Whew! There is a lot happening on the Farm right now!
We’re deep into the harvest of so many of our late-summer crops — chard, broccoli, green beans, cabbage, basil, peppers, and lots and lots of tomatoes. And just now, we’re beginning to harvest one of our favorite summer vegetables: eggplant.
Whew! There is a lot happening on the Farm right now!
We’re deep into the harvest of so many of our late-summer crops — chard, broccoli, green beans, cabbage, basil, peppers, and lots and lots of tomatoes. And just now, we’re beginning to harvest one of our favorite summer vegetables: eggplant.They’re glossy, beautiful, and so delicious. We’ll be grilling some this weekend, which feels like exactly the right way to celebrate them.
And, of course, harvesting means preserving. Our kitchen has been busy turning the abundance of the Farm into things we’ll all enjoy long after summer has passed. This week we’ve been making roasted tomato salsa, dilly beans, and blueberry rhubarb jam.
We’re also at the very beginning of our big hazelnut harvest — and this one has us moving quickly!
Our hazelnut trees are absolutely loaded this year. We’ve learned that one of the best ways to harvest ripe hazelnuts is wonderfully simple: shake the trees. The ripe nuts will fall right off the branches.
So that’s what we’re doing. Every day.
We shake, the hazelnuts fall, and we gather them up. And all the while, we’re keeping an eye on the squirrels, who have discovered the same bounty we have. It’s a race.
Once harvested, the nuts will be dried and cured. It’s incredibly rewarding to grow a crop that takes years to establish and then, finally, be harvesting the nuts from trees we planted ourselves.
We grow a lot of flowers that take our breath away, but this year feels like it’s the year of the sunflowers!
They are breathtaking right now — big, bright, sunshiny faces blooming all over the Farm. Everywhere we look there seems to be another patch of yellow catching the late-summer light.
Our move to get our hens out on pasture - finding a trailer, remaking it into a chicken “tractor”, and then slowly encouraging the hens to accept it as their new coop…is a huge success story this season.
The hens are moved from pasture to pasture every few days, following the fresh grass and exploring new ground. They absolutely love it — the beautiful vistas, the sunshine, the bugs, and all that delicious new grass.
It’s hard to believe how hesitant they were about the change when we first began moving them. Now, it feels like a dream come true for them. And really, it has been for us, too.
It’s a wonderfully busy time on the Farm — full of food, flowers, sunshine, and a little friendly competition with the squirrels. We’d love to have you visit - our Farm Store is open every day, 9 to 6, and our online store is open 24/7.
