The Long Wait is Over

The day has arrived, ending the longest stretch of my time at the farm without seeing my family... Today is the day-- they'll arrive later for Shabbat, and I can't wait!

Two nights ago we spent the evening at the farmhouse where the staff of Kayam live, about 2 miles from Pearlstone. There's a hiking path through cornfields and forest, though we drove a country road that felt alot like Highway F in Wisconsin.

The farmhouse is actually owned by New York Times garden columnist Ann Raver, so you can only imagine how beautiful the home and the property are. She grew up in the farmhouse, which is charming and right out of the 1940's-- I half expected Dorothy and and Toto to come prancing out! A few years ago, Ann and her partner converted half of one of the huge barns on the property into this amazing lofted apartment where they now live.

Every bit of the property is thoughtfully planned out and elegant-- the ultimate garden tour-- but not fancy or showy. Here's a rosebush planted in the middle of the lettuce beds. Here are the horseradish plants she wrote about for her March 31, 2010 article on the subject. We were stunned at every turn as we picked wild mulberries and blackberries and black raspberries-- we feasted on them...

Ann is a good friend to Kayam, and a good supporter of their work; I'm now a fan of Ann and am reading all of her articles at the Times website; she;'ll definitely be another one of my new garden gurus!