Welcome, rain!
We’ve so needed and missed you! The cows are glad for the reprieve of summer heat and have noticeably spent more time this week snoozing in the barn or out on pasture in the mild temps. We are thrilled to see our girls so comfortable and happy. It has been a hot summer, the second hottest recorded July to be exact.
Without enough rain at the right times, our corn crop has suffered. We expect to get about 20% less of what we planned out of our fields. Some of the crop looks pretty good at a distance but doesn’t have any ears on it – some of it didn’t grow at all. Luckily, the hay crop did fairly well! We just got in our third out of four cuttings.
September is a big harvest month. We’ll bring in all our field corn to feed through the upcoming winter, spring, and summer. And farmers across the Valley will be harvesting pumpkins, squash of all kinds, apples, corn, and more delicious fruits and veggies.
Peach season is at its tail end, so we are squeezing in an Eat the Season event on Thursday, September 3 with Peach Shortcake! Sign up online, call, visit, or email us to place your order!
This coming weekend is Labor Day. We are fully stocked up in preparation of your backyard Cabot cheese burgers, farm raised steaks on the grill, Four Rex Farm tomatoes for slicing, and sweet corn, picked in the rain this morning with care. Don’t wait to place your orders for fruit salad, pasta salad, potato salad, tomato pie, veggie platters, mac & cheese, and more – 413-586-2142. We’ll also have mums to dress up your yard this week. AND this month, plan on picking up your pumpkins at your neighborhood dairy farm!
September also means back to school – though that looks a lot different this year. With area universities opting for virtual learning and limited on-campus enrollment, small businesses are bracing for the economic impact. Mount Holyoke College alone provides Barstow’s Dairy Store and Bakery with a substantial amount of business. Mountain Day sure won’t be the same – but spread the word that we’ll still be offering 10% off to all students, faculty, and staff with a valid, MHC ID on Mountain Day, whenever it is and however it looks.
And while we are seeing fewer students hanging at our picnic tables or popping in for an iced coffee and a muffin, one demographic that we have seen more of is NEW customers! It’s no secret that the Pioneer Valley is a great place to live, and that city life might not be all its chocked up to be in the era of COVID.
If you’ve gotten a new neighbor this summer, we hope you feel inspired to tell them about Barstow’s Dairy Store and Bakery! Please invite them to check out our website, follow us on Facebook, visit us for lunch, place their Thanksgiving orders with us, and you could also forward them this newsletter and tell them to subscribe! And don’t just share about us, share all your favorite local hangouts – restaurants, bars, bookstores, galleries, museums – local places need your continued support in these strange times, and that’s what community is all about!
Last thing to note, we changed the door direction at the store! We were worried people might enter without masks and wanted to spot it right away. Luckily, you all have been incredibly thoughtful and masked, keeping our team and customers safer, and keeping us in compliance with the Hadley Board of Health – thank you! Please visit us inside, 7-days a week, for shopping and order pick-ups, through the double doors, and exit via the porch.
Barstow’s is open until 6pm today and we have peach and cream cupcakes, peaches and cream pie bars, cheeseburger chowder, chickpea artichoke salad, and too many other delicious goodies to list! See you soon!