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Wed 27 Aug, 2003 02:12 pm
I signed up for one of the Thursday visits to Wilson Farms in Lexington, MA, expecting to find another half dozen people waiting to tour this family run farm and farm stand. Instead, I found between 60 and 100 people. The group was split in three.
I went because my five year long frustrating search for "real" work has made me change my if-I-won-the-lottery-I-would . . . fantasy from buying a two-family house for each of my kids, to dreams of buying a small farm in western Mass, herding sheep and raising four Jerseys who I would name Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. I know I wouldn't be better off than I am now but I would be doing something useful, unlike selling pots and pans. Since dreamers who wish to win the lottery are the same as criminals in sofaras they are certain they will succeed, I went to begin learning how to run my imaginary farm.
I came away with far more. A respect for the Wilson family and the farm they run.
Wilson Farm consists of the familiar 32 acres in Lexington where the labor intensive crops are raised as well as 400 acres in NH where the space intensive crops grow. Six days a week, thousands of people buy superior fruits, vegetables, flowers and growing supplies at the Lexington farm stand.
Wilson is not an organic farm. In fact, Jim Wilson, son of the current chief farmer, a man in his late 40s who studied business in college then shocked his family by promptly becoming a ski bum in Colorado for two years, says organic farming is not financially viable here in New England where the weather is touchy, to say the least. "Twelve hippies feeding twelve hippies in Vermont is not a financial reality," said Wilson.
The farm does use integrated pest management. The University of Massachusetts regularly sends out notices of what pests are hatching or laying eggs and the planting and harvesting of crops is largely governed by those bulletins. IPM works in this way: if farmers plant a crop after a particular pest lays its eggs, the crop is more likely to be free from that pest and there is less need for spraying.
They also mulch green matter from the farm stand. According to Wilson, the farm now has more top soil than when his great grandfather first broke earth at the site in 1881.
Another method of keeping pests at bay is taking advantage of the site. The farm nestles in a bowl with steep sides. The sides are covered with bark mulch that rodents dislike crossing. The banks and the birds of prey that have taken residence in a tree, mean rodents are not eating the crops.
Modern plastic covers in both black and silver are used. Tomatoes are planted in a cover crop of clover that not only protects the young plants from insects and keep weeds at bay but also help replenish nitrogen in the soil.
Stay tuned: I'll talk about the state of the art green house later!
Some of my fondest memories with family are the family roadtrips we'd take to the Sierras. To get there, we'd drive through coastal farmlands, the Sacramento Delta and Valley and finally the foothills and mountains.
Along the way, we'd always stop at family farms and roadside stands for fresh fruit and veggies. That's a sight that has almost completely disappeared here in California having given way to corporate farms and commercialized super markets.
Now and then you can still find some farms and orchards that will allow you to go pick your own.
I just visited Wilson Farms. I wasn't terribly impressed, though I didn't take the tour. It wasn't bad, just not as exciting as I'd hoped. Have you been out to Marino Lookout Farm? It's in N Natick just beyond Wellesley. ery cool. If you go (you can now pick apples and maybe still peaches, organic) DO NOT skip a little scoop of gelato, sold in the market.
Went to Wilson farms last year. The store had grown huge! It's like they want to be Idylwilde... (that's in Acton, ladies, and it's big and it's pretty damn good for produce...) anyway I used to go to Wilson's a lot when I lived in Arlington, but now that I'm out in the hinterlands...
But, theres a place you really out to look at next time you are in the area... Verrill Farms in Concord. Intersection of 27 and 117... If you're heading out Rt. 2, it's the 2nd(?) stoplight past Crosby's Corner (which is one of those New England things... Crosby's hasn't been on that corner in many many years... it's the big left turn at the bottom of the hill...)
S'anyway... Verrill's. IPM mostly. They raise the most wonderful varaiety of heirloom tomatoes. That's something that Mrs. SealPoet and I really miss and will go out of our way to return for... buy a huge basket of all different sizes colors shapes of tomatoes.
Look for it. It's a lot like Wilson's used to be.
Yes, I know Idylwilde - grew up in Acton - haven't been there in years.
I like Verrils, if I'm thinking of the right farm on Rte2. I guess there aren't very many left of them. It's where I go for my pumpkins.
It's not ON Rt 2, it's a mile and a half or two miles off of Rt 2 heading towards Sudbury.
speaking of businnesses on Rt 2... There's this place heading east, just before Rt 128... I think it's called Gerard's? Looks to be a yup-scale nursery... instant topiary and such. Dead giveaway that they have no clue as to what it means to be a gardener in New England. Right im the middle of the lot is a telephone pole that is covered with a huge mass of leafy vines.
Looks really cool... but BITTERSWEET IS EVIL!
I don't know of Idlywild or Verrill's. One of the things I like about Wilson's is that you can shop once a week: the produce is fresh enough to last that long and the spinach is the only spinach I will buy. We use spinach for salads and the stuff the supermarket sells in those cello bags is so bruised and broken, it makes a poor salad.
During the summer, I visit the farmers' markets in Arlington and Somerville. While both share several farmers -- Nicewicz's Farms and the big one in Bolton (damn memory) -- generally, the stuff in Somerville is nicer and there are two organic farmers represented there. The Smith Family, which makes great cheese spread, only comes to Arlington, although two other cheese makers are in Somerville. The farmers markets are open Wednesdays, June through October. The Somerville Market is in Davis Sq, while the Arlington market is right in the center, behind Wood n Strings, near the Unitarian Church.
|Marino Lookout Farms is owned by the same people who run Marinos Restaurant in Cambridge.
S'quite understandable... I didn't know about those places when I lived in Arlington... Was Mrs. SealPoet's doing. (Yay! She's coming home after a week... she should be here in an hour!)
I finally made it to Idylwilde. I was on my way to meet my daughter at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA and saw the sign for it on Route 2. Although I have seen the sign in the past, I generally returned too late in the evening to stop.
While Wilson Farms have grown from good farm stand to upscale farm stand, I thought Idylwilde was the farm stand as seen from Rodeo Drive. Just a little too yuppie for my taste, although the quality of the produce was good, there were some exceptions, eg, the Lunenburg peaches were a bit green. Prices were about in line in Wilson Farms -- the peaches were 50-cents less but another item was 50-cents higher. Even break.
Reaching Idylwilde from Route 2 is rather ridiculous for me. However, because I lived northwest of Boston since 1977, I thought I would turn in the other direction out of the driveway and found myself a short distance from Route 111. Not only is it more direct for me to take Rte. 2 to Rte. 111 -- a straight shot which avoids 30 minutes of meandering driving -- but there is a great quilt shop in Boxboro, The Quilted Crow, just off Rte. 111. I would be more inclined to drive to Idylwilde in combo with a visit to the Crow on the shorter 111 route than the other way round.
When I lived in MA I would pop into Wilson Farm sometimes and get some amazing fresh produce. I never took the tour either and had no desire to.
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