Rattle Root Farm, our next door neighbor CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), is thriving and has a lot of new things going on. Joey, Hannah and Peter look relaxed and happy to be back for the 2024 season.
They are growing grape vines so they can start their own “vineyard” (two rows of grape vines), and they have inoculated tree limbs/small branches to grow mushrooms. Not knowing what inoculating cut down limbs off trees meant, I asked them. Turns out it’s a year long process to grow mushrooms, and the first step is putting spores into the holes drilled in the limbs, from which the spores then grow mushrooms. So this is great news, but the bad part is that neither the wine nor the mushrooms, two of my favorite things, will be available until next year.
Probably the biggest change is that a CSA member helped them to build what is basically a rustic small store, where members can pick up their shares as usual, but also where anyone, including non-members, can purchase vegetables, and also eventually cheeses, butter, and milk. This rustic store will have a refrigerator. Purchases from this store will be on the honor system, and just like picking up shares, everything is organic and locally sourced. The new store will have flexible hours, meaning if you discover you need a tomato for a salad, and company is coming over, the store is open (24 hours a day).
Also new is that membership in the Rattle Root CSA has grown from 90 last year to about 115 members this year, and there is still a long waiting list.
They also are expanding by selling plants, but these will not be immediately available so as not to interfere with the Wachusett Garden Club sale that will be held at Thomas Prince.
On more of a business level, improvements have been made too. There is now a second driveway to get into the field, which although not particularly exciting for most people, for them it’s quite helpful for having things such as wood chips or organic fertilizers dropped off. They also have two more greenhouses, and have expanded the farm by half an acre, bringing the land under cultivation to 1-½ acres.
We are very much looking forward to getting our produce from Rattle Root Farm again this year.