Category Archives: Photography

The First Blossoms of 2016, Part II

For part one, click here.

The pink blossoms are apricots and the white blossoms are plums!

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The First Blossoms of 2016, Part I

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:
when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
-Charles Dickens

It is officially that time of the year around here, and I love it. It means that good and warm things are on their way. And, it’s blossom time.

AKA, the time of the year where I will, for better or worse, fill my blog with photos of fruit trees in bloom (see last year’s post here). I can’t help it though, this is all just too beautiful to not share.

Today I’m sharing some photos of the very first little blossoms to show up. These photos were captured on a Thursday evening, an evening that perfectly reflected the Dickens quote at the top, driving around the orchards with Greg. A perfect evening. We drove around, I captured photos, we enjoyed the sun and then watched it begin to set. On an evening like that, I’m as happy as can be.

Here’s to many more evenings like that one, enjoying and capturing what is beautiful.

P.S. Stay tuned for many more blossom photos. I am sharing half of my photos from that evening today, and I’ll post the other half tomorrow. But there will be more, this is just the beginning of blossom time. Also, these are apricot trees!

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Autumn 2015

Happy autumn, everyone!

Whew, it’s good to be back posting in this space. I do intend to keep this primarily a food blog, despite what the last 6+ months have shown. My last food post seems like ages ago. But I will say, I have liked sharing these little life posts with you, one in spring, one in summer and now, autumn. These surroundings are just too beautiful not to share. 

I’ll keep the words brief today – but just a little life update for you. Greg and I have been busy {busy!} but enjoying life oh so much. We are doing THIS, getting cozy in our new home (!), still making and enjoying food that we love, hanging with Ivy, getting outside as much as possible and looking toward a slower winter season – when I plan to have more time to share food stuff with you here.

For now, some fall photos from around the farm! I feel like this has been a particularly gorgeous fall (thank you mother nature!) and I feel lucky to have witnessed it. Enjoy autumn, friends!

{One last note – while in the autumn spirit, consider checking this article from NPR, Inside The Life Of An Apple Picker. Each and every apple you see and eat – it’s picked by hand. Try to imagine that incredible amount of work and let’s appreciate and be grateful for what others do so that we can enjoy apples!} 


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Cherry Harvest

It’s been over two months since my last post. I was at the point a few times in the last month where I stressed because I didn’t know what I’d say for my return post. It’s been too long, too much has happened, and I didn’t think I’d know where to begin when I posted again. But I’m just jumping in today and here is what I’ll say: I’ve been busy. And this blog has definitely fallen to the bottom of the priority list. I have lots of content for you, either in my head or carried out, but unedited. None of it has made it to this site, but I promise that I am slowly, slowly, but surely trying to get some stuff out to you. 

I’ve been making a lot of food, but honestly, not for you, not for this site. The food I have been making has been out of necessity, not out of the desire and ability to share it here. I will get back to that point, because I want to. I’m not sure when, but hold tight.

So today, a farm post! A lot has happened around the farm since my last post, and I am fully enjoying getting to witness it all. The blossoms have turned to fruit. Right now, and for the past week, cherry harvest has been happening. Greg is fully immersed in the harvest, and with that has brought even longer hours for him and a decrease in sleep for both of us. Even so, I love it. I love what is happening and that I get to experience it in the way that I do.

Most of my photos today are of cherries on trees. I think they are beautiful and this is the first time in my life seeing something like it. For those interested in the actual harvesting, it was difficult to photograph the process because the equipment used is so massive. So I took a video! This is the first time I’ve put a video on my blog so I am pretty excited, even though it is not the greatest. Expect more in the future, especially with farm related things.

A few tidbits on harvesting cherries:

These are sour cherries. These are the cherries that are used to make canned pie filling and generally, other cherry desserts.

These cherries are being mechanically harvested. Some cherries on the farm are still handpicked, but these ones, that go to the factory to be processed, are done with this machine.

Here is my non-farmer, non-professional description of the process. The first time I saw the harvest equipment, before I knew what it was, I thought it was solar panels (ha!). There are two tractors, each with a massive solar panel looking attachment. When harvesting, each tractor takes a side of the tree and the two “panels” come together,  forming a V. One panel grabs the tree and shakes it. The cherries fall off the tree and into the V formed by the panels. The other tractor has a conveyor belt attached to it which takes the cherries up and over into a connecting bin (that contains ice water) which will get filled, taken to the factory and replaced.

Each bin holds approximately 1,000 pounds of cherries, which can take about 3-15 trees, depending on the tree size and crop. For the trees pictured below, it took about 3-5 trees to fill a bin, due to the fact that they are large, full production trees.

One of the coolest parts of the process to me was watching how quickly a tree turns from red to green while being shaken. In the video, it’s hard to tell how fast the tree is shaking, but pay attention to how quickly the tree changes color.

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Adams County, Spring 2015

I’m going to keep the words brief today because there are many photos to follow. 

Greg took me for a drive around the farm on Sunday, which was a perfect spring day, the bluest sky there could be, and here is what I thought:

How lucky am I to be a part of this? How lucky am I to be here to look at this and to photograph this? How lucky am I to know that the very blossoms I am showing you today will produce fruit that will feed many, including myself? I hope that no matter how many springs I am in Adams county, I never stop realizing just how special this is. These trees aren’t here just to be pretty  (although they’re doing an excellent job at that, too) they are here to produce food, they are here to feed people. I love that.

{for the curious, you are seeing blossoms of peaches, apricots, cherries, pears and the very first photo is apples}
{Also, the day I took these photos, Sunday, was my parents 35th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary Mom + Dad, love you very much, these photos are for you!}

Here is what I saw:

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