The farm looks brown and barren but things are greening up inside.
Believe it or not, it is in the dead of winter that we crank up the greenhouses and begin seeding for the coming season. We’ve had microgreens, spinach, and mesclun growing all along for sales at Boston Public Market, but you couldn’t tell from driving by 😉
Glenn starts seeding tomatoes next week! It’s kind of unbelievable when you think about one season coming to an end and another starting SO SOON!
In our old farmhouse, it is rather nice to cozy up by the fire (read: in the fire) and browse new varieties of tomatoes, peppers, potatoes……Hopefully we’ll get all the seed ordering done this week, it takes a while to wade through all the new varieties and make decisions about what and how much to add.. It’s almost impossible to resist the tempting pictures shown in the catalogs #foodporn
Speaking of our old farmhouse, it was built in the 1740’s, 1820’s and 2000’s, respectively. The newest part is housing we built for our amazing employees from Jamaica, who come to us through the Guest-Worker Program. The entire house is heated with an efficient, environmentally safe, Econoburn wood boiler. The wood is cut off the farm (gotta clear those field-sides), heats the house, AND doesn’t emit particulate into the atmosphere. It’s all good!
We just want you to know we are trying to do our part….even while we maintain a historic property!!! To be honest, it’s a lot of work: must cut the wood, split the wood, move the wood to the yard, stack the wood, etc, etc, It’s definitely not he easy way out but it is sustainable and eco-friendly.
Boston Public Market
Looking for a Stillman’s fix? Visit us at the Boston Public Market for crunchy apples, spicy micro-greens, sweet kale, fingerlings potatoes, amazing roots and SO MUCH MORE! Did you know we also have our award winning tomatoes available as sauce or crushed? Kale and basil pesto? Applesauce? Pickled beets?Well, we do!
Other exciting offerings for your winter eating enjoyment include heirloom tomatoes from Five Colleges Farms (Hadley), hydroponic greens from Little Leaf (Ayer), rainbow radishes from Queens Greens (Amherst), maple syrup from grand Maple Farm (New Braintree), wheat from Whitesfield Farm (Hardwick).
Even our salad bar is rocking with awesome greens, ripe heirloom tomatoes, pickled beets, purple radishes, nuts, and more!
For your convenience, our Veggie Butcher has a great assortment of produce prepped and ready to go – veggie noodles or peeled winter squash anyone?
BPM Sunday-Thursday 10am-8pm, Friday & Saturday 8am-8pm
CSA
Featuring a gorgeous picture from a member’s Pinterest page (I hope he/she does not mind :)) to show another real picture of what OUR CSA boxes contain.Check out the Forono beets, sugar snap peas, fennel, French Breakfast radishes, garlic scapes, and the best strawberries!
It’s a GREAT time to sign up for 2019! This year we have several options. We are offering our regular box or bag at all locations with a 2-for special when you add two regular shares to your cart. There is also a “super-size me” option if your pickup location is at one of our market locations or Framingham/Southboro.
Read more about our CSA, seasonality, and pickup locations.
Another new option this year is our “A La Carte CSA” which allows for complete flexibility to select your produce at any of our farmer’s markets while supporting your farmer’s (that’s us) winter cash-flow woes. Read more about CSA A La Carte.
Wildlife
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| This cute guy was hanging out for a few days in our pasture a few years ago. We have at least one denning pair on the farm …the year we took this picture we had two pair on the farm – amazing! Did you know their territory range extends from 5 square miles (females) to 30 square miles (males)? We are so delighted to provide the kind of conditions they require for not only survival but success.The Bluebirds are having a great winter so far with LOTS of fruit to feed on. I came across a lovely flock of them feeding in the multiflora rose and sumac this morning. When the food supply diminishes I will see them in our yard feeding first on the Ilex shrubs in the yard and then on the berries in the containers on our doorstep. |
Our resident Red-tailed Hawk couple is busy hunting…though, technically, they are just hanging out, sitting in “their” trees watching what transpires on the farm. There is a plentiful supply of rabbits and rodents, so they don’t have to work too hard 😉
The feeder outside my office window has been visited by all of our woodpeckers – excepting the Pileated who is active a few hundred feet down the road. We’ve had the Downy, Hairy, and Red-bellied all feasting an arms-reach away. So nice!
We’ve seen all of the below on the farm EXCEPT for the Red-headed Woodpecker. Pretty sweet to have such diversity.
