Flower Bunches

John and I pour over seed catalogs beginning in September, to identify the absolutely most wonderful plants to grow for the next year's flower bunches. After his hanging baskets, flower bunches are John's most exiting product. He loves to make them colorful and unique, and he almost always adds herbs to the bunches so that they smell as well as look wonderful.

This year John hired a wonderful young woman (Stephanie) to help with the greenhouses and garden. Steph was a real weeder, and took excellent care of our cutting garden until she had to leave for college. Here are some pics:

In addition to the cutting garden, we grow glads, dahlias and sunflowers in a field setting near the pond and brook on the property. Each year it seems that one variety does much better than the others and one variety does much worse. This year, the sunflowers were strong, but the dahlias bloomed late due to a cool and wet June/July. The glads were a huge disappointment. Many turned brown before opening and it seemed only the orange and red were able to overcome the weather conditions. Of the more than 1200 bulbs John planted, only 10% were salable.

As long as the frost holds off, we will have beautiful flower bunches for sale. We have done table centerpieces for weddings and anniversary parties, and provided gorgeous, colorful arrangements for birthdays and anniversaries, to brighten a hospital or nursing home room, as well as for sellers holding open houses. Our bunches have also given to clients by our real estate agent and friend, Amy, and placed at the cemetary in honor of loved ones. We sell them in our store daily and at the farmers markets we attend in Springfield.

More HAY!

With the possible exception of the week we so luckily spent at Lake Winnepesaukee, it seemed every day in July included some period of heavy rain. It got so bad that it made the news. Here is a clip of John talking about how it affected farmers in the area.
http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/26429154.html?video=pop&t=a

The rain continued in to August but now, instead of overbearing heat and humidity, we are starting to experience that September feeling. Blankets at night instead of a sheet and two fans blowing. And, no rain for three days in a row, which made it possible to start second cutting. Then a thunder storm, then another few days of sun. So now we have 2 large fields of second cut hay complete and one more to go.

This was not a good year, volume-wise for hay and right now we have barely enough to feed our own animals over the winter. The customers that usually count on us for second cut for their horses have been told they will have to look elsewhere. This is disappointing to us as well as to them. And, the hay will not be easy to find. We are hoping the weather stays warm long enough this year for us to do a third cutting, but that is a very rare occurrence, and it is much harder to dry the hay when the days get shorter and the nights so much cooler. Keep your fingers crossed!

Fireworks!!!

I recently saw my cousin, Faye, (yes same name and spelling) at a lovely family wedding and she asked me why I hadn't been adding to my blog lately. The answer is simple. June is a month where we work 15 hours/day, 7 days/week. Planting, weeding, watering, desigining, displaying, and hopefully, selling our garden and gift products. For the months of June through September, I attend 3 farmers markets/week. Tuesday at the X in Springfield (http://www.farmersmarketatthex.com/), on Wednesday at Tower Square in Springfield, and on Friday morning at the Jewish Community Center in Springfield/Longmeadow. I have a couple of hours ot do 'off-farm' things on Thursday but otherwise am at the farm/store. This leaves little time to get on-line, particularly since we do not have internet access at the store.



So, what does all of this have to do with fireworks, you might ask. Well, not a thing! But, at the end of June I always look forward to the fireworks and celebration held in Easthampton by the Kiwanis Club. Growing up in Beverly Farms, the 4th was probably our most exciting time of the year. A holiday to be celebrated at least as gleefully as Christmas. We had the 'night-before dance' and the Hastings House, the Horribles Parade early in the morning (with many of the participants still inebriated from the all-night effort of putting the float together), the afternoon races at the beach for kids as well as adults, and wonderful cook-outs, and of course, the 'best fireworks in the world'! We would lay on the beach and watch them explode over our heads. Sometimes, if the wind was right, the ashes would land among us. We were never too old or too cool to love all the festivities, and when I married John, he knew that the Fourth in the Farms would always be part of the plan. And it was for quite a while. But, once we opened the store it was difficult for us to get away for the holiday, so we started a new tradition of openening our pool to friends and family on the 4th and closing the store early to enjoy the afternoon. The fireworks in Easthampton made it all bearable. This year they were cancelled because of foul weather forecasting. I am having trouble recovering from my disappointment. It just doesn't seem like the summer without those fireworks. My friend, Di, promises to find another venue to feed my barrage additction (that IS the part I love the best), so I am still holding out hope.....