Confessions of a grateful farmer

1. I am so grateful for my mother and her 60+ years of experience farming.  She is a pioneer as a female farmer and loves our small family farm. She is an amazing teacher, friend and mentor. I love carrying on my families farming legacy and being a female farmer like her.

2. I am grateful that we are over halfway completed with our pruning.  This is critical for shaping our trees for the upcoming harvests in the summer and fall. We have 50+ acres so please pray we might have more people show up looking for work because blossoms come in april and we need to be done soon.

3. For all the swollen buds on our fruit trees and the hope of a harvest this year.

4. I am a farmer who ferments! For the upcoming Wassail Cider party. This is our 2nd year singing to our trees to awaken them from winter.  We are a farm that gathers and I am so excited to reconnect with friends again and pray for our cider trees this month. 

5. For my new farming friends in town who share meals with me and laugh about our stranger than fiction lives as farmers.

6. I made it through tax season(just barely) and am still able to pay all my monthly bills and keep this small family farm afloat.  I love farming, the farming finances has been scaring the bejesus out of me each month since the start.

7. For all the friends of our farms sending in there $600 deposits to join our All Fruit CSA 2016.  For more information about this please head here.  Buying farm direct really helps allow young farmers like me to remain in farming so please consider joining and befriending our farm.  Lets cut out the middle man already and give our farmers a 50% raise on the beautiful crops they grow. Buying local matters! Get out of the big box stores and head to a farm when you want fresh food!

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www.mtvieworchards.com/csa/

8. For all the lovely couples that have fallen in love with our Orchard Meadow and want to get married here this Summer and next.  Stay tuned for a Wedding Give away coming soon, friends.

9. For a warm home, warm baths and warm coats and farming in the winter cause baby its cold outside.

10. I am grateful for our ample irrigation water, even though it tripled in price!!! (Yikes)

11. For our dried comice pears to munch on when I am riding on a tractor and needing a snack!

12. For speaking events and invitations to share my love of farming with others. Always honored and love that the female farming project is well received.

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13. I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family and dreams that turned into reality, xoxo your grateful farmer, Trina

Is Mt. View Orchards Fruit Organic?

I wanted to write a blog today to talk about our pest management practices at Mt. View Orchards.  We care for our land and how we raise our fruit matters to the friends of our farm so I thought I would share more about our farming philosophy because I think there are a lot of questions and concerns about we protect our trees, bees, people and harvests here on the farm.

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As many of you know we live right in the heart of our 50+ acre orchard.  My dear ole parent's home was completed 6 days before I was born and growing up here as a farm kid was absolutely magical.  I have so many fond memories running through sprinklers with my sibs, catching frogs, picking peaches, milking our dairy cow Alice and picking apples right off the tree to take to school with me as I walked to the bus stop.  

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My parents went to University of Oregon in the 60's and were school teachers in the Eugene/Springfield area till they got pregnant with my older sister and decided they wanted to grow fruit for their community. So they moved back to Parkdale and farmed right besides my grandparents and aunties and uncles here in the Hood River Valley in the early 1970's.

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The style of pest management we use here is called Integrated pest management (IPM). IPM is an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. Soft sprays are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed according to established guidelines, and treatments are made with the goal of removing only the target organism. Pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, beneficial and nontarget organisms, and the environment.

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We are farmers who love love love bees, lady bugs, swallows/birds, fish, rivers teaming with life, rich soil, their loyal employees, their families, their kids, their neighbors and our communities.  We are a generous farm and we provide fruit each and every year for local schools, youth groups, non profits, the oregon food bank, the Christmas project and more. We grow fruit for our communities and we care deeply about growing a harvest that is equally safe as it is delicious.  It is very expensive to grow fruit and we cannot afford as farmers to certify organic.  But it is our commitment to grow fruit for you all and we feel ethically good about raising. Mt. View Orchards is our HOME and want everything farmers here to be 100% safe for all living creatures.  

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Did you know we have an All Fruit CSA and we would love for you to friend our farm and consider joining it. Please sign up here. xoxo your grateful farmer, Trina

Sign up today to join our All Fruit CSA!!!

I have had many loyal friends of our farm ask me how they can help save the farm and help shoulder the costs of sustaining an orchard as a young farmer.  One of the ideas that I came up with is starting an all fruit local CSA.  That's right ONLY FRUIT. Including a generous amount of cherries, blueberries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, apples and pears all freshly harvested from our orchard.   If you would be willing to commit to joining Mt. View Orchards CSA and invest now to help out this will be a lovely and delicious partnership that would be a real practical way to invest in our farms future.

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I love when our CSA families come out to the farm to taste and see where their fruit has been raised all year. Look as these adorable young farmers harvesting with all their farming hearts.

Joining the Mt. View Orchards Community Supported Agriculture 2016 is a lovely way to partner with your grateful farmer and experience the local growing season.

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Bushels of Honeycrips for days!

CSA members of the farm purchase a share in advance (MARCH), committing to the farm for the season and helping cover the initial annual costs of the farm operation. In return, members receive boxes of the farm’s produce or products throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and being more knowledgeable of local food production. Once harvesting begins(July), members pick-up a weekly box of fresh fruit.  There is no need to buy tasteless fruit in big box stores that were harvested long before their natural sweetness has fully developed. When you can buy directly from your local farmer who grows fantastic, tree-ripened fruit for their region. Its a WIN/WIN! Buying directly from a farmer matters. Its a better price for both of us. Please consider buying locally and friending my farm.

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There is nothing like a perfectly ripened local Oregon peach!

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Yes you CAN preserve your peaches for the colder months.

Dates: July 11th to October 24th-(16 weeks)

Available Drop Locations: Portland(West/Eastside) Our farm, Hood River, The Dalles

Attention: Madras/Bend if we can get enough CSA members to join(40 households needed) we want to start a drop site there. Also potential drop sites are in White Salmon and Vancouver, Washington(40 households needed) Consider talking to your friends and neighbors about the the opportunity of partnering with a local farm/farmer in their community for this delicious collaboration.

What if I go on vacation? Donate your box to your neighbor/friend or we can donate it to the Oregon Food Bank.  We are a generous farm and love offering fresh local fruit to everyone in our region

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Our CSA family rocks! So grateful to be backed by you all! 

WE RUN A FULL SEASON CSA FROM THE 11TH OF JULY THROUGH THE END OF OCTOBER.  16 WEEKS - $600

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10 lbs of bing cherries and Apricots!  Shoo honey!

Each week members receive 3/4 bushel of fresh, seasonal local fruit along with a farm update and recipe/preservation suggestions.  Be ready for some unexpected bonuses too!

Its an ample and generous amount of fruit and some households share their weekly CSA box with another CSA family and other CSA families plow through their whole box each and every week! 

Last year, 30 households joined us in our first year and I would love to invite you all back to carrying on your partnership with our farm in 2016!  I am hoping to double our CSA shares this year friends, and ask you to consider signing up for the Mt. View Orchards 2016 All Fruit CSA!   Thank you to everyone who has responded to the call to help save my small family farm.  Sure do love you all and appreciate your support, xoxo your grateful farmer. 

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I love being your farmer and thank you for partnering with me by joining the 2016 CSA