Online ordering for this week opens today (Monday) at 2pm!

We have finally had some warmer weather over the past few days, which has improved our asparagus harvest, allowing us to offer ordering starting today at 2pm for pick-ups Tuesday after 2pm. This week, we plan to have pick-ups slots available Tuesday-Friday 2pm - 6pm and Saturday 11am - 3pm, with ordering for each pick-up opening at 2pm the day before. Things do sometimes change based on the weather (as they did last week), but we will try to send out an email and post to the blog if we have to close the shop for one of the days due to low inventory.

The farm store is open to all for credit card purchases. In addition, this week CSA members may also start using their Barrett’s Bucks to shop online. Please remember that most of you have $25 balances when you are filling your cart. Please check back in your confirmation email from Melissa if you are unsure about your starting balance (if you are a CSA member and your email doesn’t specify that you added additional Bucks then you started with $25 total for your membership, folks who are sharing please coordinate). We currently don’t have a way to split payments online between Bucks and credit card, so if your purchase is more than your Bucks credit, you will need to split your order and place your Bucks and credit card purchases separately.

Here’s the link to the shop: https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop

Remember to select a pick-up time in order to begin shopping. Also, when an item sells out, it disappears from the shop, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t have it again. You can always check back the next order cycle!

What’s available this week:

• Asparagus

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon in Chelmsford - shiitakes are back, and we also are getting some of the larger mixed variety bags this week (usually oyster and shiitake).

• Spinach (for Tuesday pick-up, maybe more to come at the end of the week)

• Seedlings - We still have a few heirloom tomato seedlings left, with cherry tomatoes coming either at the end of this week or the beginning of this one. We also have parsley and some thyme seedlings this week, and a new batch of basil seedlings that will likely be ready at the end of the week.

• Tulips (Tuesday only - this is the last of them and there is a very limited amount for Tuesday)

• Microgreens (Wednesday and Thursday)

Adjusted order schedule: Next online order cycle will be Thursday at 2pm

Due to the recent cold temperatures we will not be offering ordering today (Wednesday) for Thursday pick up as originally planned. The next order cycle for our online store will begin Thursday at 2pm for pick-ups on Friday. On Thursday the online store will have the following available for pick up on Friday (2pm-4pm and 4pm-6pm): asparagus, microgreens, tulips and seedlings (basil, parsley and tomato plants!) for sale as well as mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and raspberry jam and vinegar from Silferleaf Farm. With the weather warming up at the end of the week we do plan to have Friday ordering for Saturday pick up as well.

Other than blooming strawberry plants all of our current field crops are cold hardy so can survive this unseasonable weather. It does mean some things are growing slowly but we are still on track for the CSA to begin June 9th and for us to continue to offer items in the farm store until then, with asparagus being the main crop in May, accompanied from a few other crops as available.

Online ordering details this week

Thank you everyone who participated in online ordering last week! This is completely new for us (and developed in the midst of an already very busy time of year), so we really appreciate your patience as we try to work out a new and efficient system for safely providing food for you all in these new circumstances.

We will once again offer vegetables (asparagus!), tulips and seedlings for online pre-orders this week. Pick-ups will be available Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and ordering will be available starting at 2pm the night before pick-up and closing at 5am the day of pick-up. (So the first cycle of orders for the week opens Tuesday 5/12 at 2pm and closes at 5am on Wednesday 5/13, with pick-ups available 2pm-6pm on Wednesday 5/13). Please note, we are not taking orders on Monday for Tuesday pick-up as we have found that we need extra time for inventory and order prep at the beginning of the week. We are once again using the Open Food Network platform for placing orders for this week. Please see our previous blog post for directions on how to place orders. We are still working on setting up another platform that will help us streamline how we track Barrett’s Bucks and will hopefully be more intuitive for users, but that is another week or two away. In the meantime, we are again asking that for this week, CSA members please do not use Bucks for purchases as we are still working on our system for tracking those purchases and only have the capacity to track our regular Bucks members for now.

The website for placing orders is: https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop. Please do not place orders over the phone or via email.

This week we will have the following available:

• Asparagus

• Salanova (Wednesday only)

• Microgreens

• Tulips

• Seedlings - Parsley and Basil. Tomato seedlings will be available at the end of this week.

• Raspberry Jam and Vinegar infusion from Silferleaf Farm in Concord (certified organic)

• Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm in Chelmsford (certified organic)

Online ordering opening today for the farm stand - PLEASE READ directions!

The farm store is now open for online pre-orders of tulips, daffodils, microgreens, pea shoots and parsley plants! We may be changing our online order set-up for next week but for orders for pick-up this Thursday, Friday and Saturday please follow these ordering instructions:

• We are currently using a platform called Open Food Network. The link for orders is here: https://openfoodnetwork.net/barrett-s-mill-farm/shop#/shop

• You do not need to create an account to place an order (in fact, we may be switching platforms later on to better integrate with our POS system in the store).

• Be sure to choose your pick-up time (there is a red drop-down menu in the upper right-hand of the screen). If you don’t choose a time, you won’t be able to see the items in the shop.

• You can find out details about each item by clicking on the product name or photo.

• After you’ve added the items you’d like, click on the cart and select “Checkout now”

• Payments can be made by credit card. Barrett’s Bucks members may select the “Bucks” payment option. (it says “free” in parentheses behind both payment options - this just means that it is free to use that payment option, not that the product is free!). In order to keep our record keeping to a minimum this week we are asking that CSA members do not use their Barrett’s Bucks this week.

• For this week, orders may be placed starting at 2pm for the following day, and ordering will close at 5am on the day of pick-up. Pick-up times are available 2pm- 6pm on Thursday and Friday, and 11am - 3pm on Saturday.

• Pick-up will be on the porch of the farm stand. Your items will be clearly labeled. Please wear a mask and if there is someone else picking up at the farm stand please wait at the cone until they leave before approaching. Please use maximum caution when on the farm and keep over 6 feet of distance between yourself and others.

• Please leave the jar or bucket holding your flowers and just take your items. Crates should also be left in place. If your order is in a brown bag please take the whole bag.

• To minimize the number of people on the farm pick-ups should be done by just one person per order.

We have been working really hard to get this contactless system going, but we have also been quite occupied with planting season at the same time, so we know that there are going to be a lot of things to iron out as we go. Thanks in advance for your patience and understanding while we try to get this going!

What is available:

• Tulips - more varieties coming for Friday and Saturday pick-ups - just in time for Mother’s Day!

• Daffodils

• Parsley plants

• Microgreens

• Pea shoots

• Salanova will be available for Friday pick up

• While the asparagus is poking up out of the ground, nights are still too cold for a harvest. We will add them to the store as soon as they are available!

Our new store set up is an effort to offer contactless pick up in response to COVID-19. Other measures we are taking include employees wearing masks at all times, frequent handwashing aided by new handwashing stations in addition to our barn sinks, and daily sanitizing of all frequently touched surfaces. Pick-ups are outdoors (despite the wind!) for good air flow. Our usual food safety concerns still apply in this time of added challenges. We are continuing our practices of washing and sanitizing all food contact surfaces such as wash area tables, scales and bins. As always, please wash your produce before eating. Thank you so much for all of your support, we are looking forward to providing you all with veggies in the months ahead!

March Farm Update: Growing goes on as we adapt to changing conditions

We wanted to start off by saying that our farm community is such an important part of our lives and we are thinking of you all and hope that you are staying safe and healthy. Right now we are planning and making preparations to try to ensure that the farm is a safe place to come get your vegetables and flowers once asparagus and tulip season begins in May. It will obviously mean some adjustments in the farm stand and CSA this year, especially as we think about layout configurations to maximize social distancing. We are also looking at doing more prepackaging of items. This was not the direction we had been intending to move this year, but public safety is the highest priority right now. We and our staff have always followed strict hygiene practices for food safety - those will be continued and enhanced this season.

Taking all of these extra precautions will of course require more resources and quite a bit more labor than before, so we are especially grateful to everyone who has signed up for the CSA and Barrett’s Bucks already, giving us and our employees a little more security going into a financially uncertain period ahead of us. Thank you also to everyone who has contributed toward our sponsored shares- to date over $2,000! We are still planning to offer reduced price SNAP CSA shares as well as to donate shares to Minute Man ARC and Dignity in Asylum, so we are very grateful to have such an amazing farm community supporting those efforts.

Despite the unpredictability right now, plants in the greenhouse, high tunnels and field continue to grow as expected! Daffodils and tulips are poking out of the ground outside, while spinach, carrots and ranunculus have been growing for the past couple of months in our high tunnels. Leeks, onions, fennel, scallion, salanova and stock flower seedlings are popping up in the greenhouse, and this week we will be seeding shallots, cabbage and kohlrabi. With the dry and warm weather, we have managed to chisel plow about an acre of ground in preparation for spring carrots, beets, spinach, greens and lettuce. We have also taken advantage of the early dry field conditions to start spreading lime on our fields to balance the soil pH. Last week we replaced the plastic covering on our large greenhouse - a big, once-every-four-years undertaking involving lots of ropes and very tall ladders - with the help of returning farmers Sarah and Rebecca, as well as super volunteer Paul! Finally, construction of our fourth high tunnel is underway, which will allow us to rotate tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in protected growing space starting this year!

We want to emphasize to all of you how grateful we are for your support. Though it is a difficult time requiring physical separation from friends and family, we feel very connected to our farm community in spirit. We hope you can all take heart that fresh veggies (and pretty flowers!) are coming soon!

Fennel, stock (flowers) and parsley sunning in the greenhouse!