking – three hours for $3!

Farm Dirt

We have filed our first job order and I have been busy cleaning, repainting and organizing the guys housing for inspection. I feel pretty good about it, but I am sure there will be things to fix when the housing inspection with Department of Career Services happens. Let’s leave it that my house would not pass inspection (no heat upstairs, rust on some of the radiators, chipped dishes, a spot of mildew on my bathroom ceiling (no worries, there’s none in their house…only mine ;), etc.

 

 

The big news is we finally closed on the house down the street for Egbert. Boy, have I got my work cut out for me! While we are very excited about this opportunity, there is a lot to be done before it is ready…it stood empty for two years. Thank you so much to our mysterious friends in Quincy who sent a Lowes card. I went down and bought paint, a broom, dustpan, light bulbs, joint compound, caulking, and some cleaning supplies. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has offered to donate to furnishing the house. Thank goodness for all of you. Without, this would be a very scary undertaking! This will be my project for the next month or so. Basically, the house needs a MAJOR cleaning and every single surface needs to be painted. The laundry also needs be moved to the next room over. Other than that it is so sweet! I cannot express my gratitude for all the support! I really cannot. I will take before and after pictures. Just trust that this is going to be perfect for them once I scrub everything down and paint. The wish list is looking pretty good. I felt kind of gross about setting up a paypal account or something, If any of you have other ideas and can help, please weigh in. This is not something we do…we farm :). Now that we are actually getting into the space and seeing what else needs to happen (like move the washing machine), a little extra could really be helpful. So, I still feel squeamish about a paypal account, we will cover the plumbing costs to set up laundry, but supplies for fixing up the place are adding up, so gift cards to Lowes or Amazon are really appreciated.
Again, thank you for everything contributed and thank you for your moral support!!!!
And, it need not be said, but I will anyway, you supporting our farm though purchases at market or CSA, supports our efforts to help our wonderful employees.

Wildlife

I spotted a Barred Owl in the road a few feet from our farm. I turned around and stopped with my hazards to prevent anyone from running this beauty over…he would not move.  We finally got him to take off after closing in-WE LOVE OWLS!!! There are hawks all over the place! So cool. Also, we have enjoyed listening to the soundings of the Barred and Great Horned Owls. It is truly a delight to step outside at night and hear one, then another, and then another answer. There is still a little corn standing for our friends the deer, turkeys and coyote. We sent in a nice picture of a coyote in one of our fields for the wall at BPM. You may not realize how much corn they eat – and mice! which is why we like them so much. The worst year ever for our orchards was when the coyote were hunted out…the mice girdled a huge amount of trees and we had to replace all those trees. Did you know coyotes rely on mice as a main part of their diet and procreation? Mice and corn, sounds like a diet Apollo (the Savannah cat) would love.

Sign up today for CSA. We have set up a new online store, migrated the email list to mailchimp, as well as revamped the website. Check it all out! Please bear with us as we get everything settled and let me know if you are getting duplicates so I can remedy the situation. The new system will not recognize your information, so apologies for any confusion, but you will need to start over. Are you new to Stillman’s or CSA, please take some time to poke around our website and learn more about who we are, how we farm, and what we offer. We welcome your phone call or email with questions.  Sign up today for 15% off your CSA! As I had written in last month’s email, the 15% off is good through January 15, BUT, since I am so late getting the letter out this month, we will extend that date to January 22. Please note our CSA prices have increased to reflect increases in labor and supplies. The 15% off gets you your CSA for about the same cost as last year, so don’t miss out! We have a new CSA location: The Maker Farm in Westford, Wednesdays 4-6pm. We are super excited about this new location and our new relationship with all the folks there! Also new this year, we have teamed up with Jimmy Rider of EverGreen Delivery bike transport service. He will be able to pick up CSA boxes at JP, Cambridge or BPM and deliver to your home! If this is the solution for you getting your CSA on, please contact him after subscribing. His regular fee for a regularly scheduled pickup is $10 and spur of the moment is around $18. As a side note, he is available to make deliveries from BPM on most days, so if you were not sure how you were going to get your big bundle of groceries home, he’s your guy!  Jimmy Rider EverGreen Delivery 617.285.0826 www.evergreendelivery.bike We had a FABULOUS year this year – more food than ever, weeks and weeks of tomatoes, peaches, berries….  We are very pleased and have received delightful feedback from so many of you. Thank you for being the best CSA members!The fun and new and exciting (meaning keeping me on my toes) thing is the rest of the online store (mentioned above), where, if everything goes right, you will be able to order your extra tomatoes or berries with your CSA delivery. Lastly, we have a few new pickup locations for this year, so do check out the website to see if we have something for you.  I will be adding Cambridge back in and we may have a new location for Charlestown – keep your fingers crossed! Hoping you have a happy and peaceful winter. Eat well, Geneviève Stillman