We will be closed Tuesday to let the strawberries ripen and also to get some field work done. The next PYO will be Wednesday at 7am. We think the picking will start out to be good in the Jewel. There were many half ripe berries in the bed today that needed more time to sweeten up. We are on the down swing of strawberry season now, which usually occurs around the 4th of July, however we may have good picking a few more mornings this week before we begin end of season conditions. The end of season conditions are called scrounge picking. We don't bother closing the bed for further ripening as most all the green berries have sized up and are ripening. 

At the farmstand on Wednesday we will also have a limited supply of already picked strawberries, Three varieties of lettuce, swiss chard, kale and spinach. I grew lots of Lisianthus in 6 different colors which are: Deep Rose, Rose Rim (white petals with rose edging), Yellow(not a deep yellow, more of an ivory green), White, Mariachi Blue and Mariachi Pink. the Mariachi types are multi petaled. The other 4 types are doubles. Lisianthus is a very beautiful annual flower with long lasting multiple buds and will rebloom after cutting it back. It is also hardy and can take a frost.

PYO Raspberry season is starting possibly within 3 to 6 days. We have many early season varieties and they tend to become very plentiful 6 to 10 days into the season.

We would like to extend our appreciation for all the folks that attended the First Barrington Farm Tour Day. We had many new people visit all the farms and a few old time customers took time out of their day too.  The day was a smashing success for all involved and we could not have done it without all of you. Thank you so very much!!!!!  Eat Local Seacoast was very instumental in helping to get the word out about the farm Day and we thank them whole heartedly as well. Bravo to all involved!!!!!

Sunday is Barrington's first Open Farm Tour Day from 10-3pm. Seven of our town's farms are participating and will be open for tours. Come on out and meet the farmers, take a tour, ask questions. Strawberry shortcake will be offered for a fee here at the farm. The first 30 individuals or families to arrive here will go out to the lettuce field and receive a free head of lettuce. We have an abundance of lettuce at this time and would like to share. The 7 farms vary in what they produce, from heirloom poultry and eggs, alpaca products, locally grown beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, pork and more. Randy and I hope this Open Farm Tour day increases the customer base for all the farms in the area. For us specifically, we hope to increase awareness that coming to pick berries is helpful but not enough. In years when we have had poor berry picking we don't see many of the berry pickers come for our other crops. I can understand a berry picker from Berwick Maine will not drive over here to purchase lettuce and broccoli, however they shoud be purchasing it from a local farm over there, but most likely they are not.  A very small proportion of people support a local farm on a weekly basis over the course of the growing season.  We have some customers that come in several times a week and we love them. Perhaps we need to establish an "Adopt a local farm" program where you commit to stopping in at least 2x per week.   It is this type of awareness that we hope to expand. Randy has lots of people ask him to grow sweet corn and he does and they come in and purchase the sweet corn and nothing else!  That alone is not helping financially. When you stop in a purchase corn and tomatoes ect, that is helping us financially. We have to have a draw to get people to come in to the farm these days. The draw could be berries or sweet corn. But alone these are not enough to support us. We need you to purchase some of the other produce as well if we are going to survive as a fruit and vegetable farm. You may think we should grow more strawberries as the demand far exceeds the supply. We have more planned for next year, however if we put all our eggs into one basket....... we have been down that road.  Diversification is a requirement, not a happenstance.   As relevant, we hope to dialoge with anyone interested on the importance of maintaining local farms in a time when the topics of food safety, food security and human nutrition should be discussed by our presidential hopefuls and local and town politicians.

The next PYO strawberries  will be Monday morning starting at 7am. If you can not be here by 8am please call first as sometimes more than enough people are here by that time to pick off the bed.  If we get some heat and sunshine the picking conditions in one variety called Jewel could be good. However yesterday was cool and we don't know what today will bring.  There are 9 rows of this mid season berry and they have tolerated this continuous wet weather very well. The other 3 still have pickable berries and we consider them having fair to good picking conditions at this time. Our rating scale is determined by the amount and condition of the berries: poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. If we get a big crowd, we will shut down the bed once all the ripe berries are picked. We don't know how long we will be open. Please call before you come if you are not expecting to be here shortly after 7am.     

On the farmstand there will be a limitied supply of already picked berries, fresh lettuce (two varieties), swiss chard and kale.  You can PYO sugar snap peas today.  The already picked berry supply is slowing down. We have a separate patch to supply the farmstand and the constant wet weather has ruined many berries in various ways and soon it won't be advantagous for us to spend the time picking them.

Unfortunately, we will not continue to participate in the Barrington Farmer's Market. We have had more  demand here at our farm for already picked strawberries than we projected, and can not supply both markets.  The market is held Saturdays across from Calef's on Rt 9 and has great beautiful potted flowers, cut flowers (soon), a variety of fresh produce, baked goods, heirloom duck eggs, maple syrup, and beef jerky.  Purchasing from these local farms is a great way to lower your carbon footprint, save farmland from development, and also helps to boost our local economy. The hours are from 9am -1pm.

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of transplants in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

PYO strawberries Saturday morning starting at 7am. If you can not be here by 7:30am, please call first as last Saturday we had more than enough people to pick off the bed by that time. We expect to have very good picking conditions in one variety called Jewel. There are 9 rows of this mid season berry and they have tolerated this continuous wet weather very well. The other 3 still have pickable berries and we consider them having fair to good picking conditions at this time. Our rating scale is determined by the amount and condition of the berries: poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. If we get a big crowd, we will shut down the bed once all the ripe berries are picked. We don't know how long we will be open. Please call before you come if you are not expecting to be here shortly after 7am.  When we shut down the bed we are closing the farmstand as well, for the rest of the day.   NO already picked berries at the farmstand today.  There will be fresh lettuce (two varieties), swiss chard and kale.  You can PYO sugar snap peas today, but again, the farm will be closing everything down  including the farmstand once all the ripe berries have been picked and the customers have left.

Sunday is Barrington's first Open Farm Day from 10-3pm. Seven of our town's farms are participating and will be open for tours. Come on out and meet the farmers, take a tour, ask questions. Strawberry shortcake will be offered for a fee here at the farm.

Unfortunately, we will not continue to participate in the Barrington Farmer's Market. We have had more  demand here at our farm for already picked strawberries than we projected, and can not supply both markets.  The market is held Saturdays across from Calef's on Rt 9 and has great beautiful potted flowers, cut flowers (soon), a variety of fresh produce, baked goods, heirloom duck eggs, maple syrup, and beef jerky.  Purchasing from these local farms is a great way to lower your carbon footprint, save farmland from development, and also helps to boost our local economy. The hours are from 9am -1pm.

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of transplants in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

The farmstand is open today with already picked berries, swiss chard (limited amount), kale and two varieties of lettuce. There is no Pick Your Own berries today.  The next PYO strawberries will be Saturday morning starting at 7am. We expect to have very good picking conditions in one variety called Jewel. There are 9 rows of this mid season berry and they have tolerated this continuous wet weather very well. The other 3 still have pickable berries and we consider them having fair to good picking conditions at this time. Our rating scale is determined by the amount and condition of the berries: poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. If we get a big crowd, we will shut down the bed once all the ripe berries are picked. We don't know how long we will be open. Please call before you come if you are not expecting to be here shortly after 7am.  When we shut down the bed we are closing the farmstand as well, for the rest of the day.  

Unfortunately, we will not continue to participate in the Barrington Farmer's Market. We have had more  demand here at our farm for already picked strawberries than we projected, and can not supply both markets.  The market is held Saturdays across from Calef's on Rt 9 and has great beautiful potted flowers, cut flowers (soon), a variety of fresh produce, baked goods, heirloom duck eggs, maple syrup, and beef jerky.  Purchasing from these local farms is a great way to lower your carbon footprint, save farmland from development, and also helps to boost our local economy. The hours are from 9am -1pm.

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of transplants in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

We have PYO strawberries  today, Thursday, starting at 7am.  We expect to have very good picking conditions in one variety called Jewel. There are 9 rows of this mid season berry and they have tolerated this continuous wet weather very well. The other 3 still have pickable berries and we consider them having fair to good picking conditions at this time. Our rating scale is determined by the amount and condition of the berries: poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. If we get a big crowd, we will shut down the bed once all the ripe berries are picked. We don't know how long we will be open. Please call before you come if you are not expecting to be here shortly after 7am.  When we shut down the bed we are closing the farmstand as well, for the rest of the day.   The farmstand will only be open for as long as we have PYO berries. We will reopen the farmstand at 10am on Friday with already picked berries, 2 varieties of lettuce, kale and swiss chard.

Unfortunately, we will not continue to participate in the Barrington Farmer's Market. We have had more  demand here at our farm for already picked strawberries than we projected, and can not supply both markets.  The market is held Saturdays across from Calef's on Rt 9 and has great beautiful potted flowers, cut flowers (soon), a variety of fresh produce, baked goods, heirloom whole frozen ducks, duck eggs, maple syrup, and beef jerky.  The hours are from 9am -1pm.

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of transplants in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

Wednesday we will have "already-picked" berries from 10am - 6pm at the farm stand along with lettuce, Spinach and Kale.  Also PYO  sugar snap peas are available. Our next PYO strawberries will be Thursday starting at 7am.  We expect to have very good picking conditions in one variety called Jewel. There are 9 rows of this mid season berry and they have tolerated this continuous wet weather very well. The other 3 still have pickable berries and we consider them having fair to good picking conditions at this time. Our rating scale is determined by the amount and condition of the berries: poor, fair, good, very good and excellent.

Unfortunately, we will not continue to participate in the Barrington Farmer's Market. We have had more  demand here at our farm for already picked strawberries than we projected, and can not supply both markets.  The market is held Saturdays across from Calef's on Rt 9 and has great beautiful potted flowers, cut flowers (soon), a variety of fresh produce, baked goods, heirloom whole frozen ducks, duck eggs, maple syrup, and beef jerky.  The hours are from 9am -1pm.

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of transplants in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

When we are open for PYO, we almost always begin at 7am. If a shower is passing thru,we will open once it is over. If you can not arrive until sometime later in the morning, please call first as we sometimes get a good crowd and close down the beds because all the ripe berries have been picked. Earlyglow, Wendy and Allstar are the first berries ripening in the PYO bed.  The Earlyglow is very sweet, however it turns small very quickly. It is a great jam berry. Wendy is very sweet also and a great jam berry and seems to hold  its' size better than Earlyglow.  Allstar is sweet and maintains good size. Jewel is our mid season berry, is mostly a large berry at this stage and has good sweetness. We pick all the different berries and freeze them for jamming, various recipes and fruit shakes. The possibilities are endless and enjoyable during the cold winter months.

Tuesday at 7am open for PYO berries. We will have "already-picked" berries from 7am - 6pm at the farm stand along with lettuce, Spinach and Kale.  Also PYO  sugar snap peas are available.   We expect to have very good to excellent picking conditions in one variety called Jewel. There are 9 rows of this mid season berry and they have tolerated this continuous wet weather very well. The other 3 varieties have spoilage beginning on some of the berries, however they still have pickable berries and consider them having fair to good picking conditions at this time. Our rating scale is determined by the amount and condition of the berries: poor, fair, good, very good and excellent.

We sell Pomona's Pectin at the farmstand. It offers low sugar recipes, fruit concentrate recipes, honey recipes and alternative sweetener recipes. Unlike typical pectin, Pomona's encourages doubling and tripling your batches of jam and experimenting with different fruit combinations. My favorite jam recipe lately has been blueberry raspberry jelly. Two of our regular berry cusomers shared it with me.  I sieve out the seeds from the raspberries and then combine it with the blueberries. I like the cooked low sugar recipe and  use from 1/2  to 3cups of sugar per batch, depending on who I am making it for. I usually make 3 to 4 batches at a time and it always sets nice and firm. Traditional pectin calls for 5 to 7 cups of sugar per batch! Because the Pomonas pectin are low sugar, they need to be water bathed for approx 5 minutes. This does not require any fancy cookware, although it is easier if you have a pair of the tongs to move the jars in and out of the pot,( they carry them at the grocery store). I get the pot of water going while I am heating the berries up and place the jars I will be using into the boiling water for sterilization. It is really pretty simple, however not a good time for young children to be underfoot. I have found it really helps to wear a pair of rubber dishwashing gloves during the process. They are not bulky and protect my hands from the hot jars and jam.

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of transplants in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

When we are open for PYO, we almost always begin at 7am. If a shower is passing thru,we will open once it is over. If you can not arrive until sometime later in the morning, please call first as we sometimes get a good crowd and close down the beds because all the ripe berries have been picked. Earlyglow, Wendy and Allstar are the first berries ripening in the PYO bed.  The Earlyglow is very sweet, however it turns small very quickly. It is a great jam berry. Wendy is very sweet also and a great jam berry and seems to hold  its' size better than Earlyglow.  Allstar is sweet and maintains good size. Jewel is our mid season berry, is mostly a large berry at this stage and will be good to very good picking by Monday. We pick all the different berries and freeze them for jamming, various recipes and fruit shakes. The possibilities are endless and enjoyable during the cold winter months.

Perhaps, and I am not sure by any means, we may begin to stay open for PYO every day starting Monday.  We hope to be able to offer steady hours for picking and not have to close down the beds. 

We are always trying to read mother nature and the berrie's reaction to the weather conditions and this can be tricky. Cool temperatures sometimes slow down ripening, resulting in closing the beds for a day or two.  We need enough berries to ripen all at the same time to support a crowd.  Very hot and humid temps deter folks from picking and can, but no always, result in an excess of berries  (good picking)and possible spoilage if they don't get picked. Call the farm phone anytime, 603-868-2001 for updates.

On Sunday 11 - 4 we will have "already-picked" berries at the farm stand along with lettuce, Spinach, Swiss chard and Kale. NO PICK YOUR OWN ON SUNDAY, however you can pick  sugar snap peas. We will next be open for PYO strawberries Monday at 7am. We expect to have good to very good picking conditions.

We sell Pomona's Pectin at the farmstand. It offers low sugar recipes, fruit concentrate recipes, honey recipes and alternative sweetener recipes. Unlike typical pectin, Pomona's encourages doubling and tripling your batches of jam and experimenting with different fruit combinations. My favorite jam recipe lately has been blueberry raspberry jelly. Two of our regular berry cusomers shared it with me.  I sieve out the seeds from the raspberries and then combine it with the blueberries. I like the cooked low sugar recipe and  use from 1/2  to 3cups of sugar per batch, depending on who I am making it for. I usually make 3 to 4 batches at a time and it always sets nice and firm. Traditional pectin calls for 5 to 7 cups of sugar per batch! Because the Pomonas pectin are low sugar, they need to be water bathed for approx 5 minutes. This does not require any fancy cookware, although it is easier if you have a pair of the tongs to move the jars in and out of the pot,( they carry them at the grocery store). I get the pot of water going while I am heating the berries up and place the jars I will be using into the boiling water for sterilization. It is really pretty simple, however not a good time for young children to be underfoot. I have found it really helps to wear a pair of rubber dishwashing gloves during the process. They are not bulky and protect my hands from the hot jars and jam.

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of transplants in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

When we are open for PYO, we almost always begin at 7am. If a shower is passing thru,we will open once it is over. If you can not arrive until sometime later in the morning, please call first as we sometimes get a good crowd and close down the beds because all the ripe berries have been picked. Earlyglow, Wendy and Allstar are the first berries ripening in the PYO bed.  The Earlyglow is very sweet, however it turns small very quickly. It is a great jam berry. Wendy is very sweet also and a great jam berry and seems to hold  its' size better than Earlyglow.  Allstar is sweet and maintains good size. Jewel is our mid season berry, is mostly a large berry at this stage and will be good to very good picking by Monday. We pick all the different berries and freeze them for jamming, various recipes and fruit shakes. The possibilities are endless and enjoyable during the cold winter months.

Perhaps, and I am not sure by any means, we may begin to stay open for PYO every day starting Monday.  We hope to be able to offer steady hours for picking and not have to close down the beds. 

We are always trying to read mother nature and the berrie's reaction to the weather conditions and this can be tricky. Cool temperatures sometimes slow down ripening, resulting in closing the beds for a day or two.  We need enough berries to ripen all at the same time to support a crowd.  Very hot and humid temps deter folks from picking and can, but no always, result in an excess of berries  (good picking)and possible spoilage if they don't get picked. Call the farm phone anytime, 603-868-2001 for updates.

We will open for PYO strawberries Saturday at 7am. There has been a huge inquirey for Saturday picking, which may result in such a large amount of people that we stop letting new people in soon after 7am!  We can only fit so many people into the bed at one time. We don't like to have it so full of pickers that you are jammed up within the rows.   There will be some "already-picked" berries at the farm stand along with lettuce, Spinach, Swiss chard and Kale.  You can also pick  sugar snap peas. We will be at the Barrington Farmers Market across from Calef's on Rt 9 from 9am to 1pm.  Once all the berries are picked we will close down the whole farm for the day, (no farmstand berries either), and reopen Sunday at 10am with "already picked" berries and vegetables.  We anticipate the next PYO to be Monday at 7am, however please call Sunday afternoon to make sure.

  The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of plugs in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

When we are open for PYO, we almost always begin at 7am. If you can not arrive until sometime later in the morning, please call first as we expect the demand to exceed the supply and we close down the beds when the ripe berries have been picked. Earlyglow, Wendy and Allstar are the first berries ripening in the PYO bed.   Jewel is coming along and will be good picking by the weekend and better on Monday or Tuesday.

We are always trying to read mother nature and the berrie's reaction to the weather conditions and this can be tricky. Cool temperatures sometimes slow down ripening, resulting in closing the beds for a day or two.  We need enough berries to ripen all at the same time to support a crowd.  Very hot and humid temps deter folks from picking and can, but no always, result in an excess of berries  (good picking)and possible spoilage if they don't get picked. Call the farm phone anytime, 603-868-2001 for updates.

NO PYO on Friday, only already-picked berries at the farm stand along with lettuce, Spinach, Swiss chard and Kale.  You can PYO sugar snap peas. Next PYO will be Saturday or Sunday, we will decide Friday late afternoon.    

The Lisianthus is ready. Six different colors of plugs in biodegradable fiber paks.   We also have perennials and handmade soaps. 

When we are open for PYO, we almost always begin at 7am. If you can not arrive until sometime later in the morning, please call first as we expect the demand to exceed the supply and we close down the beds when the ripe berries have been picked. Earlyglow, Wendy and Allstar are the first berries ripening in the PYO bed.   Jewel is coming along and will be loading up by the weekend or Monday or Tuesday.

We are always trying to read mother nature and the berrie's reaction to the weather conditions and this can be tricky. Cool temperatures sometimes slow down ripening, resulting in closing the beds for a day or two.  We need enough berries to ripen all at the same time to support a crowd.  Very hot and humid temps deter folks from picking and can, but no always, result in an excess of berries  (good picking)and possible spoilage if they don't get picked. Call the farm phone anytime, 603-868-2001 for updates.