One of the things I love about our farm is the integration of many different elements that make the whole ecosystem of a farm work. From the plants and the ponds, to the people and animals that live and work at the farm - I have always believed that an animal is happiest when it has a job to do. And so, all the animals on our farm have specific jobs that truly help our space to flourish. 🐑 The sheep and goats are on rotation around the farm, helping eat down brushy and grass spaces. They also offer comic relief from time-to-time with their silly antics. 🐝 The honeybees stay busy pollinating plants and the orchard spaces of the farm and of course, producing amazing honey throughout the year. 🐓The chickens are vital to our composting operation as they turn weeds, veggies scraps, and brush-cuttings into beautiful, rich soil, which will later be added back to the soil to enrich our garden beds. 🐶 Evie, our Aussie Shepard, does a beautiful job at roaming the property, keeping tabs on all the farm animals and protecting our gardens and orchards from being devoured by deer and rabbits. 🐈 And our resident barn cat - Lewis - helps keep the mice, voles, and moles at bay from our garden and flower beds. Honestly, it takes a village of people and animals to make this space flourish - and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

🌅 This summer we have had some stunning sunsets and a rather impressive heat lightning show from the back field. No matter the season, the light at the farm is nothing short of beautiful and is one of my favorite parts about this place! When guests come to spend a day on the farm, it is one of the things they comment on the most, along with the stillness and quiet that pervades this place. It truly lends itself to the best retreat. ⭐️ And that is what we are excited about in this next season of the farm… ⭐️ - 🌳 In the next week or so, we will be opening up space in our calendar so business and/or ministry leaders can book a time to spend a day retreating on the farm — to sit in the quiet and stillness or to simply watch the light change across the landscape. No agenda other than having the space to recharge or plan for an upcoming season. - Stay tuned for details and feel free to reach out with any questions if you’re interested in learning more!

It has been an exciting week as we installed a commercial foodscape in collaboration with Happ Coffee (@happcoffee ) and VA Cast Stone (@virginiacaststone )! - So what is a foodscape? Basically it is a beautiful marriage between ornamental landscaping and edible landscaping. Like all newly planted landscaping, the plants - both ornamental and perennial - will take time to grow and fill the space but we can’t wait to see it grow into its own. - For this project, we focused on key perennial shrubs, perennial flowers, and herbs along the main building, which will fill in the space overtime, adding beauty and food for pollinators and people alike. In the concrete planter boxes, designed and crafted by VA Cast Stone, we planted decorative kale, leaks, edible pansies, and trailing rosemary. - When Spring arrives, we will create a new planting plan with Happ Coffee to incorporate even more edible plants that can be used in their kitchen creations. - Interested in learning more about Foodscaping? Reach out with your comments or questions or give us a call @bearcreekoutdoorliving - Let us help you get growing in your own outdoor space!

Even though the season is shifting from summer to fall, the gardens are still producing at full capacity with summer veggies, which means harvest is here and the busy day of “putting up” all the veggies keep us hopping. - A lot of years I have spent canning but this year we decided that freezing was the way to go. Right now it’s peppers and carrots, chopped up and frozen for winter time soups and green beans cleaned, snapped, and frozen to add - in my estimation - the perfect side dish to most any meal. - Tomatoes are also coming in strong and heavy right now. In years past, we’ve spent weeks canning sauce as the tomatoes were ready. Last year we shifted to cleaning, washing, and quartering the tomatoes and then putting them in bags to freeze until later in the winter. Somewhere around January or February we’ll spend a whole day canning up the tomatoes from this season. It helps to space out the long days of putting up harvest and canning to slower seasons here at the farm. - Above all else I am deeply grateful for the harvest and the abundance that feeds our family and others in our community. 🍅🫛🫑

This past weekend, we had the chance to host a baby shower on the farm for our oldest daughter, and it was such a sweet time of celebration with family and friends! - We found out that we’re having a grandson, and the day couldn’t have been more beautiful with low temps, sunshine, and flowers in full bloom. 💐 - - - - - - - local farm • support local • baby shower • zinnia season • fresh flowers • #localfarm #supportlocal #zinniasofinstagram #permaculturefarm #babyshower

Yesterday we harvested 35 gallons of fresh green beans from just three rows here in the garden! - We are so thankful for the abundance that comes out of this space. Everything that we grow and harvest goes to our family, the Bear Creek team, and a local non-profit “Little Grocery” by The Neighbor Bridge (@neighborbridge ) - Years ago, our own family was as in a place of need and we always valued when we could get fresh produce. We are grateful that we can now provide that for other families out of our own abundance! - What’s been growing in your garden?

This past week we harvested honey from our main hive. Our two newest hives we left for right now until a later fall collection, allowing them to get stronger and more established. It was a full day of spinning honey and cutting golden honey comb off the frame. Always such sweet work! The flowers are still in full bloom around the farm and goldenrod season will be here soon. And we can’t wait! Goldenrod makes the best fall honey!” Want to taste some of this sweet goodness? You can find our honey locally at the @thelexingtonmercantile and in limited quantities @happy - HAPP Coffee in Waynsboro. #rawhoney #honeybees #smalltown #permaculturefarm

Great News! Not only can you find our honey @thelexingtonmercantile but you can now find our amazing chicken eggs there too! Today I dropped off our first few dozens at the store and had a chance to catch up with Heather - one of the stores owners. If you haven’t been to the Lexington Mercantile you need to get yourself down there! They have some of the best curated cheese and wines and so much more! Have an amazing Friday friends! Hope you find some time this weekend to wander some of our amazing small towns like Lexington. There is so much to discover! #shoplocal #smalltown #freshfarmeggs #permaculturefarm #regenrativefarming

The margins is where it’s at! So often we can overlook the narrow and thin wall/vertical spaces around our home and properties and not think about what we can grow there when it comes to food. This year we’re experimenting with growing birdhouse gourds, cucumbers and Malabar Spinach, supported by trellises, that are mounted on the side of the barn. They fill the space beautifully, flower and provide yummy goodness for our table! A win-win in my book. #foodscape #growing #growingfood #permaculture #permaculturegarden

Early season lettuce, rhubarb and collard greens have been coming in strong the last few weeks! Our original goal was to grow enough food for our family as well as our team @bearcreekoutdoorliving - not only have we been able to grow enough food to meet that need but also an abundance that we’ve been able to share with our friends over @neighborbridge and their little grocery, that serves the wonderful neighbors of our community. As I think about the different Permaculture principles that we work to fulfill here on our farm this one clearly falls into the principle of Return of Surplus. Thankful to share the abundance of this land - #thankfulforabundance #permaculture #permaculturegarden

So much happening around here the last few weeks - from setting up new hives, welcoming the bees, plants ready to move into the garden and chicks moving out on pasture - never a dull moment on the farm!

Today we set up the new apiary area with two new hives - with bees arriving early next week. We’re excited to expand and can’t wait for the first honey harvest of the season in a few months. 🐝

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! This Cross sits on the top of the hill of our farm property and is a daily reminder of the precious gift that Christ gave to each of us. So thankful! ❤️

Today we scouted the property for early season starts and saplings - we were able to harvest and pot up eastern cedar trees, Black Cherry trees, black raspberries, white Avens and walking ferns. We still have elderberry, gooseberries and black currants to pot up from spring cuttings. Excited to grow some nursery stock for the property, current clients and anyone looking for edible and perennial plantings for their own home. Stay tuned and we’ll update with availability and pricing.

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy on the farm! From getting ponds and fountains up and running for the season - to our first women’s gathering - to new growth pushing through the soil and baby lambs arriving. There’s nothing quite like spring!

Farm Week re-cap! Baby chicks have arrived and it’s never felt more like spring! I can feel it on the doorstep with the warming days and the early morning chirp of birds that have returned to the farm. Cardinals, Robin’s and small sparrows are some of the few that we’ve seen around. Just the other day I saw my first pileated woodpecker flying through the canopy of trees. We also got the gardens cleaned out from last year‘s plantings and seeded snap peas in the garden. We still have some tidying up to do around the gardens and Orchard but soon we’ll be seeding starts in the plant room and getting ready for cool weather crops to go into the ground. It feels so good to see spring return to the farm! #permaculturefarm #spring

This weeks recap - The snow and ice have thankfully melted away and warmer days have allowed us to do some beginning work around the Orchard and Gardens. While it’s not the beautiful and glamorous side of farming, it is necessary work. This week we were pruning Orchard trees and clearing the front fence. We’re doing some necessary repairs to the posts and setting a new corner post where we took out an old dead tree. Doing the work now will make it so much easier when all the spring growth comes. We also started working on getting the ponds flowing again, a little old truck maintenance and of course, taking some evening walks to see Springs’s progress. Even though everything still looks really bare I know that there is spring growth not very far behind. This next week we start tackling the gardens and prepping beds for early spring seeding. Spring is coming and fresh veggies are not too far away! #springgarden #permaculturefarm #permaculturegarden #regenerativepractice #orchard

Farm week recap! This past week we spent a couple of days canning a lot of tomatoes. Last fall, when all the harvest was coming, busy schedules didn’t allow us to get canning done and so we threw all the tomatoes in the freezer until we had several days of winter to process them. I had wonderful help in the kitchen from Michaela and Priscilla and we put up over 40 quarts between juice and spaghetti sauce. We also put up another 21 pints of ketchup. Canning is always more fun with extra hands. We also continue to get ready for planting season and are getting all of our supplies together, including some of my favorite potting mix - Gardner’s gold. Even though the days are still cold, I can feel spring coming. Before we know it, we’ll have long days in the garden and fresh vegetables on the table. (Also, fresh sourdough bread was involved, courtesy of Michaela - an amazing home baker) As a fun side note, we have baby chicks arriving in about two weeks! Stay tuned for all the cute pictures.

There might still be ice and snow on the ground but today was a day for dreaming and planning for spring and summer plantings - veggies, perennials, fruiting trees and bushes - we reviewed last year, counted seeds in stock and started our seed list for this years order. If you’re looking for a good place to source seeds and garden resources I have had a great experience with @johnnys_seeds . This year we plan to give soil blockers a try as we up our seed starting game. We do think we will have extra veggie and perennial plants starts available for sale this spring - so stay tuned for availability. #spring #springplanting #permaculturegarden

Mid day checks on the animals around the farm - from chickens, to bees, to our resident sheep flock. Everyone is doing beautifully and Evie’s having fun exploring. Now back to the fire until evening checks. Stay safe and warm friends and Check on your neighbor. #farmlife #permaculturefarm #winterdays

Bear Root Farm & Apiary

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