At SOLERA brewery each weekend they are serving our fruit in Mimosas! Cheers!
This morning I am full of much excitement because a lovely gentleman named Jason Albert, came by the our farm to get my perspective on farming in the Hood River Valley as a young female farmer for National Public Radio(pinch me now!). Being on NPR is a total dream come true and I couldn't be more honored to be the voice of farming in our area. We spent most the morning together walking around the farm and talking about being a new farmer, farming, growing quality fruit, friends of our farm, building a loyal costumer base, our amazing CSA, sustainability, pest management, finances, wind tourism, agri-tourism, The Hood River County Fruit Loop, making hard cider, the future wedding venue that re going to happen on our farm 2016, farm to table dinners in the orchard, u-picking peaches and collaborating with many hyper-local eateries and breweries.
He loved my voice and my fresh farming perspective and encouraged me to start doing more speaking engagements, radio and video blogging(Vlogging) because he believes that I have a unique vantage point in farming as a 3rd generation farmer in the Hood River Valley and a stunning radio voice. So stay tuned....
I cannot believe we are in the middle of August already. This week we started our Bartlett pear Harvest and I am happy to share that this is our last day! We pick those pears fast and furious and try to get all 600+ bins(900lbs) of Bartlett pears picked and in the barn in 5 days. We made it! It is a high stress week and I am so very thankful and proud of all the loyal families who work here on my farm who help us year and year pick so many pears in 5 days. Deep sigh of relief....
Gravenstein apples are in their prime and we have many friends of our farm coming down and buying large quantities for apple sauce, pie filling and for making pies. There is a lovely unique aspect of a Gravenstein that gives it amazing richness of flavor. It is somehow both tart and sweet and the complexities are mind blowing. We have them at our farm stand each day from 9-5pm until we sell out. (We also have gravie pie on the weekends!!!!!)
Good News, we now are FULLY approved and licensed to start pressing sweet cider again at Mt. View Orchards. Man, was that an arduous process and required a lot of steadfast perseverance and grit but it looks like we made it! I am hopeful to have fresh pressed cider as soon as our labels arrive to sell to all our Cider lovers out there. it was very expensive to get our cidery up to par so please consider coming and getting a gallon directly from our farm today to keep up going strong and in the cider business! We are also going to start fermenting cider this weekend as well. Hard Cider lovers our Cider will be available some time this Fall!! Cheers!
We still have plenty of u-picking peaches on the farm and I invite you all to come visit our orchard in the next few weeks and pick our peaches. We have so many this year and they are looking for good homes. We love all ages and coming and picking fruit on a small family farm is really fantastic. We have them to sell for $1 a pound and its a lovely time to come up and pick our peaches. I am so grateful that we just sold 800lbs to Double Mountain again this year and if you haven't gone down and tried our peach collaboration beer called Peche Mode, get down there stat! Its so very lovely and easy to drink!
My dear friend and favorite pie making Allison is making Gravenstein Slab pie each weekend and we have them for sale at the farm stand until they sell out. They are so delicious and tasty and go fast so if you get here early on a Saturday you will be in luck and I invite you to try our Gravenstein Slab Pie soon!
I am so grateful for another successful Bartlett pear harvest, for our new Cider license, for future hard cider, for future weddings, apple pie, sweet loyal families that come pick our peaches, local eateries and breweries who care about local, sustainable farms, good health, abundant harvests and National Public Radio caring about young female farmers like me. My heart is FULL!