The 2021 harvest is complete - everything is in from the field, and we’ve got the final round of peppers hitting the dehydrator next week. As we start selling the 2021 harvest and start to dream about the New Year, it’s important for me to take a second and put the numbers down on a page to really grasp what we accomplished since harvest started in mid-August.
- We harvested 23 tons of chile peppers ( 46,000 pounds of fresh chiles!) of 13 different varieties. Some will be for chile powders and some are saved for whole dried chiles headed your way in January.
- We grew 5 different kinds of dry beans and threshed all 1,351 pounds with our bike-powered bean thresher.
- Despite the geese eating the plants over the summer, we brought in 335 pounds of popcorn.
- As the chile harvest ramped up, we closed out a dismal strawberry season and sent the majority of our 132 flats of berries to The Apple Farm for their jam. Though a small harvest, the berries still tasted great.
- A few weeks ago we harvested 1.7 tons of olives from our grove! We’ll have olive oil ready to go in February.
- And we mowed down our chile plants, took out the weed cloth, planted cover crop, and fully put the fields to bed this week.
Honestly, no wonder we’re all so tired! Oof!
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Help us support the Anderson Valley Volunteer Fire Department
Add a t-shirt, hat, or tote to your order! Our sturdy tote bags are great for filling with gifts, groceries, or snacks for a long car ride. Add them to your gift order and we’ll pack everything inside it for your recipient! I only keep 1 of our t-shirts in my closet because if I had multiple, I would wear it more than once a week - it’s that soft and cozy! And our BBC hats are perfect to keep the winter sun out of your eyes which happens to be extremely intense (and hot?) here in Boonville lately.
Gideon, my husband and the guy tippy tapping away on his computer making sure we have all our packaging, supplies, and folks get paid (i.e., business partner) joined the Anderson Valley Volunteer Fire Department in June 2020 and has spent the past year and a half responding to calls of all kinds across the valley and offering support to folks on their worst of days. And he’s been nominated for Fire Fighter of the Year here in Boonville! I couldn’t be prouder of him. For every t-shirt, hat, or tote purchased, we donate $5 to the AV Volunteer Fire Dept. While I’m not the coolest under pressure or fire related situations, I’d love to do my part and raise a bit more $$ for the Fire Department before the year closes out and I’d love your help in getting there.
(Full disclosure, the picture is from a driver training event, he's very serious when responding to an emergency...)
Thanks for being a part of what we do here in Boonville. We wouldn’t be here without you.
What We're Cooking
- We've been busy testing new recipes that our friend and recipe developer Emily Teel wrote for us and I’m excited to share them with you soon, including the Ultimate Piment d’Ville Party Snack Mix, a veggie-filled Minestrone Soup with Piment d’Ville Croutons, Poblano Frico Eggs, and Hot Honey Comapeño Chicken Wings.
- In the meantime, pop over to our website and explore the recipe section. Did you recently cook something delicious with our farm-to-jar chile powders? Send us a message and share!
