Year-Round Seasonal Veggies

  • Crisp, vibrant, and packed with nutrients, our winter greens thrive even in the coldest months. Thanks to our high tunnel, we can grow fresh, leafy greens even when it’s snowing outside and temperatures drop below freezing. While the ground is frozen, our greens—spinach, kale, swiss chard, and arugula—continue to flourish in their protected environment. Enjoy farm-fresh greens all winter long, perfect for salads, sandwiches, sautés, and smoothies!

  • Taste summer sweetness even before the season begins! Our high tunnel tomatoes are grown in a controlled environment, ensuring juicy, vine-ripened perfection with every bite. We grow a wide variety of both heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, so there’s sure to be a perfect match for every recipe and meal—whether you're making a fresh salad, a rich pasta sauce, or a classic BLT.

  • The summer garden is bursting with a variety of fresh, flavorful staples that bring every meal to life. From sweet and spicy peppers to fragrant garlic and crisp onions, we grow an abundance of seasonal favorites using sustainable, natural practices. Whether you're looking for bold flavors, essential ingredients, or fresh produce to stock your kitchen, our garden provides a rich selection to enjoy all season long.

A Forest’s Bounty

  • Our mushrooms start with the forest itself. We sustainably harvest hardwood logs from our woodlands and inoculate them with gourmet mushroom varieties, including lion’s mane, oyster, and shiitake. This traditional growing method mimics nature’s process, producing rich, flavorful mushrooms perfect for cooking. Whether sautéed, roasted, or grilled, our mushrooms bring deep, earthy flavors straight from the forest to your kitchen.

  • Often called “America’s forgotten fruit,” pawpaws are a rare, custard-like delicacy with a flavor reminiscent of mango, banana, and vanilla. Grown naturally in the understory of our woodlands, these nutrient-dense fruits are a seasonal treat, enjoyed fresh or incorporated into smoothies, baked goods, and preserves. Once you taste a pawpaw, you’ll understand why they’re a true forest gem!

Soil isn't just dirt—it's alive. It's a thriving, complex ecosystem filled with microscopic life that powers plant health, supports biodiversity, and holds the key to sustainable agriculture. At Mad Science Mondays Book Club, we're digging deeper—literally and intellectually—into what it takes to cultivate vibrant, living soil.

Our inspiration comes from a rich collection of foundational texts on soil health, including *Teaming with Microbes*, *The Rodale Book of Composting*, *The Farm as Ecosystem*, and several other transformative books. These works don’t just sit on the shelf—they guide how we think, garden, and grow.

But this isn't just a reading group. We're turning knowledge into action through hands-on experimentation with compost tea, a powerful tool for bringing soil biology to life. As we explore each book, we'll also be brewing, testing, and observing the effects of compost tea on our soils and plants. Together, we’ll learn what it means to feed the soil food web and create ecosystems that regenerate rather than deplete.

Whether you're a farmer, gardener, educator, or just soil-curious, you're invited to read along, get your hands dirty, and grow with us. Follow our journey, join the discussion, and discover how words on a page can transform the ground beneath our feet.

Mind the Gap: Community Supported Composting

I like to think of myself as a magician’s assistant—providing the conditions that help the transformation of what many see as waste with no value, into something full of life. With the help of worms, fungi, and bacteria, your food scraps and brown recyclables won’t end up in a landfill. Instead, they become rich, fertile soil that renews and completes the food cycle again and again.

Most people don’t think about what happens to their food after they’re done with it. That’s the gap in the food cycle—one we’re here to help you mind. Instead of tossing your scraps, join our Community Supported Composting program! For a small fee, you’ll receive a 5-gallon bucket to collect your food waste each week. Simply bring it to Cottin’s Hardware, to swap it for a fresh bucket. If you swap with me at Cottin’s Farmers Market on Thursdays, or Lawrence Farmers Market on Saturdays, as a thank you, you’ll get a discount on the purchase of produce your compost helped grow!

Pictured in Photo: Kevin Cottin and Robert Hickerson celebrate the Urban Conservation Award.

Changing the world, one bucket at a time—because good food shouldn’t go to waste.