Honey Bees, Butterflies, and Blueberry Bushes

We can't let the bumble bees take all the credit (though they are a lot easier to photograph).  On this day, the butterflies and honey bees were hard at  work!

The blueberry bushes are absolutely loaded with blossoms this season.  I walk through the orchard almost everyday, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that each and every flower is slowly making the transformation into a sweet, plump, complexly-flavored fruit.  

Oh, thhe joys of farming!

Weekend Getaway

Ben and I had a ball at Foggy Ridge Cider last Saturday.  The day was cloudy, but the atmosphere was  festive.  We reconnected with old friends and even made some new ones.  Nothing brings people together like great cider and fantastic food.

Fresh pea soup alongside asparagus bread pudding with watercress sauce were served in the tasting room.  Fat Bear Farm offered asparagus, spinach, seedlings, and eggs out on the crush pad.

Ben was left on his own for a bit while I enjoyed the offerings in the tasting room.

 You can see some of the beautiful equipment used to crush the apples and mix the cider in the background.

We were lucky enough to catch some of the apple trees in bloom.

The orchard is breathtaking, even on the cloudiest of days.  In the background to the left, there are even more trees in full bloom.  

We want to thank Foggy Ridge for hosting us again.  It was our pleasure to help kick-off their Farm Days series for 2013!

We'll be back at the Cobblestone Farmers Market this coming Saturday.  

Farm Days At Foggy Ridge Cider

Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 27 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and come join us at Foggy Ridge Cider for Farm Days this weekend!  What could be better than spending an afternoon in scenic Dugspur, VA with great food, drink, and company?  Fat Bear Farm will offer asparagus, seedlings, and other spring goodies for sale. If you'd like to do a cider tasting and gnosh some snacks, $8 will cover it.

If you've never visited Foggy Ridge before, I highly recommend bringing a camera.  The apple orchard is gorgeous this time of year, and I wouldn't want you to regret missing the opportunity to capture some incredible springtime photos.  See you there!

Best Ever

We had some incredible ingredients on our hands after farmers market, so we fired up the mud oven last night.  We had a little pizza party with Thurgood Morsel and Miles Giles as our invited guests (they said the pizza bones were to die for).

Cobblestone Farmers Market finds: Mediterranean flavored lamb sausage from Border Springs Farm, Fat Bear Farm spinach, and shiitake mushrooms from Myers Mushrooms and More. 

These pizzas were officially declared "our best pizzas ever."

The Berries and the Bees: The Miracle of Pollination

There aren't many things I enjoy more than watching the blueberry bushes progress from bud to berry.  It's fascinating to see the bees work their magic, transferring pollen from blossom to blossom.  There are hundreds of thousands of flowers to pollinate, and I think they manage to take care of them all.  Bees are so underrated.  

I'd like to share this miraculous process with you from beginning to end.

Depending on the weather, the buds generally begin to swell in late March.

Beginning in early April, each bud separates into a cluster of several individual flowers.

These flowers are just about ready to bloom.

Open, ready and waiting for just the right bee to come along.

The bees have just begun their work this week, and they'll continue to pollinate the blossoms for another week or two.

There are six hives at the orchard, and I didn't see any honey bees in the blueberries this evening.  Maybe it was just the wrong time of day.  But no worries, the bumble bees were kicking ass and taking names.

 I think this one was giving me the evil eye.

These blossoms have been pollinated and most of the petals have fallen off.  Can you see the berries forming?

This is what we'll have in just a few weeks from now!

And I think you know how the rest of this story goes...

We'll be picking in early July!