March 19, 2024

Visit Our Local Farms This Season!

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Osamequin Farm
Come visit us at Osamequin Farm, at the corner of Walnut St and Prospect St in Seekonk! We are a non-profit cooperative farm, hosting five farmers all under “one roof”, plus Pick Your Own blueberries and sunflowers, and specialty cut flowers! We open up the farm for community gatherings, educational workshops, and private events. Visit our website for all the options and to get on our email list! Sustainability is of the utmost importance to our mission - EVERYTHING we offer is chemical free, grown with organic practices. We only sell what we grow - you can expect to find berries, vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs, and all the flowers in our Farm Stand this summer. Our blueberries are never sprayed, so they’re safe for the kids to pick and put right into their mouths in the field! Follow us on social media @osamequinfarm to be sure you hear about all our events, workshops, and when the berries are ready to pick! Online shopping is open now for spring flowers and early products. Home delivery or no-contact pickup.

Souza Family Farm
The Souza Family Farm stand is open Father’s day through Halloween and will have more and more vegetables as the season changes. Our large variety of vegetables in-season includes: 40 varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, winter squash, peppers, onions, cucumbers, pickling cukes, cauliflower, broccoli, large variety of beans, blueberries, corn, lettuces and more!

The Greenhouse is open now with a wide arrangement of flowering plants, vegetable plants, hangers and herbs. Come by and see what is ready and what is growing!

We do supplement our produce from local sources. If we don't grow it, you'll know it! We accept Farmer’s Market coupons at the Farm Stand as well as SNAP/HIP.

Under the Sun Farm
Under the Sun Farm is open seven days a week for your local grocery and gardening needs. This season we we have taken extra effort to maintain a clean and safe shopping experience. Hand washing is available for customers in  the greenhouse and hand sanitizer is available at the registers. You will find our employees wearing masks and gloves to maintain a safe working and shopping environment. We thank you for following marked distancing guidelines while shopping. A little about us... Rehoboth native, Milton Teixeira, proudly runs our diversified, year-round, family farm. We’re growing a wide variety of produce using organic practices to provide healthy, fresh and flavorful food for our community! Under the Sun farm’s greenhouse is full of beautiful proven winner annual flowers, bountiful perennials, and a wide variety of vegetable plants and herbs. Shop at our farm stand too which offers to  breakfast muffins, coffee, lunch sandwiches and salads, and all the fixings for dinner including fresh salad greens, a delicious variety of produce, eggs, and local non-GMO meats. Fill your pantry with locally-sourced grocery, bread, milk, cheeses and more!

Under the Sun Farm is open Monday-Friday 5am-5pm and Saturday-Sunday 6am-5pm. We’re located at 1050 Williams Street, North Dighton. See you on the farm! 

Visit Your Local Farms This Season
Our little corner of New England is often overlooked, but there’s so much here that’s worth seeing. Though we’re known to live underneath the snow, we also thrive in the summer among the flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Here, there’s an abundance of local farms selling their wares. During the spring and summer, a New Englander should know what their favorite places are selling and when. In-season vegetables for April and May include: Asparagus, Fiddleheads, Lettuces, Nettles, Onions, Carrots, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Kale, Pease, Peppers, Spinach. Fruits are most active in August, save for blackberries, which are active mid-July. In good weather, the growing season can stretch to September and even the end of October.

For over 25 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share ( aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. Check with your local farms to see how you can participate in the CSA program.

Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts are in Zone 7a, 6a, and 6b. The average annual, extreme minimum winter temperature here is between 0 and -5 degrees F. Some zones have changed slightly since 1990, now being categorized as 5 degrees F higher (a half-zone higher.) These zones help farmers determine what crops and plants thrive best in their area, though a soil test is also necessary to determine what to grow where. The Local Cooperative Extension Service can help a farmer collect and interpret soil information in their county. From there, one can correct nutrient deficiencies and adjust soil pH.

Along with soil, insects can help or harm a crop. Our area has a variety of beetles, moths, caterpillars and other insects that can threaten a plant. A new threat is also on the move; the spotted lanternfly. It’s an invasive species of sap-feeding insect in the plant hopper family Fulgoridae. Though the insect hasn’t been spotted in Rhode Island yet, URI warns that this insect could spread to our local farms, invading “grape, tree fruit, hardwood, and nursery industries.”

However, not all insects are bad for your garden either. Spiders and wasps, though terrifying to most, offer a natural pest exterminator, feeding on harmful flea beetles, Japanese beetles, caterpillars, and other insects. For smaller gardens, planting peppermint, spearmint, and pennyroyals which naturally deter pests like ants and aphids, can protect precious plants.
No matter how short or long our local growing season is, there are so many options for fresh produce, flowers and shrubs. Take advantage and visit our local farms and garden shops!

Information for this article was taken from the following:
https://www.almanac.com/plants/hardiness/7  
https://web.uri.edu/mastergardener  https://www.providencejournal.com/entertainmentlife/20160603/henry-homeyer-poisons-not- necessary-to-rid-your-garden-of-pests-diseases 
https://www.localharvest.org/csa/ 

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