Cut Flowers and raspberries

Below is an updated in season now list from Martins Farmstand. The gardens are happy with a nice rain yesterday and in general crops look normal. Field beans, zucchini, cabbage, basil and cucumbers are starting to come in larger amounts. The cut flowers are also starting to bloom. If any of you want cut flowers to brighten your home, office or dinner table come and be our guest. If you cut the flowers yourself they are free. The u-cut patches are located right in front of the stand building and also across the second driveway in the field north (away for 11b) of the market. If you are getting larger amounts stop at the stand and let us know what you have in mind. The only time we limit larger amounts is if the patch is getting over cut. If you are reselling the flowers then please pay us a fair portion of the resulting money.
The black raspberries are at their peak now and will be ripening into the beginning of next week. The raspberry patches will be open for u-pick during normal stand hours (10am-6 pm) starting tommorow on a first come basis (no appointment). This will last into next week as long as the season continues. Daniel

Summer Abundance, snap peas

In July the list of available produce is rapidly expanding and the prices become much more economical as we move from early intensive season extension to the normal natural period of summertime abundance. There is lots of lettuce, zucchini, cabbage, beet greens, and so much more right now. We have bushels of sugar snap peas today and plan to pick the first of the shell peas in the morning. Beans and black raspberries are just starting and will be abundant with in a few days. We are close to overstocked on lettuce and scallions. Strawberry gleaning is still open for a few days yet. Daniel

Farmstand and strawberry gleaning on the 4th of July

The farm stand is open on Monday (July 4th) from 10 am to 6 pm. There is a large selection of early summer salad ingredients such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, garlic scapes, cabbage and much more. The strawberry fields are also open for half price gleaning on Monday during normal stand hours. There are still quite a lot of wonderfully good little berries left out there. Come and get them. Daniel

U-pick strawberries and raspberries

We will be opening the berry patches for u-pick tomorrow afternoon (June 29) starting at 2 pm. The strawberries are relatively small as is normal late in the season but there are a lot out there. I think some of the very best flavored strawberries are the little late berries. Starting on Thursday (June 30) the strawberry patches will be put to half price gleaning status. With gleaning status the patch is open everyday (not Sunday) during normal stand hours which are 10 am to 6 pm. Gleaning status will last about a week till there is no green strawberries left to ripen any more. The first picking of red raspberries are ready to pick tomorrow. They will be available starting at 2 pm on a first come basis. U-pick raspberries will be by appointment after that. The black raspberries should be ready starting in 7-10 days. In the stand the selection of summer vegetables is growing. There’s lots of cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce now. We have more garlic scapes than we know what to do with. The crew picked about 20 bushels of them this morning from our patch. Daniel

U-pick strawberries Monday

We are opening for u-pick strawberries tomorrow morning (Monday June, 27, 2022) at 7 am. Picking conditions are fairly good with lots of ripe berries out there. The quality seems to be better than it was. They are ripening nicely with the warm weekend. As is normal in the late part of the season the berries are mostly small. I had a few to eat as I walked the patches that were really good. Next picking after tomorrow will be Wednesday starting at 2 pm. There is about a week of season left. Daniel

Mistake in former post; Saturday's picking at 7 am

The 2 pm starting time in last evenings post is incorrect. We start picking at 7 am on Saturday. Daniel

U-pick strawberries Saturday

We plan to open the strawberry fields for u-pick tomorrow (Saturday, June 25,2022) starting at 2 pm. We close at 6 pm or whenever the field is picked and my advice is to get here close to opening time if you wish to be sure of a good picking spot.
There is a fairly large amount of ripe berries out there. They are small but not as small as I feared they might be. The cool weather was kind to the strawberries.
This is getting towards the late part of the season. I still see quite a few green strawberries so I expect that for most or all of next week we will have berries to pick during our normal u-pick times. In about a week or 10 days the patch will go to gleaning- it is still to soon to say exactly when though. Daniel

U-pick strawberries Wednesday

We plan to open all the strawberry fields for u-pick tommorow (Wednesday, June 22,2022) starting at 2 pm. We close at 6 pm or whenever the field is picked and my advice is to get here close to opening time if you wish to be sure of a good picking spot. (NO PICKING ON WEDNESDAY MORNING) This is the late part of peak strawberry season. The average berry sized is somewhat small but there are lots of ripe berries out there. If I am reading the patch correctly we will be picking for another week; however there is quite a bit of area with limited amounts of green berries left so I expect each picking to have less berries than the one before. The season is passing by very quickly this year. WE have the first new potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes and zucchini at the stand now. These were grown using various season extension techniques and they are somewhat expensive in comparsion to what will be coming later however what I had for lunch was so good. Garlic scapes are in there peak supply. Daniel

U-pick strawberry update

We are opening the strawberry patch for u-pick tomorrow morning at 7 am as is our normal pattern. Expect poor picking with a limited amount of ripe berries. The patch was picked thoroughly yesterday and with the cool weather there are not many berries that have ripened today. The next picking will be on Wednesday afternoon starting at 2 pm and they should be much more ripe by then. We also will not be picking for the stand on Monday. I expect to have picked berries available at the stand again on Tuesday afternoon. In other parts of the garden and greenhouse there are lots of scallions, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers etc. Field lettuce is abundant now. I am putting the romaine lettuce together with the red and green leafy lettuce display and pricing them all @ $1.85 each or three heads for $5. In the greenhouse I planted 10 seeds of a long delicious white cucumber from Johnny seeds. I also planted about 300 seeds of normal green cucumbers. Those 10 white cucumbers are yielding about 3 bushel a week right now which I find impressive. If you close your eyes when you are eating them you would never know they are white as they taste just like any other cucumber. Try one sometime. Daniel

U-pick strawberries Saturday/ peak of season

We will open the strawberry patch for u-pick tomorrow (June 18, 2022)at 7 am. This is the peak of strawberry season with lots of berries out there. The average size is dropping more quickly than I expected and they are ripening fast. We should have berries for another 10-14 days yet but the volume drops as berry size drops. ( Normally on each cluster of strawberry flowers the first king flower gives the biggest berry, each sucessive opening flower tends to be smaller than the one before.)

Hours for u-pick are Monday starting at 7 AM; Wednesday, start 2 PM (no morning picking on Wednesdays); Saturday, start 7 AM. This repeats through out the whole season. The patch closes when the berries are all picked or at 6 PM.
When you arrive you do not need to stop at the stand to weigh your containers if you know the empty weight already. Also you do not need to stop if you are picking into standard Quart or gallon containers.
You have the option of bringing your own containers or buy empties from us.(Quart boxes 25 cents each. If you are buying empty containers from us please pay when you get them rather than after you are done picking to minimize confusion as to what is going on.
We will do our best to spread groups apart in the field. I expect family/friend groups to stay together as much as is reasonable to allow for social distancing where it matters. NO DOGS in the field or stand areas. We will be using the same random picking pattern that we did last year. This means that you may start anyplace you wish in the patches that are open as long as you are not cutting in front of someone. It is mandatory that when you are picking that all the ripe berries are picked as you move ( No roaming or grazing type picking. A section of row must either be picked or not picked when you leave. We will be scouting the patch and keep suggesting where you will find good picking.
Pricing (u-pick) $4 per Quart if less than 8 quarts and $3.25 per quart if more than 8 quarts; $26 for 8 quart tray and $12.50 for 4 liquid quart buckets, water pitchers, bowls and other similar sized containers. All containers are expected to well filled but not heaped. We will adjust prices up or down as needed for over or under-filled containers. By the pound price is $2.20/# (limited to bigger containers or larger amounts); By using volume rather than weight when it makes sense we can bypass the stand for most of the berries and reduce congestion. If you pay by credit card there is a 3% surcharge added to the above prices and you will need to use the inside checkout station rather than outside express options. Daniel