Confessions of a Grateful Farmer

1. I love fridays on the farm. Its my favorite day of the week and the Autumn season is absolutely magical on my farm. 

2. We finished picking all our winter pears and its been such a sweet relief!  We picked more pears than we have in years and they are big and beautiful. I am thankful we made it through our long harvest season from cherries to apples.

3. I am finding my groove as a farming boss and not being taken out by some of the relational conflict that being a boss requires. My grandfather used to always say get a degree in psychology not agriculture if you want to buy a farm one day. Such TRUTH!

4. There is never enough money at the beginning of the month but somehow there is always enough to pay all my bills. Its been a miracle each month. Last month cost me $90,000, not even kidding. 

5.  I am so thankful for my friends and parents who have loved me so well in my first year of managing the farm.

6. I am thankful for a good Father who always has a solid future and a hope for me despite my circumstances or set backs.

7. I am grateful for my loyal employees that show up every day and bring their very best. This is really so humbling that I almost cannot contain my gratitude..

8. I am grateful for music.  Especially really danceable music!

9. I am thankful for closure and calmness

10. I am grateful for my pastors and my church community who always rally for my dreams and show up for me in practical and tangible ways.

11. I am thankful that nothing is impossible for those who believe.

12. I am grateful that "though sorrow remains for a night, joy comes in the morning." Always xoxo your grateful farmer(Trina)

Pick your own Apples!

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Its a perfect weekend to come visit the farm and go apple picking.  Everything is running 3 weeks earlier than normal and I know many people wait till the end of September or October but if you like Gala's, Jonagolds, Macintosh, Honeycrisps this month will be a great weekend to come pick.  We also have all the varieties picked in our farm stand if you want to come pick some out of the bins.  

Invite your friends and family, bring a picnic and head up to the farm for some apple picking fun. Make a day of it! Thank you for supporting our small family farm. xoxo your grateful farmer.

Harvesting Hard and Elk Cove Vineyards

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Earlier this summer we started harvesting our cherry crop the last week of June and on Monday of this week we began our last harvest of 2015 on our season with Winter pears, Asian pears, Elberta Peaches and 70 different varieties of apples(including cider varieties) on our farm.  This ultimate harvest takes about 3-4 weeks to get picked off the trees so I imagine we will get everything into the barn by the end of September. This last push feels very encouraging and hopeful to me because I am frankly pretty exhausted and I cannot wait for the dormant(late fall/winter) season to come quickly. Running the orchard this year has been such a huge learning experience and though harvest time is so thrilling as a farmer its also a truck load of work and I have been pulling 12-14 hour days and working all the days of the week. There are 900lbs in one plastic bin of fruit and some of our amazing employees are picking 10 bins a day!  In the end we harvest around 1150bins of fruit in total on our farm. Growing delicious fruit for our region is our passion and pleasure from generation to generation.

This is a lovely time to come and visit the farm for apple, peach, italian prune plums, pear picking. Our farm stand is open from 9-5pm and it smells absolutely divine one the farm right now.  We are pressing fresh cider every week and we have hard cider fermenting. The mountain air is filling with all the amazing smells of September, my favorite month in Oregon.  The air is clean and crisp and smells like rich soil and sweet apples, tree ripened on the tree.  

Good news, my sweet relatives who own Elk Cove Vineyards featured me in their wine club this fall to talk about family farms being passed from one generation to the next.  My auntie and uncle (Pat and Joe Campbell) started Elk Cove Vineyards in 1974 and my parents helped to plant their estate vineyard back 40+ years ago. I come from a long line of farmers who show up for each other. If you enjoy wine please head out to their Vineyard for a tasting and let them know you love small family vineyards.  So grateful for the abundant crop hanging on our trees, sweet crisp apples and for our last harvest push, xoxo your grateful farmer (Trina)

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