Confessions of a Grateful Farmer (Summertime)

1. Summer is one of my favorite times of the year because it is the season of harvests, warmth, BBQ's, birthdays, campouts, bike rides, weddings, spontaneous swims, sprinklers, homemade popsicles and sun tea!

2. I adore strawberries and for the past few nights they are all that I have had for dinner. U-picking berries in the summer is so magical and the most delicious activity you can do! We have been making strawberry jam because it sells out each year at the fruit stand. 

3. I love swimming in the lakes around our farm(Laurence/Lost) and cannot wait till the afternoons to get hot enough to jump in! So many fond memories swimming with my sibs.

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Lost lake!

4. Grateful that my my body is on the mend from the wreck.  The bruising was completely erased with the arnica cream that everyone suggested(a thousand thank you's) and I am head to chiropractor/massage regularly to get my neck muscles calmed down and relaxed again. So very grateful to be alive and healing well!

5. I learned that 1 out of 7 farms is ran by a woman. So grateful and honored to be one of them.

6. I have been attempting to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and so far I have lost 8 lbs!!!

7. We broke ground for our Apple Cider building this week!.  Coming soon sweet cider and hard cider at Mt. View Orchards! From our orchard to your glass!

8. My lil house is getting closer to being done every week and I am thrilled to have a place of my own soon!!! Its been over a year and folks, its time! 

9. June is the most expensive month to be a farmer but thankfully I haven't had a tearful melt down this month(yet :). I am finding my groove as a farmer and the financial piece isn't taking me out like it had been the months prior.

10. I am grateful to have a few life long friends and one is coming to see the farm this morning with her family.  I am so stoked when my people want to come and see what I have been pouring my blood, sweat and tears in this year and I cannot wait to show her around.

11. We have widened the farm driveway to our fruit stand so when we are busy in the fall we will have less of a bottleneck when people are coming into the heart of our orchard to get some fresh fruit.

12. We have a clean and abundant crop of apples, pears and peaches hanging on our trees and I couldn't be more thankful.

13. I believe sunshine shining through pear trees is one of the most beautiful things to see and sit under. 

14. I love eating outside in the summer and hope to start the Al Fresco dinners this evening!

15. I love cooking with fire!  Grilled veggies, fruit, meat, pizza dough, smores and an occasional hebrew national hot dog on a stick cooking in fire pit.

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16. We are going to have sweet, tree ripened Cherries at our fruit stand by the end of the month! June 26th!  There is absolutely nothing like a perfectly ripened cherry.  Hooray for SUMMER!

17. I am grateful to be a farmer, grateful for summertime and grateful for all the friends of our farm like you, friend.  Cheers! (xoxo your grateful farmer)

Grateful to be Alive!

On Sunday evening the 17th at around 530pm I was sadly in HUGE car accident. My first and (fingers crossed) hopefully my last car accident.  I was driving about 55 miles an hour in my mothers white suburban when a big red truck pulled left right in front of my vehicle. I had no time to break or react and I smashed into his truck at this painful speed.  For some odd reason, my airbag did not deploy so I hit my head and sternum very hard on the steering wheel and was knocked out briefly(my first concussion).  The wind was knocked out of my lungs and I couldn't catch my breath for many minutes.  The whole thing was absolutely terrifying and as I write this story my eyes are welling up with tears because I have never hurt so badly in my whole life.  I hadn't ever had a Cat-Scan, MRI or spent any time in an Emergency Department as a patient before.  I have never hurt so badly in all my 38 years and my entire skin surface from about my knees to the chest is one big purple bruise with many cuts from the glass exploding on me. I look like I have an organic full body tattoo. I am a believer and by some miracle of God, I didn't die and this blows my mind.  My mother explains that this intersection has been deadly to others but I was spared.  The older gentlemen who turned into me wasn't hurt badly at all and didn't need to go to the hospital.  I pray that he is doing well and is recovering from this tragedy. Life is short, life is fragile and I am grateful to be alive.  

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One of my favorite sounds is the rhythmic pulsing of the water flowing through our irrigation pipes sharing a drink with our thirsty trees on the farm. We have over 50+ acres and we run our water for 12 hour sets changing them morning and night. Water is crucial to being a farmer and this sound is very comforting to me because it is the sound of sustainability for our trees and farm. When I was a kid, I helped to change these pipes with my older sister for one of our summer jobs.  I have such fond memories changing pipes with her laughing till I would almost pee and having water fights.  Growing up on a farm as a kid is absolute bliss!  

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Good news our amazing contractors have started work on our Cider processing area this week so we can sell unpasteurized apple cider again at our fruit stand.  The above photo will be the place where we press all of our fresh pressed apple cider and start the fermentation process to make Hard Apple Cider!!!! Fresh pressed apple cider is one of my favorite things on the planet.  Total Nectar from Heaven! (High pitched Scream)  One day we will have a tasting room as well in the future if all this goes as planned.  From our orchard into your glass! Farm to table at its finest!

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Look at these tender pumpkin seedling shooting up for our Mt. View Orchards Pumpkin Patch in the Fall of 2015!  Grow babies grow!!!  I am so excited to have a pumpkin patch to invite you all to this fall.  What could be better than bright round pumpkins, fresh picked sweet corn, fresh pressed apple cider, u-picking our apples/pears and eating our autumn cookies at our fruit stand?  Absolutely Nothing!!

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I adore strawberries.  Berry season is always such a highlight of Summer and last weekend I was having some cabin fever from spending so much time in my bed recovery from my unexpected wreck that I talked my mother into driving me into the Willamette Valley to get some fresh picked Oregon Strawberries.  I realize I may be biased as a life long Oregonian but Oregon strawberries are the sweetest around.  We went in for 1 flat and came home with 9!!!  If you know my mother Ruthie at all you know that bigger is better and the more the merrier!  So that next day we made Strawberry freezer and cooked jam all day long.  The house smelled absolutely amazing and we filled out mouths with strawberries until we could not fill them any longer.  I am so grateful for berry farmers in the Willamette Valley.  Strawberries are a very difficult crop to grow and at one point my grandfather had around 20 acres of strawberry fields.  My mom has many memories of hoeing these fields for days in the hot summer sun. Picking strawberries for my grandfather Lew was my very first job.  I am certain that I ate more strawberries than I put in my bucket at the age of 7.  

A HUGE thank you to all my friends and family who have been praying for my come back and recovery.  I am feeling like my body is healing slowly but surely.  I am hopeful for my body to heal all the way(body, mind and spirit). I am a mere mortal this wreck has me hugging everyone a bit tighter and compelling me to share how much I love and appreciate my people every time that I see them. I know that we all die one day but I am indeed thankful that I didn't and I get to be a farmer here another year.  I am grateful to be alive and well and farming here at Mt. View Orchards.  xoxox your very purple but grateful farmer.

May at Mt. View Orchards

The month of May is a busy time at Mt. View Orchards.  We have started to thin off the extra bartlett pears, red d'anjou pears, all 50 varieties of apples and 12 varieties of peaches.   We are so grateful that we had such an abundant crop set this year on our faithful trees. Let's hear it for the Bees!  

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Grow Bartlett's GROW! When we thin we leave only the biggest baby pear and clip off the rest.

Thinning is an expensive but necessary task because if we left all the baby fruitlets on the tree they would be small, flavorless, there would be broken limbs in the fall and this would stress our trees in the long run.  We take great care of our 100 year old trees so they can be healthy and sustainable each and every year.  This is the earliest we have every thinned in 41 years because the season is running about 3 weeks early because of our mild winter.  Thinning is the 2nd most costly farming task we do one the farm besides harvesting our fruit so this month is going to be very tight tight tight! Farming is not for the faint of heart or for those who love to have ample savings accounts  Deep breath...... For farming is a profession of HOPE and I come from a long legacy of HOPERS!

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When we thin apples we leave the king bloom/fruitlet in the middle and clip off the outside fruit.

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So Grateful, I was concerned that the November freeze would kill all the cherry buds and we would have NO cherries this Summer.  I am happy to share that our cherry trees are alive and well and full of young cherries! Other farms weren't as lucky and have no cherry crop!

We have started irrigating our trees this month because it has been so dry and when we check our 3 tensiometers (they measure soil moisture) around the farm our soil is running quite unusually dry this month.  Last year we started watering our trees in July!  In June there is a natural "June drop" where the trees drop some of their extra fruitlets but if the tree is at all thirsty or water stressed it could drop ALL its fruitlets on the ground to save itself from becoming overwhelmed.  We are again so very grateful that we live at the base of Mt. Hood and belong to Middle Fork and we always have ample water every single year.  This I know is a gift and I am the most grateful farmer.  

I visited friends in Southern California a few weekends back and they are in a huge water drought and this has been extremely hard on farms and farming families. California grows a lot of our nations fresh produce so this is everyone's problem. To learn more about it google "California Drought" to find out more about this is shutting down farms left and right in America's Bread Basket.  I know having ample water is rare and we strive at our farm to be mindful of this and only water the recommended amounts and conserve this valuable resource.  Rain is really is a necessary gift and my heart always wells up with so much thanksgiving now when the rain begins.  Endless sunny days are beautiful but out of balance and we need the rain as well or we cannot grow food in our country. So everyone be praying for the rain here, there and everywhere.

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2015 Pumpkin Patch with Mt Hood in the background. Bring your cameras this Autumn Friends!!!

With the 70 degree temperatures the soil has been warm enough to plant our pumpkin patch and sweet corn for the Fall of 2015!  We have always had pumpkins at our orchard but this year we have kicked it up a few notches and have expanded the patch significantly.  We have moved the pumpkin patch closer to the farm stand where they have ample sun exposure so they can grow large and orange(fingers crossed). We have over 5 kinds of pumpkins and over 7 kinds of corn we are germinating this year on our farm.  The weather has been cooperating with us quite well because we had hot sun in the beginning of the week and last night we had some generous rain fall.  Fortunately without any hail.  

Hail has been an expensive problems for some of our farming friends in Hood River this year and we are again grateful so far to be spared from this total crop nightmare.  There are so many weather related threats that we are constantly trying to escape as farmers.  You really have to have a lot of passion and faith to be in this profession because one day of unexpected hail could cost you your entire crop and you could lose your land all together.   This has always been part of the gig but it still makes you feel rather vulnerable, especially when you are in your very first year.

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Oh Hail NO!!!

My amazing mother(Ruthie) went a little overboard and bought over 600 different kinds of dahlia tubers this year and the good news is that they all planted in the ground.  We also planted sunflowers and hollyhocks all over the entrance of our farm and we hope to be more colorful and fragrant when you come to enjoy the farm this harvest.  Our farm truly is your farm and I cannot wait to host you all when cherries are ripe in the middle of summer.  xoxo your grateful farmer

PS.  The Mt. View Orchards CSA is a GO!!!!! Thank you to all who backed me and to those are are still wanting to join.  Thank you to all who have sent their 100 dollar deposit and for those who have paid in FULL already.  Your checks that have come to me during this time of the year have been SO SO helpful and I am using 100% of this income all over the farm to plant our veggies for the Fall.  I sincerely wasn't sure if there would be enough interest in our CSA and my heart is FULL that all of you responded to the cause to Save our Farm!  Thank you, thank you, thank you! email me any questions at thegratefulfarmer@gmail.com