Busy times at Two Boots Farm
Greetings, friends!
What a week we’ve had! I know I’ve repeatedly mentioned that September is always our busiest month, in part because of wedding season, but this year’s fall wedding season is truly unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. We send out an availability list to florists every Tuesday, and the vast majority of our list is sold out within an hour. On top of that, we’ve taken on quite a bit of design work for upcoming weddings and events. Next week we’ve got several events, a wedding, and we’re drowning in florist orders. Business is booming! We’re thankful, but also looking forward to some rest when the season winds down.
We’ve had so many orders lately that it’s been hard for Elisa and I to make time for field work after we’ve harvested in the morning. She and I generally end up in the barn, pulling orders, making bouquets and doing other design work, leaving Jenna and Meg, our crew members, to work in the field. They’ve been doing an incredible job keeping everything in order on the farm, and it looks amazing! We are so lucky to have such a fantastic crew. They work independently and do a wonderful job of making sure everything is well cared for. That said, I can’t wait for things to slow down a bit so I can get back out there with them!
Just a portion of the flowers that went out to florists on Thursday’s delivery route.
We walked through the pawpaw orchard earlier this week, and the first fruits have begun to ripen. In no time, we’ll be harvesting hundreds of pounds a week! Once the season picks up, we have to harvest the pawpaws daily because they ripen so rapidly on the tree. To harvest, we touch every pawpaw we can reach to check for softness. If the fruit has a bit of give, it’s ready to harvest. We harvest into crates lined with bubble wrap, as the fruits bruise extremely easily. Once they’re all harvested and we get them back to the barn, we have to make sure that everything is weighed and sorted by ripeness.
As usual, we’ll be in the D.C. area for farmer’s market pawpaw popups during September. In addition to the popups, we’ll be distributing them through a few local CSAs, at our regular farmer’s market, and have options for on-farm pickup.
Sunday, August 29th, 8:00 am - 11:00 am: Johnny’s
We’ll be back at the market this weekend with so many goodies!
This week we’ll have arugula, basil, beets, spring mix, shishito peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and maybe the first pawpaws!
We’ll have loads of bouquets, in addition to bunches of celosia, dahlias, rudbeckia triloba, and hydrangeas by the stem.
Enjoy the weekend,
Amelia and the rest of the Two Boots Farm crew
Tomatoes don’t last forever! The harvest is winding down, be sure to enjoy them while they’re around.
SJ, who worked with us several years ago, came to help with design work this week! It was a joy to have them on the farm again.
Coming soon— ginger!