Farm Update

for Summer 2025

Let’s start with what we completed. The new apple barn is finished. What do you think?

Sliding door on the side, barn doors in the front.

This took almost two months, all of July and August. I had two men help with the trusses and the roof, and of course there was a mason who did all the concrete and block work. Overall I think it turned out ok. I sealed the floor inside and will start to add the lights and outlets this week. Then it’s move the equipment in and get ready for apple harvest. This is my last construction project. I’m too old for this much fun!

The orchard looks good this year. I have the scab and fire blight under control now, though I have lost a few trees to one thing or another. I think that’s just par for the course. Harvest will be ok, not great. We had some difficult spring weather which burned a lot of blossoms.

The ducks and chickens are in the freezer now. They are both excellent eating. I won’t do ducks again. They are very difficult to defeather and though delicious, just not worth the trouble. Chicken are easier and just as good. Unlike previous years, this year we broke down the chickens into legs, thighs, wings and breasts. We made stock with the bones which turned out great. There will be plenty of good soup this winter.

We also had two lambs this year. This I will definitely do again. They were great to have on the farm, easy to take care of and we’ve enjoyed several meals already. I even ventured into stuffed grape leave which I made with some ground lamb, rice and spices and cooked over layers of lamb ribs and potatoes, like my college roommate Kenny’s family recipe (Lebanese).

In the spring we purchase a pizza oven at an auction. It’s a Fontana. We have made some excellent pizzas and sourdough bread. I have finally figured out how to handle dough with 70% hydration (7 oz water for every 10 oz of flour). It’s a wet sticky dough, but if you work it properly it gives some excellent results!

Sourdough loaves and sandwich rolls from pizza dough

The garden was pretty good to us this year. With all the other work I had, Mary took over most of the garden tasks. She also picked strawberries until we couldn’t eat any more. We ended us with about half the transplanted lavender surviving the winter, but we have another three hundred to plant next spring. Transplanting in the fall was not a good idea. The bees are doing well and they love the lavender. I’m hopeful that we’ll have two strong hives to start next spring.

I hope all of you had a good summer. I’ll share some photos of the harvest and the new apple processing equipment in our fall update. Until then, God Bless!