The farm stand is officially closed for the season!!
Please see how list below under “retail stores” of where to purchase some of our homemade items year-round.
2023 will undoubtedly go down in our minds as the most difficult year we have faced in over 45 years of farming. An unusually warm winter stretch in January 2023 was followed by a cold arctic blast one night in early February that killed 100% of the peach buds in all of the northeastern United States. Followed by early warm up in the spring, a late May freeze occurred that for us killed every apple blossom. Thankfully the strawberries, raspberries and blueberries were only marginally impacted. We regrouped and made the decision that we would address what was a huge blow to our business by implementing the following plan.
We would plant every spare acre to vegetables, open our farm stand as usual and buy in apples and peaches as needed and be forthright and transparent about what the situation was. Then it rained, and kept raining, records for rainfall amounts and number of rainy days were set across New England. Disease control and weed management was a never-ending job in all of those acres of vegetables. But, we had a greater supply of different vegetables than we have ever had in the past. In a strange twist of fate, in a year where cold temps impacted us the most, we picked sweet corn till the end of October when the first killing frost appeared.
10 years ago, we made a conscious decision to change our marketing strategy for wholesale apples, exiting the traditional wholesale apple market. We started marketing bulk apples to other farms that had crop shortages or did not have the variety mix that we had. That plan paid off in spades this year. After the May freeze, a few phone calls to our fellow growers and we were assured a supply of apples. This turned out to be a very satisfying moment in a year that could have beat us down. We got calls from apple growers all over New England asking what they could do to help, offering the excess apples that they might have. We worked with other N.H. growers to coordinate trucking, to bring in peaches from Connecticut, apples from the few orchards that had small crops in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.
We hope we never have another year like this again, but it was amazing to have such a close-knit bunch of farmers who help each other out in situations like this. We shared crops, and shoulders to lean on, when we needed it the most.
Equally satisfying was that our retail customers kept coming. We can’t thank them enough for sticking with us in this difficult year.
Thanksgiving may end our retail sales for the year but there is still a lot of work on the farm. Equipment needs to be cleaned, serviced and put away, and our wholesale jam, jelly and dry mix business is very busy during the holiday season. By the time Christmas rolls around we can finally have a day off. Then the planning for next year begins. Seed orders, fertilizer orders, planning of planting schedules, advertising, and capitol improvements and the dreaded regulatory report season takes up all of the bad weather days. Pruning begins in early January, and that will take us through April. Before we know it, it is time to plant peas and start all over again.
Let us hope 2024 is bountiful.
We want to again thank all of our customers for their support this year, and our awesome employees for their dedication and hard work.
Happy Holidays – see you in the spring!
Chuck and Diane
