What we’re growing at Buzz & Blossom Farm this year.
One of our favorite parts of farming is deciding what to grow each year. Some crops are familiar favorites, while others are new experiments that we’re excited to try.
Our goal is to grow a wide variety of fruits, berries, vegetables, and heirloom crops that thrive in the hills of eastern Kentucky.
Orchard Fruits
Our orchard continues to grow each year and currently includes several varieties of fruit trees.
We grow apples such as Honeycrisp and Pink Lady, along with peaches, cherries, nectarines, plums, and pears. Most of these fruits are well suited to our climate and provide harvests from mid-summer through early fall, while some are pushing the limits of our climate just for fun.
Berries
Berries are one of the most rewarding crops on the farm.
We grow blueberries, blackberries, elderberries, and raspberries, which produce some of the earliest harvests of the summer. Few things are better than picking fresh berries straight from the bush on a warm morning.
Vineyard
Our vineyard is a new and exciting part of the farm.
We are experimenting with different grape varieties that are supposed to perform well in our region, including muscadines and traditional bunch grapes. Grapes not only produce delicious fruit, but they also add beauty to the landscape as the vines grow and fill in along the trellises. The muscadines and three grape varieties were planted last year, four grape varieties are newly planted, and we’re holding one spot open. Then there’s a special variety that we’re trying to propogate. It’s off of a scion of a concorde grape that great on my husband’s great grandmother’s property at least 50 years ago. Tentatively, we’re planning on growing those over an arbor or pergola.
The Garden
The garden is where things started and where we get to experiment the most.
We grow many types of peppers, from sweet varieties like banana peppers and giant marconi to hotter varieties such as jalapeños, serranos, and habaneros. One of our favorites is the Sugar Rush Peach pepper, which has a wonderful fruity flavor.
My husband also enjoys researching historic crops, so we’ve started growing heirloom varieties like Jimmy Red corn, a historic Southern corn once widely used for grits and cornmeal.
These crops sometimes find their way into homemade hot sauces, pepper jellies, and other recipes in our kitchen.
Every season we try something new, and that spirit of curiosity is part of what makes farming so much fun.
