Earl and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for a great start to our Farm Share season.  We have ironed out a few wrinkles, and we will continue to work on the delivery procedures when we think changing something will improve your experience. 

We would also like you to know that we (Earl and I and you, our member families) have been able help feed five additional families this year with the shares we are donating to your organizations.  Helping these families is something we are able to do as a result of your memberships, so we are very grateful both for your memberships and for your assistance in getting our donated shares to the families who need them.  Thank you so much!!  If anyone would like to know more about our donation share program, please ask one of us at your next pickup.

The tomatoes are starting to ripen!  I have been picking some of the yummy Sun Gold cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes - they are always the first to come in.  We actually started picking the Sun Golds on July 1st!  Just a few of them, but ... July 1st!!  Probably not in your shares this week, but the week after.  This week you can look for some green beans, yellow beans, beets, chard, gorgeous red lettuce, and (of course) more summer squash.  As those of you who picked up at the farm on Friday already know, we picked a 5 ¼ lb zucchini this week.  It is huge!

Many of you have been sharing some recipe ideas with us when you pick up your shares.  That got me thinking that we should put together a collection of Hilltop Farm recipes, some from me and some from you, our wonderful members!  If anyone has a recipe that uses our veggies (I’m thinking of the person who told me about a dish using pancetta with one of our veggies) and you would like to share it with the other farm share members, please send it to me.  I can upload it to our website and others can try it. 

Based on the great response we received to the tah tsai and kohlrabi, we have planted more for the fall.  We still have kohlrabi in the field which you will see in the next week or two if you didn’t get a chance to try it yet.  And there will be more later!

We hope you are enjoying this week's veggies.  Please remember, if you will be skipping this week’s share, we will need 48 hours notice by email.  We look forward to seeing you in a few days.

Thank you for your support!

Allison and Earl
Hilltop Farm

 We are in from the fields before sundown today due to the Rain. 

 Last nights hail storm didn’t cause too much damage, we lost 27 tomato plants (out of the 420 we have planted) some greens and a few cucumbers, could have been worse.  We will re-seed the cukes and greens, transplant additional tomato plants and continue planting for later in the season.

 Saturday we’re installing a new pump down the well in order to keep up with the water demands of 4 acres.

 That’s the news for now.

 Earl

Hi everyone, there hasn’t been much to report due to our cold and rainy month of May.

 Our planting schedule has suffered and we are about 8 days behind.  We plan to catch up over the next week or two.

 After 17 days of gray, foggy, rainy, drizzly days, it was great to get out to the field and work the soil yesterday. 

 We created 14 new beds for transplanting and direct seeding.  It’s still too cool at night to put out the tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos.

 The broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts are doing well.  Celery, onions and leeks are surviving all the water.  Carrots are sprouting, as well as beets and radishes.

 Its Sunday now, and I may have spoken too soon about the weather.  We have had incredible fog every day until the early afternoon.

 We have finished seeding and transplanting the first half acre.  Preparations of the next half are underway.  The soil has been turned; we are picking out the rocks – softball size up to 3 feet around (anything smaller we don’t consider rocks anymore).  We have removed almost 2 dump truck loads from the first half acre and are well under way to do the same in this plot.

 The tomato plants are now out of the greenhouse and are hardening off, awaiting to be transplanted this week.  Peppers are soon to follow. 

 I will work at getting better about updating you all on a more timely fashion.

 Earl

We have been fine-tuning the corn boiler settings so that we can achieve the proper temperature in the greenhouse.  This is a tricky time of year for greenhouse operation.  On sunny days, the temperature in the greenhouse can climb to over 100 degrees, but we definitely need the heat at night and on cloudy days.

Planting is on-going - onions, leeks, celery, celery root, cabbage and broccoli.  Both the onions and leeks are sprouting!  Next week we'll be starting some herbs and some bell peppers.

The bees are taking flight on the warmer sunny days. Although one of our hives did not survive the cold of winter, we have one healthy hive and we'll be adding more hives later in the spring.

This week, we are buying some new equipment for the tractor, after which we'll start working the soil in preparation for April's outdoor planting.

We can’t wait for the smell of the freshly-turned soil!

From Boston:  Take Route 93 to Route 24 South.  Follow Route 24 South to Exit 4 (Route 195 East).  From here, follow direction from the Providence area.

From New Bedford: From Union Street heading west, turn left onto Rockdale Avenue.  Follow Rockdale Avenue for about 3/4 mile to Allen Street.  Turn right onto Allen Street to its end, and left onto Tucker Road.  After almost two miles, Tucker Road merges with Russells Mills Road.  After the merge, stay on Russells Mills Road by turning right at an intersection with Bakerville Road.  Stay on Russells Mills Road for another two miles to a five-corner intersection.  Proceed straight through the intersection, where the road becomes Horseneck Road.  Stay on Horseneck Road for approximately three miles, where you will reach an intersection with Division Road.  Turn right onto Division Road, and proceed a short distance to our driveway on the left.  Pull in and park to the right of the driveway.

• In June, you can expect to enjoy early-season lettuce, kale, cabbage, radishes, and peas.
• During later weeks, we’ll also be harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, eggplant, peppers (sweet and hot!), broccoli, melons, corn, winter and summer squash, and much more.
• Each week, we’ll also be able to offer you a variety of fresh herbs to enhance your cooking.
• You may choose to add flowers or eggs to your weekly share.

When you're ready to sign up, visit our Member Sign-Up page, where we'll ask you a few questions about the type of membership you prefer.  First, you'll have the choice of share size. The variety of produce will (mostly) be the same in the two share sizes -- it's the quantity that's different.  A Family Share will feed a family of two adults and two children, while an Individual Share will feed one or two people.  If you're interested in a larger share, please contact us for more information.

We will also give you the opportunity to share with us any information about your preferences -- anything you would like receive in larger or smaller quantities in your share or anything we should avoid altogether.

Lastly, because we want to be able to share our experience with you, we'll ask whether you can contribute a few hours of your time to join us at the farm and participate in creating the harvest you'll be enjoying throughout the season. 

You will be able to choose from a couple of payment options.  You may choose to pay through Google Checkout or you may request that we send you an invoice which you may pay by check.

Ready to sign up?  Let's get started!

While our farmhouse is undergoing major renovations, our chickens are enjoying their newly-renovated home as well.  Before our Ameraucana chickens arrived, Earl needed to renovate the chicken coop that had been used in the early 1900's to raise chickens. 

The coop has now been completely scrrubbed, and our chickens have new roosts (constructed from some old ladders we found), luxurious new nest boxes, a convenient new "chicken door," and a big, sunny outdoor space for scratching.  Take a look at these photos of the renovation project! 

During the renovation, we discovered a few old wooden boxes that were used to transport eggs to customers many years ago.  Painted on the front of the boxes -- "Hill Top Poultry Farm - South Westport, MA" -- what a great find!

A couple of weeks ago, we picked up 100 Ameraucana hens from the Tufts University Veterinary School.  We'll be raising these layers for their beautiful blue-green (sometimes pink) eggs, which we will sell to Whole Foods in Hingham MA.  These lovely and delicious eggs will also be available to our CSA and farmers market customers!

We will be pasture-raising these chicken, with plenty of fresh air and sunshine.  They spend as much daylight time outdoors as they wish (protected from predators by a fence), and they sleep peacefully in their newly-renovated coop, complete with roosts, rafters, and next boxes.  What more could a hen want?

The Ameraucana chicken eggs are both beautiful and delicious!  The yolks are dark yellow-orange in color, large for the size of the egg, and have a rich and creamy flavor. While nothing can compare to the taste of farm-fresh eggs only hours old, these beauties are just exceptionally yummy.  They make such a difference in scrambles, omelets, and any baked goodies!