You have questions, and we will try to provide answers. This week we are introducing “Question of the Week,” in which we will address questions that came up in our mid-season survey or in other contexts. We begin the series with a question that comes up often:
The summer share at Stearns includes a wide variety of vegetables, so why do we only have three kinds of fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)? Couldn’t we have tree fruit fruit like apples, peaches, and plums?
Unlike most vegetables, which grow on plants the produce within a single season (annuals) and take up relatively little space, fruit trees need a lot of space and take years to reach maturity. Stearns Farm is very small (about 4 acres under cultivation) and there’s simply no space to grow fruit trees. The berries that are part of your share are similar to vegetables in their space requirements (especially strawberries), which is why we are able to include them in the basket of foods we grow at Stearns Farm.
We do arrange for a fruit share through Autumn Hills Orchard in Groton, which provides a convenient way to buy local fruit in season.
We’d love to hear from you. Send your questions to news@stearnsfarmcas.org.
