What happens during the offseason?

Although we wish the farm consistently looks like it does during peak season, it only looks like that about 3 weeks out of the year! We often get asked if we live on the property… not yet! We are currently in the process of building a home on half of the land. We never knew what would come from buying this farm and with every day comes a new idea or dream.

Every season brings a new challenge and a new beauty to admire, but most of what we do every season is in preparation for those three glorious weeks.

Winter

The winter brings a lot of snow, but it sure does look pretty doesn’t it? Our land goes a bit untouched other than the occasional drop in to get firewood or take a moonlight snowshoe on our paths. Last winter, we were getting a logo designed, and this winter, this website was being created! Summer Stems is always on our minds.

Spring

When the snow melts, we usually get quite a bit of flooding. Like most things on the farm, everything depends on the weather, so the flooding can last until the snow melts to sometimes the first bloom!

Once things are dry enough (or if we want to brave the mud), we take on some spring cleaning. Since last season was only our second, we spent most of May cleaning out our shed and repainting the inside.

Summer

Before we get a bloom, we are out in the field every day, weeding, weeding and more weeding. Last season we put a fresh batch of mulch down, so maybe this year we will have a little less to weed (knock on wood).

After all of our weeding, we wait… every morning we arrive on the farm and hope to see a blossom because that means we get to open. Peonies react to heat, so we always hope for a quick warm-up, which usually does not happen until late May. Once we have enough bloomed to pick, we tell you. Early June are our favorite because that is when we get to see you!

Fall

When leaves start to change, it’s a bit sad here. The peonies are long gone and our other flower experiments have to be cut down in preparation for winter. Lots of cutting going on at this time.