Green Hope Farm Flower Essences are our most beloved garden harvest, but the generosity of Nature means that we get many other gifts from the Green Hope gardens.
Emily, then age 2, harvests tomatoes.
The produce is abundant, sometimes TOO abundant if you are someone who doesn't like broccoli!
A young Elizabeth looks worried about what's for supper.
Peas are a different story than broccoli.
Emily and Elizabeth dine al fresco
Because the produce is so abundant, several families eat from the gardens. We have shared the bumper crops in many ways over the years. One year we had a vegetable stand; several years we had a small community-supported agricultural project, where member families got produce all season. Nowadays, it is usually the staff that takes home the vegetables.
Anita Walling, Shifra Levine and Susan Sanzone
harvest peppers for our barn shop in 1993.
The Angels have fun with colors. Here the peppers are unusual
shades of lime green and purple as well as firecracker red.
To keep the gardens at their best, we follow the Angels advice on plant placement and add organic soil amendments according to their directions. Kelp is one amendment which the Angels ask for frequently, especially for the winter squash and pumpkins. We suspect this means our squash has lots of trace minerals in them. We know it means we get an abundance of many wonderful varieties of winter squash and plenty of pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving pies.
I love how many new varieties of flowers and vegetables
I have come to know because of the Angels' choices.
During our first season working with the Angels and Nature Spirits, this Elf look-alike watches while Ben, Elizabeth and Jim roll the pumpkins out of the garden.
When the Angels give us the garden plans for the season, we usually get a sneak preview of what kind of summer we are going to have. It is always good news when we are asked to put in lots of peppers and melons because it means we're in for some much appreciated heat. Getting these instructions means that we don't fight the flow by trying to grow peas in a year that is not going to be good for peas. When we have been told no peas for the year, other gardeners on our hilltop who went ahead and planted peas will tell us their peas were tasteless and unproductive. Our flexibility about staying with the Angels' plans is always amply rewarded, so we do not feel deprived when some specific vegetable isn't on the roster for the year.
Peas above a sea of lettuce in a Pea "Green Light" year.
There are other harvests beside vegetables. A dairy farmer down the road hays our 8-acre hayfield twice a year. I like to give the hayfield and the creatures in the hayfield a chance to get ready for the cutting. I asked the farmer to let me know before he comes so I can tell the field. Whenever he forgets, his haying machine breaks down and the Nature Spirits get the time they need to get prepared for the cutting. The farmer, whose wife Liz worked here for many years, has learned to expect the unexpected up here and to call ahead!
The first cut usually comes when the roses are at their prime.
Everyone loves to run around in the hayfield after it's cut!
Gomphrena for drying.
Some years we grow Flowers for drying. We also have begun to get lovely pears and apples from our young fruit orchard. Because part of our land is an old pasture that went to pines and wild apple trees, we put our cider press to good use with apples collected from these wild apple trees. After you have tasted the full-bodied complexity of wild apple cider, it is hard to go back to the commercial stuff.
Many of the wild apple trees on the farm have
yellow apples, which make wonderful cider.
Rosehips
Sometimes we'll grind up rose petals for rose beads, the original rosary beads. Sometimes we dry the rose petals for potpourri. Sometimes we'll make jam from the rose hips. Next year, I hope to get many more pictures of the Rose garden to share with you.
A glimpse of the rose garden
Here's a look through our new rose arbor to the center where the Mary Rose grows encircled by Catmint and Lavender.