New Year
Simpler Life
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The New Year. Tabula Rasa, a clean slate. As we earn yet another year of life, another fresh season ahead, I find that the goals I wish for myself, my husband and our girls center on simplicity & peace. Running an orchard and farm-based business has been a mammoth project for us the past seven years. While we've faced so many challenges, every one of them we've persevered and overcome. We are finally getting our latest ideas and plans fine-tuned and I could not be more excited for what 2023 has to bring. One of our goals is to invite our followers from current social media over to our Youtube channel so we can share in real time (with plenty of raw humor) our lives here at the orchard. Here is a look back at our 2022 here at Athol Orchards. May you welcome new goals and dreams in 2023!
Despite a poor bloom this year, several trees
are growing some beautiful antique apples for this Autumn.
The Orchard Barn
Plans
inspired by Country Carpenters, CT
If you have supported our business over the past
seven years, you would know that ever since the very
beginning, we've had big plans for this growing preservation orchard and farm.
The first addition was our orchard-based licensed kitchen. Funded by an amazing angel investor, our own savings and a successful Kickstarter campaign that funded right at the onset of the COVID crisis. The success of our campaign was a testament to local community support, and how amazing our customers and friends are despite the uncertainty and unknowns at the time. The funding was completely local, and grass roots.
The next step has been one which has had many set backs but 2023 is the year. We've fought various elements that have been frustrating bumps in the road but we are now gearing up. If you've been out to the orchard for a workshop, event, or just to visit a farmstand for pies and honey, you have seen us set up outside, inside the kitchen in the Winter, or out closer to the road. The kitchen was never intended to be a long term solution for selling our orchard and farm's value-added products. We prefer to keep our kitchen a closed facility to keep public health at the top of our commitments. It allows us to maintain our standards of sanitation and sterilization.
All this to say, I am so beyond excited to share with you the future space at Athol Orchards, our New England-Inspired Orchard Barn. This will be a storing space for all fresh seasonal produce, our Raw Bunco Honey, beeswax products,
raw goat milk products, seasonal North Idaho Maple Syrup, farm fresh pies and more!
The gorgeous red barn you see is our inspiration. It is one of several design styles created by a company back in Connecticut that specializes in New England style Post and Beam barns. When we talk about dreams, this is pretty high up on my list. Our Woodland Mill is awaiting it's brand new blades and Erreck will begin milling the timber needed for this beautiful build.
