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FRUIT
The former owners of the property on Ferry Road planted fruit trees when they moved here in the late 1990s. The 20 year old orchard we inherited was sorely under-managed, unpruned and diseased. Three years of major pruning brought the existing trees into line.
The main orchard consists of apples, pears, asian pears, cherries, a walnut and one pluot. Records kept of varietal names was marginal. We’ve done out best to guess what is here. We interplanted interesting varieties including some pink fleshed apples, a number of asian pears and a few persimmons, plus a selection of stone fruit suited for the area on the margins.
Previous owners had also planted 10 Lapin cherry trees, which were terribly over grown and “in 20 years we have not gotten one cherry” they said. We took down 8 of the trees which were so tall you could barely harvest on a ladder and later discovered that it was not birds, but raccoons which had been demolishing them. Add a couple terriers to the mix? No more raccoons. The two remaining Lapin cherry trees produce more than we can ever use.
The back orchard consists of 10 ginger gold apples, an early sport of golden delicious which ripens early august. Why anyone needs ten of them I don’t know, but they are here and produce copious fresh cider, apple chips, apple sauce and more. Additionally they had planted 10 scarlet galas, of which only 4 survive. We increased a small plot of plum trees on this side of the house from 4 existing trees to 10 including some of the more delicious asian plums and a few pluots.
Finally, we installed a dedicated cider orchard, some 40 trees, most heirloom cider varieties english, french and traditional american as well as six Perry pears. Now in it’s 5th year we expect to see fruit and produce our first batches of cider in the next few years. As well we hope to preserve and proliferate these rare varieties through grafting.
In addition to the trees, we also have a rocking berry patch, with six types of cane berries. We also grow strawberries, blueberries and a multitude of grapes.
Complete List of Fruit
Complete List of Fruit with descriptions, history, cultivation notes
Purchase Scion
FLOWERS
The farm boasts a plethora of flowers, spring through autumn. Our main collections are Dahlias and Roses but at any given time you may see lillies, irises, gladiolus, calendula, delphinium, peony, hardy hibiscus, coneflowers, hollyhock, foxgloves, columbine, poppies, sunflowers, snapdragons, bachelors buttons, zinnia, salvia, pincushion flower, strawflower, love-in-a-mist, achillea, penstamon, geum and many more.
People often ask why we have so many flowers and do we sell cut flowers? The answer to this is no. The cut flower industry is tough, requires substantial refrigeration for storing and transporting flowers and also requires “perfect” specimens. No, the reason we grow so many flowers is “wonder and beauty.” Flowers increase the amount of pleasure and joy we can experience on a daily level. We enjoy spreading this around and generally cut bouquets for our visitors just to see them smile, and as “tips” when we hire labor and so forth.
We also grow flowers for the bees and other foraging insects, to increase the diversity ( and more joy) on the farm.
FIBER
Wool, cotton, linen. These amazing fibers and the traditional methods of processing them are nearly obsolete in our polyester world. As people interested in doing things long-hand, the old-fashioned way, we are committed to producing high quality fiber, even if it is on a very small scale. Like slow-food, slow-fiber means a deeper connection to seasonal cycles and processes. We select our sheep breeds for their wool and use traditional methods to turn the wool into yarn.
After shearing the sheep, a traditional skill in itself, the fleece is skirted. This is the process of removing dirty or coarse fiber from the edges and also removing any “second cuts” or short pieces from the shearing process.
The fleece is then cleaned or scoured to remove dirt and lanolin. Some hand spinners like to process their wool without this step, this is called spinning in the grease. Lanolin is a natural oil produced only by sheep. It is the only oil that is truly water soluble. Once the wool is scoured with hot water and a gentle soap, it is then carded or combed out to a fluff cloud before spinning. For lazy handspinners like me, these first two steps can be done by a wool mill. I send my wool out to be scoured and carded into what is called roving. Roving is a rope of combed out wool that can be easily drafted, or pulled, while spinning.
A wool mill can also process your wool into yarn to your specifications. Some small mills offer knitting or weaving services so that you send out the raw wool and get back socks or rugs or whatever. Sadly, these services are not cheap and it makes it hard for the small producer to make any gain on their products. There is an excellent map of small fiber mills working in the US here.
Once I get my roving back from the mill I spin it by hand and wrap it into skeins. I sell them as is in the natural colors or dye them with natural plant dyes that I grow and extract here on the farm.
In addition to the wool, I also keep a handful of angora rabbits. The angora fiber, which is incredibly soft is combed from the rabbit and spun raw without washing or combing. I call this yarn “Rustic Rabbit.” Angora doesn’t have the same crimp that wool has, so it is much less springy or stretchy and benefits by being combined with a small amount of wool.
While I don’t keep my own high quality fiber alpacas, as a shearer I have access to this fiber as well, which I sometimes blend with my wool.
PELTS
We produce gorgeous pelts from our lambs which are available for sale to the consumer. After removing any flesh or fat from the wet skins, they are salted to dry, then rolled up and shipped to a commercial tanner. While this is not cheap, it produces a pliable washable pelt which with care can last a lifetime. Our pelts are next to skin soft. Because we maintain a mixed breed flock and our lambs are crossbred for vigor, the finished pelts range from light & silky to plush and dense.
