April 2025 Newsletter – some housekeeping notes

Spring finally arriving? A couple of housekeeping notes. After this weekend’s “flurries” that added up to quite a noticeable amount of snow, we are hoping to be finally on the warm side of early spring? Seedling sales officially started yesterday on the honor system self-serve porch of the farmstand. Please see our website’s “what at the stand” tab for the most up to date listing. We also have bagged compost and potting soil available. And of course, please remember that it is exact change or check only. We will have to close the porch on Saturday April 19th for the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. As many of you are aware, the town of Concord expects quite large crowds for this event, and in preparation will be shutting down the entirety of downtown Concord to car traffic. Upper Monument St will also be closed, accessible only to residents. Please go enjoy the festivities, and maybe catch Brian riding on the Concord Agriculture Committee’s parade float! So while Saturday is not the day to visit Hutchins, Monument Street should be back open to public traffic on Sunday April 20th – there will be the annual “Tough Ruck” happening at Fenn School, but the road will be open to traffic. And one more note of housekeeping, the Concord Ag Committee is hosting our Spring Forum entitled “Farming into the Next 250 Years: Climate and Land Challenges and Solutions in Concord” on Thursday May 15th from 6:00 – 7:30pm at the Concord Library. Speakers from the American Farmland Trust and Concord’s Department of Natural Resources will be discussing climate change and land loss challenges to our regional and local food supply, and the diverse strategies being adopted by Concord farmers, the Town of Concord, and the broader Massachusetts farming community to meet the changing conditions. This is an in-person presentation, and is free and open to the public, no registration required! Event listing at the library is here. We hope you can join us! -Brian Cramer, Liza Bemis, and the Hutchins Farm Crew