Confessions of a Grateful Farmer 2016!

1. So lovely to be BACK, friends.  I am thrilled to share with you all more stories in my 2nd year in this great adventure called farming. 

2. This time of year we are pruning all of our fruit trees on our small family farm.  We are about 1/3 completed(Shout out to my mighty men!) The goal is to give all the tree haircuts before the blossoms start popping out in April. its a bit of a race against the clock and the biggest barrier is often the weather. Pruning the trees is critical for abundant, flavorful harvests.  If you don't trim back your trees you will have small, tasteless fruit in the upcoming summer and fall. I enjoy pruning with my mother and find cutting back our skeletal looking fruit trees this time of year really cathartic and satisfying. (PS if you want a lesson because you have a few fruit trees in your back yard give me a holler and I would happily share any knowledge I have on the vital topic of pruning)

3. Good News, We have had a good amount of snow this winter and our snow pack on Mt. Hood is reported to be ample and abundant. I am so grateful to live at the base of majestic mountain and to have a generous source of irrigation water for my thirsty trees each and every year.  Listening to the soothing sounds of the middle fork river that flows by my land is such a gift.  I know that other drier regions are not as lucky as this grateful farmer.

4. The snow has began to melt at Mt. View Orchards and I have restarted my nightly prayer walks around the perimeter of my land.  Blessing my land, our upcoming harvest and praying for the sweet families that live and serve on our farm is my favorite thing to do at the end of the day.  Farming is such a profession of hope and I am so hopeful for the 2016 crops but have no guarantee of what they look like.  Thank you to all of you who pray for my small family farm as well.  I love being your farmer and care deeply about growing your local fruit in this region. 

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5. Cheers! I am persevering through all the permitting paperwork for our Cidery and I am pleased to announce we will have hard cider for this upcoming farm stand season and to serve at our elegant farm to table weddings. This has been a battle of perseverance, grit and heart.  Not giving up has been my goal and I feel like ROCKY a this point in the journey. I have taken some hits but somebody please cue Eye of the Tiger cause I think I am in my last round.

6. We are raising the roof today on our pole barn in our orchard meadow wedding venue.  Construction is coming along nicely and we should be finished with the project in April. Hosting weddings on our farm has been a tiny seed of a dream for the past 3 decades and my eyes are filling with tears of joy that this dream is finally doing true.  Calling all you dreamers and little girls who kept hope alive for the dreams in their hearts!!!   We are booking weddings and giving tours if you or anyone you know anyone would like to get married in the heart of an orchard at the base of Mt. hood. We would be honored to host your big day. 

7. Today I am heading in the Portland to attend the Oregon Psychiatric Association conference to get more continue education for being a Nurse Practitioner.  I love working in our local county jail and working with my amazing colleagues in community mental health here in the Gorge.  I love my sweet patients and serving here where I live is dreamy.  This part time job has completely covered my land payments each much and I am so thankful to work for the Mid Columbia Center for Living. (The Farm doesn't make enough to sustain me at this point so working off the farm is a must)

8. Farming is the ultimate surrender and trust fall. My 2nd year in farming I am having less tearful breakdowns when I am paying the bills and I wanted to share my go to anchor verse with you all. "You will keep in perfect peace, those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You."(Isa 26:3)  

9. We are getting ready to launch our 2016 All Fruit CSA, friends. I will blog about that next week so to be continued. Thank you to the 30+ families who committed to support local farmers and farms. We need more friends of our farm and I am hoping to double our shares this next year and have drop sites in Madras/Bend, West/Eastside Portland, Hood River, The Dalles and Vancouver. (15 weeks of our abundant fresh picked Cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, blueberries, plums, apples, quince and pears!)

10. I am so thankful for my warm lil farmhouse today.  Waiting to get through all the permitting issues and construction was an emotional and challenging chapter but this morning I am so so thankful and believe it was worth the wait.  Hold on to all of you who in the middle place of a hard chapter.  It will eventually pass and on the other side are rivers of gratitude and refreshing.

11. Moving back to carry on my families legacy initially was a shocking transition because I left behind so many dear friends in the city.  Today I am feeling so incredibly grateful for the old and new friends who have invited me into their stories and homes for meals.  I have learned to made friends with time and know that one day I will be connected with my life companion out here on the farm but the kindness and friendship of my community has meant the world to me as a single farmer.  Thank you for welcoming me home so well, friends and family.  So grateful to be good and backed by my home town. xoxo your grateful farmer

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Delicious Collaborations

What could be better than a small family farm collaborating with their favorite brewery? Well for this thirsty farmer who loves good beer....Absolutely nothing!  I have been over the moon these past months because we have had the honor of partnering with some of my favorite breweries and restaurants around town. As blessed as we felt for having such an abundant peach crop we were a little worried about how we were going to sell all our peaches at our fruit stand. We started thinking outside our realm and reached out to several restaurants and breweries here in the Gorge and Portland. Fortunately, several people were more than glad to oblige and we are putting a serious dent in our peach surplus. Today my brothers dropped off 250 pounds of our farm fresh peaches to Jerry Fechter at Lompoc Brewery on North Williams in Portland, Oregon. They're planning on making their famous peach-wheat beer with our fruit (keep an eye out for this one at Lompoc pubs soon). Then last week we dropped off 600lbs of peaches to Matt Swihart of Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River, Oregon. He shared that this Belgian style ale will be ready in 8 short months and we can all go down to Double Mountain and enjoy the Pêche Mode. Count me IN!! I love peaches. I love beer. Can't wait to see what other awesome beer concoctions come about with our fruit and with our favorite brewers!

The timing of these orders were absolutely heaven sent, because we have had such a bumper crop of our sweet 2014 peaches and it hurts us farmers to see them go to waste.  We love finding them good homes where the fruit of our labor can be enjoyed. The BIG bonus is that I also love preservation and fermentation and peaches can be easily enjoyed year round.   Friends who know me well, realize that I love celebrating other people's big WINS, and these peach sales are a big win for us!  I always keep a bottle of chilled cider or champagne in the fridge that I happily pop open for the smallest of occasions.  I confess that my brother's tease me for giving the sappiest and or most lengthy toasts at weddings or at birthday parties but what can I say, I love toasts and I love celebrating breakthroughs! Prost to our peach win!

Mt. View Orchards has had the pleasure of collaborating with some amazing Restaurants this summer as well, including Ned Ludd(Jason French), Old Salt(Ben Meyers), Miss Zumstein's Bakery (Anja Spence), Solstice Wood Fire Pizza and Bar(Aaron Baumhackl), Cicci Gelato(Theresa Labriola) and Chuck's produce in Vancouver Washington.  Farm to table at its finest! I am still reeling from the shock and awe of these delicious collaborations.

I have personally had so many delicious meals at these eateries and I am so grateful for their creative incorporations of our lapin cherries, elberta peaches, honeycrisp apples, bartlett pears, aurora blueberries and wild huckleberries on their scrumptious menus. I'm a fan of their work and feel honored to have something worthy to offer them as well.  We proudly went and tested our farm fresh fruit when they debuted at the various establishments. Bravo!   From Peach pizza, fruit desserts, cherry sauces over tender pork and polenta, peach gelato, blueberry muffins, canned peaches and pears to pies and jams. We also sold our Mt. View Orchards fruit wood and could smell the sweet and smoky aromas of seasoned pear wood filling the air and the crackling heat inside the wood fired ovens making for some fantastic fire cooked food. Fruitwood + fire + peaches =Summer magic!

 Choosing to buy directly from a farmer is a win/win. The customer gets their fruit at an affordable price and there is no middle man that takes a cut away from the farmer. This is exactly why we want to work directly with restaurants, breweries, farmers markets and through our fruit stand. There is no real comparison going to a farm and meeting the farmer that proudly grew your fruit.  Big box stores and grocery stores are convenient but lack the soul, story and beautiful scenery of Mt. View Orchards.  Small family farms are sadly on the decline in the states but what keeps them alive and thriving is when they have a loyal customer base who continually comes throughout the season and each and every year.

Though it is impossible for me to honor every person that comes to support our farm, I want you all to know that when I see familiar faces show up at our fruit stand each week my heart is always full of gratitude. As great as all these wholesale orders and partnerships are, the truth is that every sale, big and small, keep us going.  It warms my heart to hear from newer customers that they were referred to us by a friend, or saw my blog, or just felt like bravely following our lovely new signs and coming over to see us.  Our farm stand is not on the main highway, but is sweetly tucked away in the center of a 50 acre orchard. Sometimes that can make it challenging for people to find us, but we have been so blessed by loyal customers that come faithfully each year and invite their friends and family as well.  We are also grateful for the brave new customers that veer off the main drag of the fruit loop and come west towards Mt. View Orchards. Thank you ALL!

A group of cousins picking peaches together this August at Mt. View Orchards.

 I know I am biased, but I believe that our orchard is really a special place and one of the friendliest farms around.  We love being farmers and growing beautiful and affordable fruit for all who come to visit us. One of our core values is to really value our customers at Mt. View Orchards.  With all my heart, I want to thank everyone for their continued support and I also want to thank the many eateries, breweries and numerous non-profits that choose to partner with Mt. View Orchards.  My eyes are filled with tears of joy as I write because never in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined that so many people would want to collaborate with us.  I consider your partnerships a precious gift and I am a grateful farmer.

A happy little farmer picking cherries this July at Mt. View Orchards.