FABULOUS FRUIT from hepworth farms!

We hope to offer you a Fruit Share this year that will run for a total of 24 weeks. But weather-wise it is still too early to know for sure that Hepworth can produce a full 24 weeks of fruit. In 2023 the farm lost most of its peaches, cherries, and plums because the buds on the trees froze in mid-April. Only the late-blooming trees (that had not yet formed their buds when the freeze hit) went on to produce fruit. We had to shorten our Fruit Share to just 11 weeks. We hope that does not happen again!

We’re optimistic that we will have a full season of fruit this year, but we’ve decided to be prudent and divide our Fruit Share into two parts. Part 1 is a 15-week Fruit Share for $310, which will be available for purchase in the Check Store starting April 1. (If you purchase your 15-week Fruit Share in the Credit Card Store it will cost $320.)

We are confident that Hepworth will produce at least 15 weeks of fruit. But if the farm loses some of its stone fruit crop like it did in 2023, then we might need to skip a few weeks when you would normally be getting peaches, cherries, and plums. Our 15-week fruit share might end up being spread over 20 or 24 weeks.

However, if all goes well weather-wise, we should be able to offer Part 2 of the Fruit Share, which will allow you to purchase 9 additional weeks of fruit—or however many more weeks of fruit Hepworth can supply.

Here is our best case scenario: (1) Part 1 is a 15-week Fruit Share that starts on June 11 and ends on September 17. (2) On September 24 we begin Part 2 of the Fruit Share, which will run for 9 weeks, until our final CSA distribution on November 19.

By the end of June or early July, we should know how many weeks of fruit we can expect to receive. We will send out an email as soon as we know, and we will also update the FRUIT section of our website.

Most years, we can expect to get 2 to 4 different kinds of fruit each week. Most shares weigh about 5 lbs. (except for the weeks you get berries). Fruit shares are not pre-boxed. The share typically starts with two weeks of amazing strawberries and continues with blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries in July and pears and cantaloupe in August. From September to November you’ll get watermelon, gooseberries, ground cherries, grapes, apples, and more pears. Check out the photos of our 2022 and 2023 veggie/fruit shares here.

Here’s the kind of variety you can expect: BERRIES: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and gooseberries; PEARS: Bosc, Devoe, Clapp, Sickle, and Asian; APPLES: Gala, Sweeties, Golden Supreme, Cortland, Empire, Mystery Red, Mutsu, Fuji, Macintosh, Ginger Gold, Honeycrisp; GRAPES: Concord, Niagara, and Cayuga; plus ground cherries, watermelon, and cantaloupes.

​The melons are organic and so are most of the berries. But the humid weather in the Northeast typically requires some spraying to grow apples, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, and cherries. Hepworth Farms practices Integrative Pest Management (IPM), which means they spray only when necessary, using small amounts of targeted synthetic pesticides, which are less toxic to the microorganisms that live in the soil.

Please note: You can register for a Fruit Share without getting a Vegetable Share. The cost of a 15-week Fruit-Only Share in the Check Store is $310, equivalent to $20.67/week. (If you purchase your Fruit Share in the Credit Card Store you will pay $320, which is an additional 3%.) Fruit-Only share members must work three volunteer shifts, just like all veggie share members, and purchase a membership fee. Please check out Volunteer Info for details.