Treasuring This Fleeting Season: May at the Orchard

As of last week all the trees are finally in the ground. This always gives my husband a great sense of satisfaction to cross that off his list.

Justin Weaver with new peach trees

Our children have been relishing the warmer weather and all the activity that’s kicking up around the farm. The children were so excited when the bees arrived a few weeks ago just in time to pollinate the opening blossoms. The five year old was not so excited, however, to have a giant bumble bee buzz in his ear– it took us a while to convince him that it was not taking up residence in there.

This year’s blooms were breathtaking.

Apple blossom

However, as always I did not get the amount of pictures that I wanted. Spring has to be the fastest season.  You blink and it’s gone. The trees bloom and they are done in a flash. Just like children, you blink and they’ve grown up.

Speaking of growing up, our oldest has mastered the skill of riding a “big” bike without training wheels. He has even mastered the art of navigating gravel farm lanes.

Riding the bike

Our middle two enjoy climbing up on the equipment together. They also have been enjoying various escapades in gardening, much to Mom and Dad’s dismay at times. It feels at times as if we have a pair of gophers digging up earth in any and every location! These are two peas in a pod, best friends, worst enemies– but growing so fast.

Two peas in a pod

 

Gardening fun

I blinked and our youngest is almost one and she practiced taking her first steps at Matt and Mary Harsh’s farm, named 78 Acres, in Maryland. That farm was a stop on a tour she got to tag along on with mom and dad and the Young Grower’s Alliance that her daddy’s a part of. As her daddy debated pruning techniques with a group of fellow fruit growers, baby decided to take off walking.

Collecting sticks

This little one has since mastered running and enjoyed practicing this skill in the rows of cherry blossoms. Her favorite hobby at this time is collecting sticks.

Cherry blossoms and stick collection

As farmers, we are in tune to how the seasons come and go on our orchard. We realize how the critical seasons for preparing for the year’s harvest are so fleeting. It feels often like life is a race against time to accomplish all the tasks the weather demands of us to ensure a bountiful harvest.

As parents we realize this is also true of life with small children, and we are treasuring this fleeting season in their lives while we have them close to us on the farm and are savoring every moment while they are still young! Just as it is with our trees, we feel that if we invest our time and energy into our children when they are young, we will reap rewards as they become successful and healthy adults.

Stroll through the orchard

One of those investments is to make sure our children have an understanding of healthy eating and where their food comes from. Good eating habits now will create healthy adults. If you have children: treasure them. Spend time with them to help them develop into successful adults; teach them healthy habits while they are young!

On that note, consider yourself invited out to the farm this growing season to take full advantage of all we have to offer with our cooking classes and story times. Justin and I encourage kid- and family-friendly events like these on our orchard because we value children as our society’s future. So in addition to growing fruit, my husband and I have a passion to pass on a love of nature and nutrition to the next generation. We want to make sure the next generation is as healthy and successful as they possibly can be, with an intimate understanding of sustainable agriculture and where their food is produced.  Just like an apple blossom, these kiddos will grow into big apples and jump off the tree all too soon.

Weaver family May 2015

We hope to see you around the farm this season! May 30 is our first event of the season: Taste of Weaver’s, a family-friendly, fun event where you get to meet our vendors and taste the wonderful products we sell here on our farm.  Who knows, maybe we’ll even get to meet! Hope to see you there!