Summer is in full swing here on our farm. We’ve purposefully decided to slow down this summer and let life unfold as it would. No scheduled camps or lengthy vacations. We decided to cut internet to our house just for a few days; however, an issue with some of our hardware has left us with no internet for several weeks (and I’m in no hurry to turn it back on!). I’ve been surprised that our kids actually don’t seem to miss it too much, unless we ask them!
Our days have been filled with friends, books, mud, water, walks, fishing and fruit picking! Our kids have built a better attention span each day without media and have begun to occupy themselves and each other quite nicely (unless they are fighting!). We have even gone so far as to not turn on our air conditioning, and we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how this draws the kids outside. I love that they spend as much time as they possibly can in the outdoors soaking in the summer warmth.
This evening we enjoyed a lovely bedtime snack in the orchard– my favorite kind! One of our family’s summer traditions is to drive around our farm on our golf cart and sample the fruits of daddy’s labor and the many hands that have nurtured the trees’ hard work. Tonight we wanted to savor some sugar plums and blackberries. I thought I’d give you a glimpse of our ride.
Our first stop was to check on our blackberries. Our kids proceeded to stuff their faces while mama filled a bucket for freezing!
We are having a bumper crop of blackberries this year and I have been industriously trying to freeze as much of them as I can to enjoy in our smoothies all winter long. You definitely want to bring your family out to enjoy these sweet blackberries this year! After the kids had eaten their fill and I ran out of room in my bucket, we proceeded to drive over to some of our sugar plums.
Sugar plums have been our oldest’s favorite since he was 18 months old. We took him on a road trip to visit an orchard in New York at that age, with his Weaver grandparents, and he proceeded to eat an entire sugar plum in the back seat– we were mortified when we thought he had swallowed the pit, only to find it in his car seat later. Several years later, his brother came along and proceeded to swallow the plums– pits and all—whole by the time he was three, proving to us that our new parent worries were unfounded. (Disclaimer: I no way endorse the consumption of sugar plum pits and highly discourage it for a variety of reasons.)
If you get a chance I highly recommend you join us for picking sugar plums in the next week. Their season is fleeting so stay tuned to our Facebook page—this is a crop you won’t want to miss!
After all the kid’s little bellies were full, we decided to swing by our apple plot that we grafted this spring to check on its progress. I took a few pictures so you all could see how nicely these babies are coming along. Only a few grafts didn’t take, and overall we’ve been very happy with the success of the grafting process and are looking forward to some juicy apples in the years ahead.
The sun was setting and it was time for bed, so we headed home through the orchard enjoying the sweet smell of the trees. It had started to drizzle and the mist was rolling in over the mountains. We are so blessed to call this beautiful place home, and we’d be happy to share some of this paradise with you through pick-your-own! Who knows? Maybe we’ll meet you in the berry patch—be sure to say hello!