Wednesday, September 15, 2010

gardendwellers FARM Fresh Herbs on the move!

Well the last couple weeks have been exciting.  Along with taking herbs to the WomanSong conference in Grand Rapids North Dakota, we've received some great, but somewhat unusual orders.  We received our once per year birthday order to be delivered to Fotis restaurant in Culpepper Virginia.  Frank Maragos, a Minot native runs this really nice restaurant there but misses home so his Mom orders him fresh gardendwellers FARM herbs each year on his birthday.  I hate to say it but she pays more in shipping then on herbs but Frank really appreciates the 'taste of home' and shares his birthday present with his staff family and friends.

We've also received an order from the Grand Forks public schools.  September 20-24th is Farm to School week and they will be doing their very best to put local vegetables and fruits on the Grand Forks Public School lunch menu.  gardendwellers FARM will be supplying herbs for a pasta meal - basil and parsley.  We'll deliver them bright and early Monday morning so their nice and fresh for the students.  Thank goodness we now have a high tunnel to get us through the predicted frost on Friday night!

The best and maybe most unusual order we have received is from the NOLA Brewing Company in New Orleans Louisiana.  http://www.nolabrewing.com/  They have a seasonal beer called 7th Street Wheat and for some reason the basil growers in the south have had some trouble with their lemon basil.  This unusual wheat beer contains lemon basil to give it a unique flavor.  These folks seem like the nicest people - although I did have a little trouble with their address.  Their company is on Tchoupitoulas Street - that's a mouthful and even harder to spell.  You can imagine how well spell check likes it!  NOLA Brewing Company would like 20 pounds of our lemon basil to help them finish off their season of this fabulous brew.  So guess what we're doing?  Picking and de-leafing a whole LOT of lemon basil.  Good timing again as the frost would take all we have anyway - had they called just one week later we could not have helped them out.  This will be an adventure in shipping for us as we've never shipped that large of an amount that far.  We're all hoping for the best and relying on overnight delivery.  Stay tuned for more photos and updates on our adventures with NOLA!

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Animal Party!

It seems all the animals of the prairie wanted to party last night.  Barry and I were out in the wash/pack house - otherwise known as the shed - late last night getting orders ready for today's deliveries.  As we were out there we could hear noises and often went to check on them. Which could of course explain why it took until 11 PM to finish orders!  The fox, raccoons, hawks, deer, neighborhood cat and more were out and about last night and all very talkative!  I don't know if it was the weather or just that fall is in the air but everyone wanted to have one last party is seems. 

Then again, maybe they were out complaining because I hung a bunch of CD's and bags from the apple trees trying to keep the animals at bay until after the Produce Party this weekend.  The apples are ready, nice and tasty and colored up - and all the critters know it.  As we were harvesting I noticed lots of deer tracks leading to the trees and saw several squirrels making trips from home to tree to home.  That might be what has them all in a ruckus.  So, IF I can keep the animals out of the trees - come and get some yummy apples with caramel dip this Saturday at the Produce Party - only $2.50!  We'll let the critters have the leftovers!