Farm Report

by Bobby Blair

On a chilly Tuesday morning I began my fourth season of covering Holliston Farm activities. As I rounded the corner behind the farm stand I encountered a hooded Mikey Koshivas power washing plastic trays. It then dawned on me that Mike Koshivas who passed away suddenly last August wouldn't come greeting me from around some corner with a big "so what's going on Mr. Mayor".

I noticed a pummeled greenhouse that Jane Derrick had informed me had been flattened due to the weight of snow during a recent storm. Dean Koshivas was working on a furnace malfunction as I greeted Derrick, the farm manager, with a forgotten Christmas gift. Derrick was placing plugs into hanging baskets and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why she was placing lettuce in those pots. I realized the lettuce was in fact waxed begonias.

"We're managing; we must go on," Derrick told me in true 'steady upper lip English fashion' referring to the absence of Mike Koshivas. And so began another season at Arcadian Farm on Norfolk Street. It was heart warming to see family members pitching in to make this Holliston tradition happening for yet another year. I'm sure Mike is proud.

The heat is on at several of MacArthur's greenhouses on Concord Streetand as usual I got an ear full of education from Peter MacArthur. I asked MacArthur if the price of fuel oil was bothersome yet. He told me that he planned to hold prices steady, but that if the price of oil went much more over the $3.00 a gallon he was currently paying, then prices would start to rise. Unlike last year's cold March, MacArthur is hoping for temperatures to moderate next month. "We had a poor Easter season last year due to the weather, and I cut back on the number of Christmas trees I bought in November." MacArthur was busy tending to his tomato plants which will give him an early crop of hothouse tomatoes as early as Memorial Day, two months sooner than home gardeners pick that long-anticipated first ripe red fruit.