This week Eris and I got away for a couple of days to take a break from our business and celebrate our anniversary. With the top down on our Jeep we cruised along country roads to the western part of the state stopping off for lunch in Frederick and continuing on to our yurt at Savage River Lodge in Frostburg. As we drove the final stretch down a potholed gravel road we couldn’t help but notice a pleasant dip in temperature and how fresh the air. It felt spectacular. The towering Norwegian spruce forest lining the drive opens like a curtain revealing the lodge with it’s rough cut timber.  Bikes dangle from the entrance way bejeweling the facade inviting guests to go for a ride while a sleek and modern backdrop of solar panels make me think this is eco-tourism. We enjoyed a bottle of wine in the early evening with the hummingbirds, more than I’ve ever seen, sipping at their feeders and whizzing by us. The owner explained the history and his initial vision for the lodge and how he and his wife wanted to bring a bit of Colorado to the east.  A great deal of effort went into fulfilling that dream and you can sense the care and vision that transformed old pastures into picturesque English gardens and well groomed trails tempting us into the woods. He told us to take a deep breath and appreciate all these trees producing oxygen in comparison to the recycled air we breath in buildings in cities. We made some new friends over a very nice locally sourced meal and listened to the owls sing us to sleep in our yurt. The next morning we galavanted off to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater through storybook roads and outdoor adventure towns like OhioPyle then ended the day with a glass of wine at Black Ankle Winery not far from our farm in Mount Airy. Their seemed to be a common theme to our journey consisting of a reverence toward nature and a creativity toward finding solutions to live in harmony with it. It both inspired me and gave me a sense of reaffirmation for the effort that goes into growing food and the considerations that go into being as sustainable as possible.

Back on our farm we are at the peak of heirloom and cherry tomato season. Expect to see these piled high this week at the stands. We have noticed some impact from the heat wave we felt last week. It may have impacted some of our plants ability to take in potassium while it’s also evident in the corn at the stands where many haven’t filled in all the way to the tip. We finally received our new bush hog for our BCS tractor and getting caught up with the weeds. We are picking cantaloupe and watermelon as well as the rest of our onion patch. Also we are getting the ground ready to plant strawberries in a couple weeks. We’ve brought in some extra weekend help so we can keep up with picking as well planting and other maintenance. Our blackberry and raspberry plants look good but we are still trying to find the time to trellis them. That’s all for now. Enjoy our produce this week.