We are awash with winter squash. Squash is one of the oldest cultivated crops on earth, and it is packed with vitamins and antioxidants. Local farmers are selling a huge variety of squashes, including buttercup, butternut, spaghetti, delicata, acorn, sunshine, Hubbard, fiesta, and carnival. More varieties are on the stands, but remembering names printed on seed packets that were emptied into the soil and discarded months ago is not easy. The reply when the Press asked one farmer about some rather large orange squashes on his stand? “I don’t know what the heck those are.”
Carlson Orchards, 115 Oak Hill Road
Pick-your-own apples 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Now picking McIntosh, Cortland, Gala, Macoun, Empire, Golden Delicious, and Northern Spy; check Facebook or call as varieties may change. McIntosh, Honeycrisp, Macoun, Empire, Golden Delicious, Zestar, Cortland, Gala, Ginger Gold, and Paula Red apples and Bartlett pears available in the store, as well as Brookdale Fruit Farm’s winter squash (butternut, buttercup, acorn, fiesta, delicata, and spaghetti), sugar pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and gourds. Other vegetables are dwindling, but there are still some tomatoes, corn, green peppers, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, and organic cherry tomatoes. Large pumpkins from Wilson Farm in Lexington.
Doe Orchards, 327 Ayer Road
Pick-your-own apples 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily; stand is open until 5 p.m. Now picking Macoun, Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji, Cortland, McIntosh, Ruby Mac, Jonagold, and Empire apples. On the stand are all of the apple varieties currently being picked except Jonagold and Empire, as well as Doe’s pumpkins, gourds, and honey.
Old Frog Pond Farm, 38 Eldridge Road
Raspberry picking Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Asian pears, salad greens, tomatoes, peppers, and raspberry jam at the self-service farmstand on the front porch. Apples are done. All crops certified organic by Baystate Certified.
Westward Orchards, 178 Massachusetts Avenue
Pick-your-own apples daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the rest of the season; currently picking McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Empire. Pick-your-own pumpkins with wagon ride to the pumpkin patch on Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. In the store, McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, Gala, Golden Delicious, Empire, and Roxbury Russet apples, Seckel, Bartlett, and Bosc pears. Winter squash (butternut, buttercup, sunshine, spaghetti, acorn). Peaches, plums, nectarines, strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, corn, leeks, bok choy, parsnips, cauliflower, lettuce, peppers (sweet and hot), eggplant, cabbage, carrots, beans, kale, summer squash, zucchini, beets, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, shallots, mixed herbs, a variety of cut flowers, pumpkins, sugar pumpkins, and gourds.
Willard Farm, 218 Still River Road
Corn (bicolor and yellow), some peppers (sweet and hot), Green Mountain and Yukon Gold potatoes, winter squash (butternut, acorn, buttercup, spaghetti, delicata, carnival, and a few small blue Hubbards), pumpkins, sugar pumpkins, and gourds. And the “Island of Misfit Pumpkins” is back.
All produce listed is Harvard-grown unless otherwise noted. Brookdale Fruit Farm is in Hollis, New Hampshire.
—Compiled by Joan Eliyesil
