Wine Crush

at Vine Hill Farm

 

  The grapes are ready!  John is picking our 'estate grown' cabernet.

Vine Hill Farm 

Our flowers used at a June Wine Country Wedding 

in Sonoma County.

 http://www.getmarried.com/trends/rustic/198-real-wedding-jennifer-chris 

 This box is loaded with our short stemmed mixed garden bouquets.  These are currently selling for $8.  Many customers are purchasing the bouquet along with the mason jar in which it is nestled.  $10 for the works.  JUST GRAB AND GO.

This is an example of my long stemmed bouquets.  There are 20 to 30 stems in each of these.  They are currently selling for $10.

Bells of Ireland

Our second crop 
of Bells of Ireland are coming on strong.  These 
will be in most all the bouquets until the end of the farmer's market 
in late October.

Old Vine Zinfandel

John calls himself a "garagista".  So besides turning into a floral arrangement studio each Friday, throughout most of the year in the garage we have tubs, carboys, barrels in the process of becoming wine. 

 Vintage 2010

Harvest Fair Winners 2012

  
John's latest winners.  Note that he has chosen to use pictures of our flowers for his labels.  He has been entering his homemade wine at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair for many years. 

Our daughter Erica was the inspiration for dabbling in flowers.  We continue to be pleasantly surprised by the compliments we receive from our Farmer's Market customers and have launched into weddings now, as well.

Erica gave me this book, The 50 Mile Bouquet, and as I read through it I realized that is what we are actually doing - "slow flowers". 

Of course, I knew about the "slow food" movement.  Applying the concept to flowers made perfect sense to me.  For more information about the "slow flower" movement, I have included the link below.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/23/4574417/sacramento-area-farms-pick-up.html

Another gorgeous wedding bouquet.  Fall colors in the dahlias, asters and lisianthus with a couple of drumsticks and a weeping millet stalk.

Corsages for the moms. 

'Bouts' for the guys.

 John meets his challenge.  Stuffed and hugely harmless.  

Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.

 

Our Salt Spring Island competition.  Beautiful country bouquets selling for $12.  A transplanted Healdsburg girl working here.  Notice they still have sweetpeas in mid August.  The flowers and other produce seem to come on a bit later in their bioregion.   This was the Tuesday afternoon Farmer's Market.  They have a bigger one on Saturdays.

One of many farm gate stands on Salt Spring Island.  I loved the clever flower holders.  A custom designed wooden stand holds a litre-size milk container.  Flower stems soak within until snatched by a customer.

I have no idea what this is.  It is blooming on a tree outside the entrance to the University of British Columbia's Botanical Gardens.

A roadside Inn outside of Penticton.  The hanging flower baskets are everywhere in B.C. This display was too overwhelming to just drive on by.

Hi!  John and Janet are traveling in British Columbia, Canada.  This is such an amazingly beautiful place.  The weather here is even better than Sonoma County, at least right now.   We are currently in a waterfront cottage on Salt Spring Island across the bay from Vancouver City.  Today we traversed the island and saw so many small farms, farmstands, and even enjoyed the small midweek Farmer's Market in the "heart of town" - Ganges.  We ran into vendors who hailed from the Healdsburg area, relocating here.  Why not?  Can't upload any pics yet but will when we get back home on August 28th.  In the meantime, to all our favorite Occidental Farmer's Market flower customers - check out Tierra Vegetables on Airport Drive in Windsor.  http://www.tierravegetables.com/ They might be carrying some of our garden fresh bouquets for sale.  See you soon.  Vine Hill Farm -Farmer John and Janet Maier