July 2025 Farm Update

Wow, time sure seems to fly – especially when you’re farming! But we’re grateful for the wonderful days (especially as the rest of the world seems to be experiencing heat waves).

At this point, the farm is starting to feel much more like a “real business,” especially as sales come in and we increase the number of products on offer. We thank all of you for your support and encouragement – it’s not easy to start up a new venture like this, and there are plenty of moments filled with doubt.

State of the Gardens

Gardening sure is a practice that teaches you equanimity and acceptance. It seems like every year there are plants that do well and plants that don’t. You could dwell on the things you wanted but won’t get, but it’s best to enjoy the things that do well.

Rodents and cutworms have been our most damaging pests this year, and have wiped out several crops (broccoli and squashes especially). The grasshoppers have also started coming out in force and have totally cleared out several of our plants. Our only recourse is likely to be catching and eating them – a prospect that I look forward to much more than my kids.

A lot of our garden work this past month was focused on propagation, both to produce plants we can sell and to produce more plants for our own garden.

We had our first real heat-wave of the year, and had to take some action covering some of our beds. But mostly the weather has been perfect and the garden thrives.

Ice Cream

We ran a small-batch cherry ice cream special, and it was quite the hit! Of course, being the first batch we made in our new 4 quart maker, nerves ran high – will the texture be good post-freeze, or will we be selling icy, unpleasant ice cream? Our fears were quelled when we heard that it was “ridiculously good” and “the best dessert I’ve had in 10 years.” While it’s not a great money maker, it is fun to provide awesome ice cream specials, so we’ll be doing more batches in the future.

Flowers

Our flowers continue to surprise and delight us. The number of bouquets we’re producing continues to rise, and our house is constantly filled with amazing displays.

Lavender

We had a surprise harvest of lavender this year. Ours was small (our plants are still growing), but one of our neighbors offered a harvest, as well as our dear friend Amy. Our house has been absolutely filled with the scent of lavender this month as it’s made its way into bouquets, dried bundles, extracts, oil, tea, and more.

Mushrooms

The mushroom operation continues to ramp up. We have been starting new batches of mushrooms on a weekly basis. We started our first batch of mushrooms cultivated in half gallon glass jars, though those won’t be ready to fruit for several weeks yet (and that’s if this first batch is successful). The Rye harvest is complete, so we’ll also be doing our first experiments with pasteurizing straw for oyster mushroom production in buckets.

Vinegar

I took the opportunity of having an empty house for a few hours to reorganize all of our glassware and our wine storage. It was quite fun to look at the remaining stock of lilac wine, plum wine, cherry wine, apple cider, and various liqueurs that we’ve produced these past few years.

The wine and cider is nice to drink and share with friends, but a sizable percentage of what we produce actually ends up being turned into vinegar and used for cooking and preservation. We have a batch of plum vinegar that will be ready to harvest in another week or two, and started new batches of apple cider vinegar and plum vinegar.

Looking Forward

The first plums on our Santa Rosa tree are beginning to ripen, which is exciting – cherries are good, but the plum harvest is our favorite.

But, before that work begins, we’ll be harvesting the wild lettuce on our land. We’ve cultivated a patch in the “forest” area, but it also pops up as a garden weed and around the house. While not our choice for eating (it is extremely bitter), it can be processed into an extract and used as medicine. We’re going to give that a try for the first time!

Many of our nursery efforts will continue to grow in parallel. We’ve taken many perennial herb cuttings that hope will start to take root over the next couple of weeks. Our next focus will be propagating native edible plants, such as California hazelnut, local currants, thimbleberry, and more. We’ve also been saving seeds this year and will likely make seed packets available over the next month as well!