It's Farm Friday! That means its time to share some photos from around the farm with you. In my opinion, farms are made for kids. They are just wonderful fun places to roam and play. These cute grandkids are such great helpers around the farm, and pretty cute too. Hope you have a wonderful and fun weekend! Come see us at the Salt Lake Farmers Market!
We have had some real success with our garden here at the Lavender Apple. Our sloped mountain soil is rich and our vegetables seem to love it. My personal favorite things to plant are all the root vegetables. There is something so satisfying about planting something and seeing it's green leaves all summer, and then come fall pulling out great big vegetables underneath! Its' like digging for buried treasure! Here are some tips for planting carrots this spring.
Try to plant your seeds at least 3 weeks before the last spring frost date. Make sure your soil is clear of stones, because carrots need deeply tilled soil that they can push through without obstacles. If you leave a few rocks here or there, you will get some funny shaped carrots come harvest, but that may just be part of the fun. Plant your seeds about 3-4 inches apart, best to do it in rows so they are easy to find come harvest day.
Any other tips for us on how you plant your carrots?
Oh dear, now I'm craving some of Peggy's famous carrot cake!
We have had to start from scratch when it came to our knowledge of running a lavender farm. Over the years it has become easier and easier. Today I wanted to share a quick trick of how to easily debud your lavender. All of our products FOUND HERE use our family farm organic lavender. Needless to say, we go through a lot of these beautifully smelling little purple buds. Here is the process for how our lavender goes from field directly to you.
After we harvest and dry our lavender, we have them broken up into 2 inch bundles. You simply take the dried lavender bundles in between the palms of your hands and roll your hands back and forth together as if you were trying to warm your hands. The motion makes the buds fall right off the stems and we are left with nothing but pure lavender in our bowls.
It's a labor intensive process, but it sure smells good!
Get your hands on your very own organic lavender bundles through our new Etsy Shop!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LavenderAppleFarm?ref=l2-shopheader-name
Hope you all have a wonderful spring weekend!
One of the only things I do miss when winter turns to spring is not being able to see the wild turkeys here as easily. We have a flock of wild turkeys that likes to roost in the trees around our farm. (We have a wild peacock that likes to hang out with them sometimes too.) With the trees baren for winter, its much easier to see these beautiful birds. I love spring, and while I may not be a spring chicken anymore, I also love my winter turkeys too.
To all you young spring chickens out there - have a safe and happy weekend!
There are two things that will always welcome you to The Lavender Apple Farm when you come visit. First, after you've found your way down our windy lane, over the bridge and up our road.... A lovely lavender gate will welcome you to our homestead.
But in addition to these two things, you will of course be greeted by fields of lavender as well, which is kind of the best part. But even in these tough winter months, we have a lavender cottage here as well. Our local friends can come shop here any time they'd like. Just give us a call and let us know you'd like to come by, and we'd be more than happy to let you browse our cottage shop.
The second thing that is always here to greet our guests, is our large bull mastiffs. They guard our lavender as if it was a field full of kibble and bits.
But in addition to these two things, you will of course be greeted by fields of lavender as well, which is kind of the best part. But even in these tough winter months, we have a lavender cottage here as well. Our local friends can come shop here any time they'd like. Just give us a call and let us know you'd like to come by, and we'd be more than happy to let you browse our cottage shop.
We love having chickens on our farm. Sure, we love the delicious fresh eggs they bear us, but there are so many other reasons we love having these birds around.
The most economically compelling reason to keep chickens is to recycle food waste. This composts it into a wonderful organic soil builder for your garden as well. The more kitchen waste you feed your chickens, the more nitrogen rich fertilizer they will give you to compost with.
Hand in hand with that is their natural digging, pecking, and scratching abilities. This helps you to create top notch gardening beds. You can grow more produce in a smaller space, which means less water - which should be important to us all.
Chickens also love to eat all of those nasty protein packet insects in your yard. This is awesome for you because maybe it will save you from a tick bite or two, but it will also protect your precious garden as well. They also love to eat most weeds, making your work load much lighter.
And my favorite reason? Chickens are loveable pets. Increase your stress lowering hormones and form a relationship with these useful and happy birds. Some chickens are even bred as therapy birds. We find the most happiness in caring for our chickens, just getting outside with them each day and exchanging food for eggs and giving them a hello is enough to make all of us smile.
We are taking the rest of the week off from blogging to enjoy some basting, baking, and all sorts of other culinary delights in our kitchen. We hope your thanksgiving is full of family, friends, and great food.
- It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord:Ps. 92:1;
Well the lavender is harvested and dried. I bet if you had to guess, what our next focus for the year was, it would be pretty obvious.
When we are done harvesting the lavender around here, our next big project is our apples! Hence the name the Lavender Apple Farm.
I'm currently in the kitchen, working on some delicious and exciting new apple recipes for you. But for now, here is a throw back link to Peggy's famous apple pie: http://thepurpleapple-lavender.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-lavender-apple-apple-pie.html Go ahead and go make yourself one tonight. Your tastebuds will thank you.
I wanted to share some beautiful photos with you that were taken just before our harvest this year. We love our little homestead here in Millville Utah and are so greatful to all of our wonderful customers who love and support our local lavender business.
Hope you enjoy these photos and have a wonderful and relaxing day!
Thanks for indulging me in sharing all of these purple photos with you this last month! Tis the season!
As you probably know, the Lavender Apple is a family run farm. We have been growing the highest quality lavender available for almost 8 years now. We offer seasonal fresh cut bundles, dried lavender, lavender sachets, lavender honey, jellies, and jams. We sell lavender soap, bath salts, sugar scrub, and even lavender water.
Here is our very own Peggy, doing what she does best, working in her lavender fields.
The summer is fading and so have our flowers. Our harvest is complete and now we are reaping the benefits of its bounty. Time to get busy crafting and creating wonderful lavender infused products! Thanks for all of your love and support! www.lavenderapple.com
*Photographers interested in taking photos in our fields should contact us directly to schedule an appointment and inquire about fees.
Welcome back! Yesterday we covered how we harvest and bundle our lavender. After its all bundles, we quickly bring it into our climate controlled lavender cottage. There we hang each bundle in equally spaced rows to dry. Once dry, then we can box, pack, and ship all these beautiful dried bundles to you!
Feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions about our harvest or lavender drying process. I love learning how others run their unique businesses, so we are happy to share!