Q: ARE DOGS ALLOWED AT THE FARM?
A: Due to the pick your own nature of our business, we have been asked by our local Board of Health to not allow animals to be part of our customer base. Sorry! We do love animals, but we try to respect this request.
Q: DO YOU ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS?
A: Yes, we accept Visa and MasterCard at our Farm Store.
Q: IS CIDER HILL FARM ORGANIC?
A: This is probably our most frequently asked question of all time. We are not certified organic. We grow our fruit and sweet corn using IPM (see next question) and most of the rest of our vegetable production is pesticide free. We have tried experimenting with organic orchard production, and after five years, determined that the quality of that fruit was unacceptable. Our climate encourages high populations of insects and diseases to build in New England, making organic control of perennial crops such as fruits to be quite a struggle.
Q: WHAT IS INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT?
A: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) requires scouting, trapping and monitoring of insect and disease populations coupled with degree day data, weather data and knowledge of damage thresholds allowed to make decisions on whether controls will be applied to specific crops. Materials used are carefully selected which are not harmful to natural predator populations (insects that eat bad insects).
We find that in a wet spring, when we apply fungicide to strawberries in bloom, there is no need to spray fruit at all. This simple step allows our fruit to have no absolutely no chance of residue, while we have knocked botrytis (gray mold) innoculum out of the picture. We actually allow many insects to have their day here without the need for us to spray, because we know they do nothing more than a little cosmetic damage to a crop.
Q: WHAT IS A CSA, AND IS CIDER HILL FARM INVOLVED WITH ANY?
A: CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture and is certainly a very popular concept these days. Basically, you prepay for a season's share of fruits and vegetables (usually about $600) and take your share of the harvest from a weekly pickup at the farm for 20 to 25 weeks. This gives the farmer starting capital, and brings you into a relationship of risk when it is a true model CSA. Click Here to learn more!
Q: WHAT IS GLENN’S FAVORITE APPLE?
A: This changes almost every year. It has been Mutsu, Honeycrisp, Gala and even Empire. Last year, I just loved the Braeburn - so crisp and tart! This year, it was Macoun and Ambrosia. Never dull, that's what I say.