Wittenberg Magazine features Honeyrun Farm

Wittenberg University (our alma mater) has featured Honeyrun Farm in their December magazine! Find the link to the article and view a video about our farm here. We really appreciate the time that Wittenberg put in to this story and video! Isaac, Becky, and I all have fond memories of our time spent there, and although none of us really studied agriculture while at Witt, our respective areas of study helped prepare us in our roles at Honeyrun Farm.

Buy local this Christmas!

Looking for some great local gifts this Holiday Season? Come check out the North Market Holiday Open House, Saturday 8-5 and Sunday 12-5. I will be there selling our pure honey, herbal infused honey, soap, lip balm, lotion sticks, homegrown herbal teas and spice mixes, beeswax candles, and handcrafted gourds. There are a lot of other great events going on including music and free samples from merchants. Come find me in the upper level of the market, with all the other great artisans.

Scheduled Holiday Open House Activities include:

Saturday, December 5

* 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., North Market merchants and Craft Extravaganza vendors open

* 8 a.m. - 12 p.m., Christmas tree sales on the farmers' market plaza with Seibel Trees and Rhoads Farm Market

* 9 a.m. - 11 a.m., holiday music by Willie Phoenix

* 9:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., roasted chestnuts and pretzels sold in the farmers' market plaza

* 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., holiday music by Suite Strings

* 1 - 3 p.m., holiday music by Miss Molly

* 1 - 3 p.m., Joyunspeakable, the living statue as the Nutcracker Toy Soldier

* 3 - 5 p.m., holiday music by the Eileen Howard Jazz Trio

For more info visit: http://www.northmarket.com/activities-and-events/2009-12-05/holiday-open-house-and-craft-extravaganza

Hope to see you there!

Honeyrun Farm CSA being offered in 2010

Honeyrun Farm is now offering a CSA! For those of you who aren't familiar with the term CSA, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Participants are able to buy a share of the produce from the farm for an annual fee, and in exchange receive a weekly bag of fresh seasonal produce. This way, the consumer is able to share in the bounty of harvest, while also weathering the seasonal fluctuations of availability with the farmer. After receiving numerous requests to start a CSA, Becky has decided to offer this to the first 20 participants in 2010. Here is a quick outline of the program:

*Program runs June 12- October 23 (20 weeks)

*Pick up available at Pearl, Clintonville, and Worthington markets

*Cost for 20 weeks is $400, paid by February 1, 2010

Here are some examples of the vegetables that will be offered through the CSA:

Heirloom tomatoes

Bell, Specialty, and Hot Peppers

Fingerling Potatoes

Fresh Herbs

Winter & Summer Squash

Candy Onions

Root Vegetables - Carrots, Beets, Turnips, Radishes

Lettuce

Tomatilloes

Husk Cherries

Brussel Sprouts

Parsnips

Braising Greens

Asian Greens

Zucchini

Cucumber

Eggplant

Garlic

Beans

Questions about the CSA? Email Becky Barnes at honeyrun.produce@gmail.com.

Here's a picture from a 2008 Spring market... Mason was just 4 months old here! Time has flown by. It has been a fun and exciting journey.

A long overdue post from Honeyrun Farm!

So I took a few months off after having a baby on August 4th, but I think that is a reasonable excuse, right? Markets are tapering off and the fall weather is upon us. But there is still one month left of great produce, and the honey is always in season. Becky will be at her regular markets through the end of October, and Isaac will be selling honey at the North Market for one more week, with honey and soap available at the farmstand throughout the year.

Here is an update on what Becky has to offer from her fall harvest, as well as storage crops. Greens... greens... greens! Did you know one of her customers actually refers to her as the "lettuce angel"? Pictured below is bronze arrow heirloom lettuce. This is available in a mix with black seeded simpson, red deer tongue, and the beautiful bright red ruffled "lolla rossa" (my personal favorite). I was so excited when I finally got to eat my first BLT with a homegrown tomato and homegrown lettuce. Next year we will have to raise some pigs to complete the local meal.
And this is another favorite at the markets; Arugula. It adds a nice spicy component to any salad, on top of pizza, in a stew, or with your favorite pasta dish.
Other greens that are growing at Honeyrun Farm include Tatsoi and Mizuna, which are asian greens that are great in salad, stir-fry, and soup. Swiss chard and Red Russian Kale round out the greens selection. Other crops available are brussel sprouts, beets, turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes (as big as your head), pie pumpkins, scorzonera (get to the market early for this... it's going quickly!), and parsnips. For those of you that have never visited the farm, pictured below you can see the layout of the crops, taken from the top of a grain bin in early July. If you would like to visit the farm in person, just send us an email and we can arrange a visit.

Finally it has rained on Honeyrun Farm!  We have had a pretty dry summer, and luckily on Saturday we finally received about 2 inches.  We've been so busy we haven't had much time to publish to the blog.  Here is Becky's field... showing the sweet potatoes, onions, hot peppers, and basil and eggplant under the blanket of white floating row cover, which keeps the bugs out, but lets light and rain in.  The sweet corn has also begun to mature, along with a handful of red tomatoes.  We need some of that traditional hot July weather to help them turn bright red!  Becky has recently joined a new market in Dublin on Wednesdays from 4:00-8:00.  Today she will be selling some delicious Ambrosia sweet corn, along with an assortment of purple and green bell peppers, zucchini, onions, carrots... she has such a wide assortment she can hardly find room for everything on the table!  
Gretel from Sunny Meadows Flower Farm came to help make soap last week, and toured the farm with Becky to talk about new ideas and the progress of the crops.   The lack of rain has made the Sunflowers shorter than normal, but they are still blooming beautifully!
On another note, Isaac has started to prepare the ground for the building of our new 'honey house.'  This will be a new location for us to extract and bottle honey, as well as make soap and other honey products.  We have been planning this for quite some time, and it is hard to believe that we are actually beginning to break ground.
A Columbus photographer, Catherine Murray, visited the farm this week to take some photos.  Here is a beautiful shot she took of a frame of honeybees, including the queen near the bottom edge of the picture.  It is often hard to find the queen, so we were really glad she was able to shoot this photo!  Notice the queen's enlarged abdomen, as compared to the rest of the bees.  This allows her to lay the 1,000-1,500 eggs she produces each day during this time of year.
And finally... our son Mason as he enjoys the Spring Black Locust Honey.  It is such a light, delicate flavor... our family's favorite of all the honey we produce.  We are currently selling it at the North Market on Saturdays, but plan to keep one bucket reserved for our customers at the Lithopolis Honeyfest, which will be on Sept. 12th.  Hopefully Mason can restrain himself from eating too much of it before the festival.
photo credit:  Courtney Hergesheimer