Confessions of a Grateful Farmer

1. My mom is out on the farm working as many hours or more to help this farming transition be successful. I am so very humbled by her love, daily help and endless support. (She also helps the neighboring farms as well, this woman has a heart of gold and my sHERO!)

2. By some miracle of God, I am making all my farm payments, paying all my bills and I have ZERO credit card debt! (Unbelievably grateful and in awe!)

3. I am working 7 days a week right now to get all my jobs done but I am satisfied with my work and things are coming together making me feel like one day there will be more days of rest in the winter months. (Dreaming of a glorious vacation in November!)

4. We have such an abundant and delicious crop of peaches this year. Come pick peaches these next weeks with your friends and family. (All the thanksgiving!)

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5. Our Cidery where we will press Apple Cider for our fruit stand and house our NEW Hard Cider plans is going to be finished TOMORROW!!! (Ah yeah!)

6. My lil home is almost complete and my move in date is set for one week. (Thankful for my contractors, for completion and that I did not go "nutso" waiting for them to finish.)

7. Our All Fruit CSA has been a "Wild Success," and I am getting so many thank you notes from our CSA family that they are devouring their box each week and that Thursdays are their favorite day of the week this summer.

8. I am so honored to be collaborating with so many amazing businesses in our region and so farmer proud to partner with some of my favorite eateries and breweries in a sustainable way!

9. Friends of Mt. View Orchards keep showing up each week and make the conscious decision to buy their fruit directly from our small family farm.  I cannot express how this makes my heart smile to be so backed by people that care about local farms and want to help sustain our way of life for generations to come. Existing customers are our life blood!

10. I love Dahlias and they are are in bloom and so very colorful and happy.  Come u-pick these flowers and make a beautiful bouquet for our home this weekend!

11. Our core values are growing high quality delicious fruit, being affordable, sustainable, kind and generous. I have made the decision to donate a portion of all our fruit harvest to the local Food bank so everyone in our region can enjoy fresh local fruit!

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12.  I make mistakes every day and have to apologize often.

13. "In most cases, being a good Boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way." (Tina Fey)

14. I believe in supporting the next generation of female farmers in our region and I bought a pig from a young farmer last week.  Come meet Oreo, the pig on our farm. He loves it here and all the fresh fruit.

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14. Trying to be my bravest version of my self. Harvest season is a combination of thrilling and terrifying and I am praying all the prayers that I will be carried through. (xoxo your grateful farmer)

Mt View's Delicious Collaborations Summer 2015!

I care deeply about growing food for the people of my region. I consider this a great honor and I think about all the many people who consume the fruits of my labor daily when I work my land. I care about the families who live on my orchard, social justice, financial justice, my land, trees, water resources, the environment, pest management, bees, birds, ladybugs, my barnyard animals, safety, sustainability, economics, surrounding Forrest lands, dogs and my neighbors. Being mindful of how my profession impacts my neighborhood matters to me and I want to continue to be a gift to those around me and bring abundance to those nearby. I feel lucky to be a farmer but I never really understood until I jumped in how much responsibility it requires and heart. Farming truly is a profession of faith, hope and love! I cannot be a farmer without my region befriending my farm and intentionally choosing to buy their food locally. My region needs farmers so they can eat well and farmers need consistent people buying their produce so they can continue to farm. It really is a beautiful and vital partnership. Farmers growing food with their region in mind and their region eating being mindful of sustaining their local family farms and farmers. This is a beautiful story that I'm choosing to be a part of every day and it always makes my heart smile when I see people coming to my farm consistently choosing to partner with me in return. You cannot farm just anywhere in the world. This region is especially great to farm because of our microclimate, water resources and amazing Parkdale loam soil. We are open today from 9 to 5pm if you notice there's no fresh local fruit in your home this would be a lovely day to come visit our farm. Everything is tree ripened and you won't be able to find anything that tastes this delicious in a big box store because everything is harvested a month before its prime. A huge Thank you to everyone who has befriended my farm it is so lovely to be backed by my neighbors and region. xoxox your grateful farmer 

Below are pictures of the many delicious eateries who have partnered with our farm and I invite you all to please go and visit these places this Summer and thank them for supporting LOCAL small family farms like my farm in our region

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Miss Zumsteins buys peaches from us each week at the Cully Farmer's market for her coffeecake!

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Boda's Kitchen makes their infamous peach tomato salad that is so refreshing and savory good!

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Old Salt buys our fruit wood for cooking and red sweet cherries for sauces and sweets!

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Jason French of Ned Ludd Stacking our bins filled with fruit wood for magical wood fired eats!

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Solera brewery is featuring our Bing cherries in a Chicken Salad Sandwich! Yes Please!!!

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Solera is making an intentional effort to support Parkdale Farmers, please thank them for this!

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Solera is serving fresh fruit mimosas each weekend featuring our local harvested fruit! Cheers!

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Solstice Pizza is featuring our peaches in a bourbon drink, salad and peach and sausage pizza! 

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This peach and blueberry cobbler at Solstice Pizza was one of the best i have ever had! Yum!

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Head down to Double Mountian and try our delicious collaboration. Peach Sour Beer! Cheers!

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Double Mountian cares about supporting Local small family farms! Please go thank them for this.

How to store your Mt View Orchard's Summer fruit!

This week as been quite full here on the Farm because our All Fruit CSA launched.  Our farm has 4 core values which are kindness, affordability, generosity and sustainability.  Our CSA had over 10lbs of freshly picked Bing Cherries and many perfectly tree ripened apricots.  I know many of our CSA family are going to be sharing their boxes but some may be wondering how to store this much delicious fruit?   We also have had many friends of our farm come and visit our farm stand and buy an entire box of peaches, apricots, nectarines blueberries, red sweet cherries and our sour pie cherries.  Some of your may be wondering what are some ways you can store your fruit to prolong its shelf life and or enjoy them in the colder months.

Many people are not aware that all of our fruit even when placed in ample refrigeration continues to ripen slowly.  Fruit is so special because it is perishable and will not last forever, even in a controlled atmosphere cold storage the fruit will still decay over time.  The carbohydrates/natural sugars in fruit are constantly converting and breaking down and their is a shelf life to fruit storage.  The fruit picked for big box stores is picked way before the natural sugars have formed and therefore they oddly will last much longer than tree-ripened fruit that you can purchase only from farmers and farm stands.  The fruit in big box stores always seems bland to me and mealy.  In my humble opinion you really should not be eating any fruit from the big box stores if you live in the Northwest.  There are so many amazing farmers and farms nearby your home that are producing each summer and fall some of the most incredible tasting fruit in all the world and there really is no comparison. Supporting your local farms and farmers is a WIN/WIN! Many of you of course already know this and I want to thank you for all your support of our small family farm.

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Here are some of my ideas for prolonging the amazing fruit harvests of Summer....

Red Sweet Cherries are one of my favorite fruits.  Cherries need to stay cool and should be refrigerated at all times to prolong their longevity. They can be stored in a paper, plastic bag or bowl.  I would not recommend leaving them on your counter because they are tree-ripened on our farm and sweet at candy. If you would like to enjoy them year round I recommend you pit them and place them in a freezer bag.  You can also dehydrate them or you may can them in mason jars.  I like the resource of "Food in Jars" if you want to learn more about putting up fruit for the winter.   They can be made into delicious jams, pie filling or your can cover them in sugar for a few days then place them in vodka(no need to pit them).  This last storage method is especially divine.

Our Peaches and Nectarines are also tree-ripened and must be refrigerated at all times.  They can be kept in their box or transferred to a bowl and enjoyed for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner.  There are many ways to enjoy peaches year round and they are one of the only fruits that taste very similar to their original version when canned. They will oxidize and turn brown as you store them so I always use a bit of lemon juice to prevent serious browning.  I throw them in a bowl of water with some fresh lemon juice in it to keep them bright and peachy before processing them. They are also delicious in fruit smoothies, jam, pie, pie fillings, fruit leather and dehydrated. I know some of my friends make chutney and conserve and there are endless possibilities for storing peaches. Cue the song....."Moving to the country gonna eat me a lot of peaches......"

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Blueberries are the easiest of all to put up for the winter  They also need to be refrigerated to prolong their shelf life and do amazing at staying fresh for long periods of time.  Give them a quick wash in cool water, then strain them and throw them in a bag to freeze.  Blueberries have the highest amount of antioxidants of any food grown in the world. We are lucky to live in the NW were they are prolific and fantastic. You should enjoy them fresh in the summer and frozen all year long.  I like to eat frozen blueberries in the evenings in lieu of a dessert. You can also make them into a blueberry crisp, syrup, smoothie, pancakes, jam, pie or in your oatmeal.

I know that the song, "its the most wonderful time of the year," is a Christmas song but as a farmer I really it is when all these fruits ripen and are ready to be enjoyed in the Summer.  I personally invite you all to come visit orchard.  Our farm is truly your farm.  I want you to see where your food was grown and get to the know land and trees that shares forward its bounty with you all all Summer.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has made the conscious choice to buy directly from our farm.  Your support has been so consistent and reliable and our hearts are full because of your friendship of our farm.  

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Last night at the Cully Market we liteally SOLD OUT of all the many fruit boxes we brought in from Mt. View Orchards and my heart was brimming over with gratitude and thanksgiving because you guys all came and made good homes for our freshly harvested, local fruit.  It also makes my heart smile when I see my amazing friends coming up to the farm each and every week to purchase fruit for their households.  This kind of intentional support is what every farmer dreams of. A thousand thank you's to everyone who has made our farm their own. 

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This is an amazing week to pack up a picnic and head to the country to enjoy our abundant harvests here at Mt. View Orchards.  We have 5 picnic tables set up and I hope to see you all soon. xoxo your grateful farmer.