Root Bottom Farm: Summer is here....

Upper Annual Field

Happy Summer Solstice! Summer is officially here and the farm is green with life and full of color. This week we have been selling microgreens, lettuce mix, head lettuce, garlic scapes, fresh garlic, scape butter and Kesto (homemade kale pesto). At home, we have also been eating Rainbow chard, collards, kale, raspberries, wild black raspberries, mulberries and blueberries. A few cucumbers have made an appearance and there are tomatoes, grapes, blackberries and Winter and Summer squash showing their young fruit. The garlic harvest is in full swing and the barn rafters are filling up. The greenhouses are over shoulder high and growing more every day. I try to photograph the fields and greenhouses at the beginning and end of each week to show the change. So cool.

We marked a lot of projects off the list this week including; almost finishing the renovation of the old tool shed into an outside dining/music/hangout spot by the creek (big thanks to our friend Caleb!!), kitchen cabinet/countertop renovation and installation to double our kitchen, starting 140+ strawberry runners for next year's crop, painting a new farmer's market sign, bottling (and drinking) dandelion wine and jarring up dried thyme and oregano from the garden.

We had a Summer Solstice party and it was great to see so many good friends on the farm and around the fire. This farm has come so far from the derelict tobacco farm we found three years ago that had succumbed to decades of hording and junk collecting. To say it has been a “labor of love” is almost too easy. It has been a long, physical road to get this place back up and running, but I know it makes us appreciate all of its beauty even more.