News and blog
JOIN OUR 2011 CSA TODAY!
20 weeks of fresh, local, sustainably grown produce from our farm, to your table!
Sign-ups will be open until we meet capacity, so don't delay. This year is promising to be our BEST CSA SEASON YET! We have greatly expanded our market garden and will be growing new and exciting vegetables in addition to the staples you know and love. You can look forward to tasting over 20 varieties of heirloom tomatoes as well as purple and red carrots, striped beets, multi-colored baby potatoes, thai basil, and two types of gourmet salad mix.
You can also expect:
Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, melons, sweet corn, carrots, asparagus, onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, fennel, potatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, salad greens, spinach, a variety of herbs, kale, chard, cabbage, cucumbers, peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, summer and winter squash, celeriac, turnips, radishes, beets, and more!
We hope you had a wonderful holdiay season and a joyous New Year celebration! Dave, Jess, and Rosemary have been working on an amazing crop plan for 2011 featuring...
20+ VARIEITIES OF HEIRLOOM TOMATOES!
PLUS MANY OF YOUR OLD FAVORITES AND NEW VARIEITIES OF:
STRAWBERRIES · RASPBERRIES · BLUEBERRIES · MELONS · SWEET CORN · CARROTS · ASPARAGUS · ONIONS · SHALLOTS · GARLIC · LEEKS · FENNEL · POTATOES · BELL PEPPERS · EGGPLANT · SALAD GREENS · SPINACH · HERBS (including dill, cilantro, basil and more) · KALE · CHARD · CABBAGE · CUCUMBERS · PEAS · BEANS · BROCCOLI · CAULIFLOWER · SUMMER AND WINTER SQUASH · CELARIAC · TURNIPS · RADISHES · BEETS · AND MORE!
we can't wait for spring (and neither can you)!
STAY TUNED! Sign ups start within the next few weeks! We will send you another e-mail when we open up registration on our website.
Stay warm and dream of summer veggies!
Your friends at Warner Farm
Visit www.mikesmaze.com for more info! 
Hi to all of our friends out there!
We hope that your summer is going well, and that you're not wilting in the heat we've had! We're doing our level best to keep our plants from wilting- it's been quite the battle. We have just started picking field tomatoes (early this year like everything else) and we're in full swing with corn, beans, zucchini, summer squash, and many other crops.
We are still accepting CSA members even though we're 6 weeks into the 20-week season. We offer pro-rated prices, so you only pay for what you get! Please email us for more information about the CSA and pricing.
We've ended up at two farmers markets this summer, Winchester and Cambridge Center, and they're both working out very well for us. Please come to visit, say hello and check out all of the other awesome vendors at these markets! Winchester is Saturdays from 9:30am-1:30pm and Cambridge Center is Wednesdays from 11:00am-6:00pm.
Keep on enjoying the summer!
-Warner Farm
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to let you all know that we're pretty busy on the farm! We're selling our sweet, delicious strawberries and our amazing asparagus at the new Cambridge Center Farmer's Market (Wednesdays 11am-6pm, on Main St. in the Kendall Square area- near Legal Sea Foods and the Kendall T stop) and we'll be selling at the new Prudential Farmers Market very soon, as well as returning to the Medford and Winchester markets in June. CSA stuff will start up then, as well!
We've been planting lots of great-looking seedlings (crops such as eggplant and tomatoes) in our fields, and we're seeing other crops like carrots and onions poke their way up through the soil. We've had some beautiful weather and everything's growing nicely- we can't wait to share it all with you!
See you soon!
Thanks for your support of Warner Farm in 2010. We are getting excited about the growing season with the arrival of March! Our tomatoes are just beginning their lives in the greenhouse as small seedlings, and lettuce, kale, collards, chard and broccoli are soon to follow.
Thanks to everyone who attended the Arlington CSA Share Fair this past Thursday; it was a huge success! I, for one, was very impressed with the amount of people who came in the pouring rain to meet the farmers and sign up for shares. Clearly, interest in CSAs is increasing exponentially, reflected in the growth rates of CSA membership in the last 10 years. Click here to see an interesting animation of CSA development nationwide, represented by triangles on the map. Clearly, people are realizing the incredible value you receive from a CSA share in terms of the abundance of delicious, healthy produce and community enrichment!
A reminder, the 10% discount offer expires March 15. This is not a sales gimmick, rather we are encouraging you all to sign up as early as possible to streamline our planning processes and ensure the best possible delivery of your shares! Use the code 'earlybirdcsa' when signing up. Please tell your friends in the area about our CSA and educate them on the benefits; they will thank you!
Also, a reminder that Liam will be speaking about the farm and CSAs at the Jenks Center in Winchester on March 16 at 10 AM, if you or anyone you know might like to learn more about the farm or CSAs.
-Your farmers at Warner Farm
Interesting report from the NE Governor's Commission on Land Conservation which recommends a New England Farm and Food Security Initiative. Local farms are seen as necessary! - check it out
Here's an interesting website offering a recipe search database of your favorite cookbooks - www.eatyourbooks.com
Also, check out our searchable recipes page for delicious ways to prepare the vegetables we grow!
If anyone has any recipes with our vegetables they would like to share, please email them to us and we will post them! csa@warnerfarm.com
Just wanted to update everyone on a few new growing methods we will be employing this year in our quest to become self-sufficient and sustainable. First, we are participating in a USDA pilot program to evaluate the use of high tunnels for crop production. High tunnels are mobile, unheated greenhouses. Using a high tunnel, we will be able to plant crops outdoors two weeks earlier, and harvest them an additional two weeks early. Also, high tunnels prevent moisture from accumulating on plants, all water is provided by trickle irrigation feeding the plant roots. This limits leaf wetness duration, an essential factor in disease development. Also, the temperature is elevated in these high tunnels, further thwarting disease pressure. We are excited about using high tunnels because they allow us to reduce disease pressure and lessen the impact of the many issues surrounding excess water and cool temperatures we have had to deal with in the last few years. Also, we will be able to provide our customers with more produce earlier in the year and later in the year, increasing the amount of local food available year round.
Second, we are planning to implement zone-tillage on our farm this year. Zone-tillage stands in contrast to conventional tillage, in which whole fields are plowed and many field operations are necessary to prepare the field for planting. Zone-tillage utilizes a few different traditional tillage implents, combining them into one implement which prepares a strip of soil for planting, rather than preparing the entire field. Rather than plowing in the traditional manner, which inverts roughly the top foot of the soil, zone tillage creates deep slots in the soil with a sub-soiler, then breaks up clods on the surface to ensure optimum seed-soil contact, essential for germination. You can think of zone-tillage as tilling deep "strips" as opposed to tilling the whole field in a more shallow manner. The main benefit if the breaking up of the "plow-pan," a hardpan in the soil about twelve inches down as the result of many years of plowing. The downward pressure of the plow as it moves through the soil compacts the soil at that level so that plant roots will not be able to penetrate much farther beyond those top twelve inches. The zone-tillage implement does not create this downward pressure, rather it tills a deep slot, breaking through the plow-pan. Breaking up the plow pan allows plant roots to penetrate deeper, accessing a greater wealth of water and nutrients.. It also allows water to drain more easily during times of excess moisture, which we have seen much of in the past few years. A second benefit of zone-tillage is decreased time and fuel spent preparing fields. Zone-tillage requires about half the time and energy to prepare a field than traditional tillage.
We hope these new innovations lead to benefits for you, as the high tunnel will allow us to grow crops for you when we otherwise couldn't, and also allow us to grow clean, healthy, chemical free crops. Zone-tillage reduces our impact on the soil and the environment, and frees some of our time up to concentrate on delivering you all the best produce possible.