Chetwyn Farm: Conserving Wildlife in Our Grove!

Published: Mon, 11/01/21

November News

Hi ,

The leaves are all almost off the trees by our deck and the skies are bright blue. We love this time of year with the cool nights and warm days. And because of the wonderful rainstorm a week ago, the creeks are running and we actually have water in our pond.

Native Hedgerow in the Grove

Very exciting news! We just picked up a native plant hedgerow from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which is an international nonprofit organization that works to protect invertebrates and their habitats. The hedgerow we received contains native shrubs and plants that help the native insect population on our farm. It will provide them with a habitat complete with food and shelter and a safe space away from harmful chemicals. We will be planting all 136 along the top of our grove, which will end up being about 800 feet of native plant hedgerow. We will be sure to keep you posted on how the plants do and what birds and insects we see move in.

Autumn Produce

We don’t have many trees that turn colors, but the ones that do are wonderful, like the persimmon trees that change into a beautiful orange. We had planted one tree and Anna talked so much about how she loved the colors that Dave planted her 5 more.

A way to make the persimmons last longer is to dehydrate them, and the fruit keeps its bright orange color even dried. This year, we have a small Hachiya persimmon tree that is loaded with fruit. They are a softer persimmon and wonderful to bake with. Once these get ripe, we plan on using them to make persimmon custard and some delicious persimmon bread. In the meantime we wait in anticipation!

On top of persimmons, the garden is giving us lots of different types of winter squash. Those include Butternut squash, Kobodah squash, and green and orange striped pumpkins. We enjoy the Butternut and Kobodah baked. They are perfect for a warm and hardy autumn meal. The green and orange striped pumpkins have seeds with no shells. They are easy to prepare and turn into an awesome snack.

At the Market This Month...

We are finishing up our GEM avocados this month and will start the Lamb Hass variety. Lamb Hass are the last of our avocados we will be bring to the market, aside from a few Mexicola Grandes that we may bring at the end of the month. The Lamb Hass is similar to the Hass (they are actually related), but bigger in size with a high oil content and smooth flavor.

In addition to avocados, we will also be bringing an assortment of citrus to the market this month. Keep your eyes peeled for our lemons, limes, and kumquats.