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. 

View fullsize

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

View fullsize

Confessions of a Grateful(and very spent)Farmer!

1. I cannot be a farmer with out friends of our farm and you guys have blown my mind by all your consistent, generous and strong backing of Mt. View Orchards in my first year!

2. I was in a crazy bad accident in May and I am so grateful to my good Papa that nothing was broken and I am no longer pain.  Recovery and Restoration are sweet sweet gifts and my heart is full.

3. We are closer than ever in having our Hard Cider ready and I cannot wait to debut this here on our farm.  Thanks for all the patience and encouraging emails and texts as we wait for the rest of our permits to arrive.

4. I have loved and I have lost this year a few times but I still believe in love and know one day that my man will come and find my on the farm one day...

5. You guys bought almost 2000 gallons of fresh pressed cider from us this year and were so very supportive of our Cidery this year.  A thousand thank yous. 

6. I have some friends who every week would look at me and say, "You've got this, its gonna get better, or you will get through this."  These words of life kept me afloat and kept me from losing my mind in some pretty brutal waits.  Good Friends are my most rich resource and I am forever grateful for all the love and support this year.

7. To this day I will not be able to tell you how I was able to pay my bills each month.  Sincerely it was a flat out miracle. I never had a month but somehow the money was always on time.  I paid every single bill and paid all my employees on time.  

8. The 2015 harvests were so abundant and sweet.  Every year is so different and as a farmer you never know what you are going to get and I am thankful for such a big, beautiful and clean crop.

9. I am a wildly hopeful person and farming is the ultimate profession of hope so we are a good fit for one another.  I think I will stick around another year. 

10. I say it a lot but because its the most true thing in my life. I hit the jack pot in good parents and I am so grateful for all their endless help and work this year making my 1st year so amazing.  I tear up when I think about my mother especially and all the generosity she freely extended to me this year so I could be successful.  Always thankful. xoxo your grateful farmer,(Trina)

Mt. View Orchards Apple Cider Caramels

View fullsize

Apple Cider Caramels
From The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Apple cider (sometimes called sweet or “soft” cider) is different from both apple juice and the hard, or alcoholic, fermented apple cider. It’s a fresh, unfiltered (it has sediment), raw apple juice — the juice literally pressed from fresh apples. It’s unpasteurized, and must be refrigerated, because it’s perishable. I am happy to announce that we make fresh pressed apple cider here at Mt. View Orchards and this year we are also selling Apple Cider Caramels.  Many have asked for the recipe so today I am sharing it forward. 

4 cups (945 ml) apple cider
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, or less of a finer one
8 tablespoons (115 grams or 1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (110 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy cream
Neutral oil for the knife

Boil the apple cider in a 3- to- 4- quart saucepan over high heat until it is reduced to a dark, thick syrup, between 1/3 and 1/2 cup in volume. This takes about 35 to 40 minutes on my stove. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, get your other ingredients in order, because you won’t have time to spare once the candy is cooking. Line the bottom and sides of an 8- inch straight- sided square metal baking pan with 2 long sheets of crisscrossed parchment. Set it aside. Stir the cinnamon and flaky salt together in a small dish.

Once you are finished reducing the apple cider, remove it from the heat and stir in the butter, sugars, and heavy cream. Return the pot to medium- high heat with a candy thermometer attached to the side, and let it boil until the thermometer reads 252 degrees, only about 5 minutes. Keep a close eye on it.

(Don’t have a candy or deep- fry thermometer? Have a bowl of very cold water ready, and cook the caramel until a tiny spoonful dropped into the water becomes firm, chewy, and able to be plied into a ball.)

Immediately remove caramel from heat, add the cinnamon- salt mixture, and give the caramel several stirs to distribute it evenly. Pour caramel into the prepared pan. Let it sit until cool and firm—about 2 hours, though it goes faster in the fridge. Once caramel is firm, use your parchment paper sling to transfer the block to a cutting board. Use a well- oiled knife, oiling it after each cut (trust me!), to cut the caramel into 1-by-1-inch squares. Wrap each one in a 4-inch square of waxed paper, twisting the sides to close. Caramels will be somewhat on the soft side at room temperature, and chewy/firm from the fridge.

Do ahead: Caramels keep, in an airtight container at room temperature, for two weeks, but really, good luck with that.

We are open 3 more weekends, 7 days a week, 9-5pm up here at Mt. View Orchards and I personally invite you all to come out and stock up on fruit and cider for the holidays. xoxo your grateful farmer(Trina)