spring whirlwind and diving into summertime
Members Only Quarterly Newsletter — 2026 Q2
Is there a stronger word than “whirlwind” to characterize the transition from spring into summertime? A tornado, perhaps?
Whatever the term, that’s what we’ve been living in these last several months! It feels unbelievable that just a week after I last wrote to you was when our farm stand was destroyed in a fire — an event that changed the focus of our year in an instant, and has occupied my mind and my daily work steadily ever since.
Despite being all swept up in fire aftermath, dreaming and planning, fundraising and logistics, and now the first steps of the rebuild, SO MANY other things have happened here at Osamequin since April!!
A few highlights for me —
Our annual art show featured the most artists we’ve ever had and the launch of our new tradition, showcasing one artist’s design as an annual tee shirt. The 2026 shirt was designed by our dear friend Brett Windham, a local artist who works a lot with cyanotype and representations of the flora and fauna around us. Her design floored us all and we’ve sold so many tee shirts for both kids & adults that we had to print more by the end of the plant sale! In addition to Brett’s shirts, the art show displayed art from elementary school aged children through octogenarians, in countless formats. The Mayfire Sessions concert in the field scheduled for the same day was sadly rained out (and then rained out AGAIN on it’s rain date! agh!), but we adopted several of the vendors who had meant to be at the concert, which was a fun addition!
Flowers by Apapacho Bloom, one of our longest-standing resident farmers, have been gracing the (temporary) farm stand since Mother’s Day. Cata’s bouquets are simply stunning, and there are new blooms coming out of the field each week, so it’s always a thrill to see what she creates. Cata stocks the stand Fri Sat and Sun, and she almost always sells out, so get here early in the weekend to grab yourself some floral cheer.
The memorial day plant sale continued its trend of getting bigger and better each year. We sent thousands of seedlings grown in our greenhouse home to your gardens, and had countless delightful conversations with gardeners of all kinds. Dane, our land stewardship coordinator, once again sold his seed grown fruit and nut trees under his nursery business Mothertree, and we were joined by our new artist friend Laura Lott who shared the dozens of hand carved stamps she’d made for the art show. Kids and grownups enjoyed stamping cards and patches with images of blueberries, stone walls, Charlotte the pig, happy little ducks and chickens, horses, and more! We worked with Laura again to stamp those same images onto flower-dyed napkins for our annual…
Field Brunch in June, featuring chef Dave Johnson! Seats at the table sold out quickly and no guest was left hungry; the meal was absolutely deeeeelicious! We changed up the location this year, hosting brunch under the shade of the oak trees behind the barn next to a pond full of cattails and lilypads. The scene was idyllic, the weather was textbook perfect, and Dave crafted a meal that I have not stopped thinking about. Dave will be back to host a dinner in the field in late September — do not miss it!!
Interspersed with our larger events have been the daily occurrences that make up a season. We held the open application period for our summer youth program and had more than 5x as many qualified and excellent applicants as we could accept. Our returning youth crew, the apprentices, began work with us on weekends in the spring and transitioned to weekday routines as soon as school let out. They’ve kept busy prepping and planting the fields, setting goals and intentions for the incoming intern class, and helping us harvest and donate several hundreds of pounds of produce already to our partner sites, Open Doors in Providence and the Murray Food Pantry in Attleboro.
We partnered with Babes Pie Co to host “fireflies and pies” which drew a huge crowd and did not disappoint, on the firefly or the pie front. My camera roll features a block of mostly black images from my feeble attempts at capturing the magic of a field swarmed with fireflies after dark.
We’ve done indigo dyeing and fairy house building, Snail Trails have snailed and trailed and we hosted a family hike with the Seekonk Library as well, we’ve gathered for lessons in the Harvest Garden, and we oriented a crew of volunteers in mid June. Our team on the ground has been tending to the crops, cranking out CSA shares each week, keeping the paths mowed and the invasives under control, grafting new varieties onto old fruit trees, organizing workspaces and learning new tools, attempting to level gravel and learning to start over when you have to. We’ve applied for grants, painted signs, designed new printed materials, hosted tours and birthday parties, and most importantly, we’ve been delighted to see you every chance we get! The seasons are each full in their own way, but throughout each chapter in the farm’s year, we cherish each opportunity we have to host you and each exchange, however brief or extended.
Thank you as always for being a part of our community and for making Osamequin Farm the special place we all love.
I’m really looking forward to next quarter’s newsletter featuring a look back on the REBUILD, which we fully expect to be completed and duly celebrated by the end of the summer. So many of you have contributed to the rebuild fundraising campaign — we cannot thank you enough! This has been a process full of hope and one that all of us pushing it forward are incredibly proud of. We can’t wait to share the new spaces with you at a grand opening celebration. Make sure you keep checking your emails for your invitation!
All my best,
Sarah Newkirk
Founding Director