Autumn Hills Orchard - Fruit Shares this Fall
Autumn Hills Orchard - Fruit Shares this Fall
Autumn Hills is delighted to have an opportunity to work with Stearns Farm CSA by supplying members with weekly deliveries of fresh-picked fruit starting around the last week of August and continuing through the Stearns Farm CSA season.
We are an authentic working farm, growing over 25 varieties of apples, as well as peaches, pears and plums in Groton, Massachusetts
Our growing methods can be described as "extreme IPM" as we strive to intervene as little as possible. IPM stands for Integrated Pest Management and, while not completely organic, means we take care to farm in a most sustainable and responsible way. (Note: Organic tree fruit production is virtually impossible in the Northeast. If we could be organic — we would.) We do not use herbicides, a very harsh systemic, as is the practice of most orchards; we use a mushroom based (organic) fungicide.
Autumn Hills won "best of show" Commercial Grower Fruit Prize at the 2009 Topsfield Fair! Here's a list of fruit we've delivered in past seasons to CSA members: peaches, Bosc pears, Italian plums, plus apple varieties: Paula Red, Ginger Gold, Gala, Macintosh, Cortland, Empire, Spencer, Macoun, Rhode Island Greening, Fuji, Braeburn, Cox Orange Pippin, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Mutsu and Sun Crisp. If our season is typical (keep your fingers crossed) you may be able to taste most or all of these varieties, picked with care by our staff and delivered fresh.
Autumn Hills is located in Groton, about 45 miles northwest of Boston just outside of route 495. The landscape is glacial drumlin with panoramic views of the New Hampshire hills and mountains to the north and west. We are responsible land stewards and have participated in a research project tracking agricultural impacts on migratory nesting birds. This study has been going on for about 5 years (as of 2008), and we are happy to report no ill effects on our bird population. Each year, our 20 nest boxes at the farm host families of bluebirds and tree swallows and we delight in the birds and other critters that we encounter through the seasons.
We partner with a few select CSAs in the Boston area delivering 1/2 peck bags (approx. 5 lbs.) to over 350 families per week and would be delighted to work with Stearns Farm this season as well.
Autumn Hills is also open for "pick your own" in September and October, weekdays by appointment and weekends from 10AM to 5PM and we welcome our CSA customers during that time. We'll certainly give you the VIP treatment when you identify yourself as one of our CSA customers if you visit us during our harvest season.
For more information about our operation, please see www.AutumnHillsOrchard.com
Lyn and Ann Harris, Autumn Hills Orchard
An Autumn Hills Farm CSA Fruit Share will cost $70 for full sharers and $35 for alternate week sharers. These shares are only be available to existing Stearns Farm sharers. We need a minimum of 50 full shares to proceed with the project. If you are interested this season, please bring a check and look for the signup envelopes at the farm stand.
The signup form for sharers is here: Public/2010FruitShareSignup.pdf.
Revision 8. Last edited Fri 13 Aug 2010 6:57pm by TomYelton