Nourse Farms

There's a nice article in the Boston Globe that's mainly about Nourse Farms in Westborough, MA.

The article discusses how Nourse is one of the oldest farms in the US, but that they've managed to continue by adapting with the times. As a kid, my parents would occasionally bring us to Nourse to pick strawberries (and yes, I was the guilty, curly-haired redhead with suspicious sticky red all over my face).

Now that I've moved out of that area, I don't get over to the farm too often. I heard from friends and directories that they have a CSA now, and my parents decided to sign up.

There's more to choosing a CSA than meets the eye. The CSA that I used to belong to was largely a veggie CSA. We'd get a couple containers of strawberries or raspberries in the season, but never enough. Nourse specializes in berries. My parents gets fresh berries for months and months, in quantity. As few foods seem to make my mom happier than berries, this is a great fit and a way to break up her share with fruit that requires no preparation. In addition, the farm has a nice store full of their jams and jellies and other food for sale. One year they offered three berry pies if you renewed your CSA subscription early. So good!

If you are choosing a CSA, try to find out what sorts of crops they grow, and about how much they had of things the last couple years. 2009 and 2010 were vastly different growing seasons in Massachusetts. I love the surprises in each season, but it's also nice to know what I'll be eating all summer.

(Note: it appears that there's another Nourse Farms in South Deerfield, MA that produces berry plants, but I know little about them.)