Perhaps you tend a garden in your backyard. Or perhaps you have a plot at the Southborough community garden. Or perhaps you belong to a local CSA. But if not, you may be looking for a source for fresh, local produce.
If that’s the case, why not check out one of the farmer’s markets in our area? Alas, there isn’t one in Southborough, but there are some in surrounding towns. Here’s a sample, but for a complete list, see Massgrown website.
Acton – Pearl Street, West Acton Village
Sunday, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm (Jul. 12 to Nov. 1)
Framingham – St. Tarcisius Church parking lot, Waverly Street (Rt. 135)
Wednesday, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm & Saturday, 9:00 am – Noon (Jul. 15 to Oct. 31)
Framingham – Village Green, Edgel Rd, Framingham Center
Thursday, 12:30 pm – 5:30 pm (Jun. 11 to Oct. 29)
Hopkinton – Weston Nurseries, Rt. 135 (website)
Friday, Noon – 6:00 pm (Jun. 26 to Mid Oct.)
Natick – Natick Common, Downtown
Saturday, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm (Jun. to Oct.)
Grafton – Grafton Common (website)
Thursday, 2:00 pm – 6:30 pm (Jul. 9 to Oct. 22)
That’s a great list! Gee, I wonder if Southborough could have one. Hmmm… Where do residents congregate on weekends? How about the DPW lot just before you enter the transfer station, y’know, where the car washes are?
There is a source of fresh local produce in Southborough. It is the Country Store on 118 Framingham Rd. This used to be Capasso Farms and the Buffalo Farm. I bought native strawberries, sugar snap peas, red sails and boston lettuce. While much of their produce still comes from the produce market, the native produce was very good and very fresh. They will tell you what is native and local. I know much of the stuff comes from Ward’s Berry Farm in Sharon. I think they buy from other local wholesale farms. The owner said if the residents would shop here and he could turn things over he will stock much more native produce.
Perishables are perishable. They need customers to buy them. This location has a history of lack of support from our town. The Buffalo Farm Closed, Capasso Farms closed. Perhaps there is just not enough population. Maybe they need to do some marketing. It is sort of a chicken and egg story. He has beautiful and fresh local produce, Southborough doesn’t buy it. He throws it away and loses money.
I saw this past week a tractor turning over the farm. I hope this means lots of sweet corn. In the mean time if we residents of Southborough want a fresh farm stand, maybe we should shop there. It’s not perfect, but if we all bought something every week it couldn’t hurt. They have a big farm out back and greenhouses. This could and should be the farm stand for our town.
Bill
I have visited a couple of the local farmers’ markets and so far, pickins’ are slim. I have high hopes for the summer produce, and will continue to see what’s available.
In the meantime, I highly recommend Berberian Farms in Northborough. It’s right off Route 9, past Wal-Mart. They grown their own lettuces, herbs, tomatoes and more. Everything is always at the peak of freshness, and it’s quite convenient. I’m all for supporting the local farmers, and they are among the best, IMO.
Bill, are you kidding about Country Store? The board of heath should go in there sometime. Rotten fruit, moldy bread and cheese fruit, flies everywhere. John and Liz Sherry held high standards and took pride in the products they sold as did Arthur St Maurice. They current renter is on the brink of folding due to the lack of business. Someone needs to take over and clean it up. That spot is prime location and the other business’s did very well. You could not pay me to shop in the Country Store now.
Dee, I agree with you. The food is scary. Bill you must be crazy. The first thing that hits you when you go in the door is bad smells. I think is is coming from the meat section. The meat is green and chicken is orange. But there is a huge and loud fans blowing. This is probably to blow away the bad smells and the flies. You are surrounded by food products covered with dust and dirt. They then direct you to a hot greenhouse that is like a bad science experiment on how not to store fresh produce. The starnge thing is they have some really nice plants. This produce seems to be a lesson on extending shelf life to absurd levels. The potatoes have green skins. Even the new “red” potatoes are green. I have never seen green new potatoes. The onions look a thousand years old. They are surrounded by skins that shedded last year. Most of the fruit has fruit flies. The grapes were ripe a month ago. They are rotten today. I had carrots in my crisper for two months that looked fresher. There are flies and fruit flies everywhere. The bananas are not yellow, not spotted but they are black and surrounded by fruit flies. Anything that has been repackaged in a plastic pack is beyond old and should be avoided totally. There was some corn that in plastic packs that was so old the kernals collapsed. this was not sweet corn, it was dehydrated corn. Even the new stuff was was the old cheap stuff from the produce market. All and all this could be the worst colllection of produce ever offered for sale. In fairness the lettuces were not bad and the stems seemed to be freshly cut. But I suspect that they were old and recut. The cuts were fresh but the water was old and the containers were broken and filthy. I saw bill’s post and went in. I saw dee’s post and went back. I live around the corner on newton st. I didn’t buy anything. I want a farm stand, but not this farm stand.
Since I live just around the corner I went back again. This time the owner was in. He helped me pick out some items and frankly the were all ripe and ready to eat. They were delicious. The produce in the supermarket is hard and not ripe and not edible. But it looks pretty. The produce here is tasty and juicy.
Bob, You are brave. I would not ever go back based on my experience there. I would not chance e-coli for my family. When the owner helped you pick out your produce, did you have to pick thru the bad stuff to fine a good one? He needs to improve the joint and its merchandise before I and many other venture back! Hope you don’t get sick Bob.
Definitely swing on by to our market in Grafton on Thursdays from 2-6:30. Although the market is in Grafton, we have vendors from all around (Grafton, Westboro, Millbury, Sutton, Sterling) so you are truly buying local. Keep in mind that the average veggie/fruit travels 1500 miles from source to plate. Yuckky.
I wonder if there are any good farms in Southboro that might be interested in vending…if so I’d love to hear about it.