Moutoux Orchard, 15290 Purcellville Rd, Purcellville, VA (2021)

09/02/2021

Can you spot my greenhouse friend?
#lettuce #foodsafety #loudounfarms

08/26/2021

Early mornings for chicken processing means we get to watch the sunrise together 🌅#karakachan #farmmornings #somanychickens

08/20/2021

For today’s farmer Friday, we are introducing an incredibly valuable member of our team, manure.

We are a few months behind on this project, but the annual barn clean out is finish. We have two deep bedded pack barns that pile high with dairy manure and bedding. Here is the clean out of one of the barns.

After composting, we’ll have over 100 tons to spread, and this becomes the backbone of our fertility program. Rock minerals, cover cropping, diverse rotations, and incorporating grazing and pastured livestock into our cropping systems round it out.

To us, keeping livestock production wedded to crop farming is possibly the most important facet of successful organic farming.
#farmerfriday #somuchsh*t #organicfarming #cowspoopalot

08/13/2021

I don’t know if you know, but it’s really hot out here. Thank a farmer today— we work hard to get this abundance to you every week. Huge thanks to @erinhyman29 and @chickenqueer for killing it in the hottest week of the summer. You badass ladies.
#knowyourfarmerknowyourfood #heatwave

08/11/2021

When a huge summer lightning storm catches your hay field on fire, we are so grateful to live in a community that has our back! Thanks to all who called the fire department because with this huge storm we didn’t get one drop of rain. Climate change is scary and real.
#lightningstrikes #climatechangeisreal #climatechangeawareness

08/11/2021

Just some colorful tomato appreciation #organic #heirloomtomatoes #virginiagrown

08/06/2021

Rainbow coming at you this week, CSA!
#bellpeppers #knowyourfarmerknowyourfood #loudounfarms #regenerativeagriculture

08/05/2021

This week we welcomed our newest flock of laying hens! These gals were shut inside their house for the past 2 days to learn where they should sleep and lay their eggs and now are venturing outside and adjusting to all the people and the guardian dogs.

07/30/2021

In addition to a busy summer farm season and wrangling two little kids, add a house renovation to our project list. We are so excited about this one. Here we are eating dinner in our future new dining room, subfloor freshly completed.

Step 1 on this project is to stop the termites from eating our house and add wood where they already ate it. Step 2 is add a dining room, mud room, screen porch, and deck. No big deal.

We have a certain kind of love for our mid 1800s farmhouse- we expect to have lot more love for it after renovations. And we are so grateful to the Plancks who did so much work on this house before us, and lived and worked here for 30+ years before us. If you know them, you love them.

#sorrytermites #farmhouse #farmlife

07/28/2021

Neighbors and friends! Have you heard about pizza night by @farmfireside at @cornerstoreva in Waterford?! LOCAL organic, freaking delicious pizza to PICK up on your way home from work on Friday. It doesn’t get any better. These are our dear friends and the real deal. Order online now!!

PIZZA NIGHT - FRIDAY, July 30th
Fireside Farm + Corner Store Waterford

Menu

—> ORDER BY THURS AT 7 AM

07/27/2021

Hey CSA members! Pull out your canning pots, gather your jars, clean out your freezer — it’s tomato time!!!
#somanytomatoes #regenerativeagriculture #organictomatoes #wholedietcsa #tired

07/26/2021

This guys a really special one for us- born early this morning we welcome Emmett, first calf to our special mama, Shawna. Lovingly named after our dear friend and midwife, @mountainvfarm
#jerseycalf #rawdairy #smallfarm #loudounfarms

07/22/2021

High summer
#wholedietcsa #loudounfarms #regenerativeagriculture #organicfruit

07/16/2021

Reminders of how great this life is. Rainbow over the veggie fields after a log day. #loudouncounty

07/13/2021

we’ve been working hard in the heat out here! we wanted to give y’all a quick beginning of summer photo round up!

slide 1: Willa looking like the coolest kid eating some watermelon
slide 2: @chickenqueer hanging garlic
slide 3: @erinhyman29 and baby Aviva
slide 4: @nature_gay_ with a snake friend
slide 5: new chicks
slide 6: first of the summer cherry tomatoes with herb yogurt cheese on @le.gouterbread amazing bread
slide 7: homemade pickles
slide 8: funky eggplants
slide 9: double inverted zephyr squash
slide 10: a penny toad friend

07/05/2021

A very hot afternoon to harvest garlic, but as usual, @erinhyman29 @nature_gay_ @chickenqueer killed it! So much sweating.
Coming to the CSA after a few weeks curing and hopefully will last us all through the winter.
#knowyourfarmerknowyourfood #loudounfarms

06/29/2021

Say you’re a farm kid without saying you’re a farm kid. Dancing in the parlor with a hanging afterbirth! Delilah birthed a gorgeous bull and we are milking the rich colostrum to bottle feed the calf.
We are grateful our kids get to experience the reality and beauty of birth, growth and death in all its forms.
We are also thankful for these amazing animals that nourish and feed us all.
#farmkids #loudounfarms #familyfarm #jerseycows #birth

06/21/2021

We are saying goodbye to a true MVP today. @caseylynnhoff has been with us for three seasons- and, truly, the craziest seasons we’ve had so far! She has been a reliable wonderful part of the team and we are so lucky to know her. Casey is off to do great things in graduate school this fall and she will be sorely missed, but we are excited for her! We will miss you, Cakey!!!!! You always have a home at the farm. Buster, too. Xoxo
#familyfarming #teamworkmakesthedreamwork

06/11/2021

We’re back for #farmerfriday ! Meet Morgan 👩‍🌾 Morgan is originally from Long Island and graduated from Pace University as an English and gender studies double major in NYC. This is Morgan’s first season farming and we are so glad to have her! She’s a great cook and our resident dairy processor. Her favorite things to do on the farm are making cheese and finding bones. Beets are her favorite vegetable to harvest! 🍓👑

06/07/2021

Summer is here! (It’s hot out here, too!) a little extra shade for baby Willa.
#summerfarming #loudounfarms #boobsweat

05/30/2021

“Strawberry ponies, strawberry lambs, dancing in meadows of strawberry jam. Mountains and fountains rain down on me, buried in berries what a jam jamboree!” (Jam berry 1983)
Strawberries coming at you for the first week of our new CSA season! Welcome new 2021 members!
#strawberries #organicfruit #loudounfarms #regenerativeagriculture #jamberry

05/28/2021

Next up for #farmerfriday is Erin! She recently graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelors in ecosystem health. Her favorite thing to do around the farm is to drive the tractor and her favorite vegetable to harvest is carrots because sometimes they come out all twisted up and look like they’re hugging each other!

This is Erin’s first season with us but she has some prior experience farming roses 🌹

05/24/2021

Rainy Mondays call for fried rice and a cold beer! shiitakes from @quartzwoodfarm ; beer, as always, from @wheatlandspring ; and home grown peas!!

05/21/2021

first up for our #farmerfriday introductions we have a two for one special! Here is Casey, and her partner in crime Buster! Casey has been with @moutouxorchard for 3 seasons and is a true mvp! She enjoys milking the cows and her favorite veggie to harvest is eggplant! Casey will be starting her second semester at Montana state in the fall, where she will be studying sustainable food systems.

Buster is our sweet prince who enjoys hanging out with us in the field and taking naps in the loft during CSA. We’re going to miss both of these angels when they leave, but are excited to hear about their new adventures!

05/14/2021

we think it’s time to meet the faces behind the masks of our 2021 crew! starting next friday we’ll be doing #farmerfriday each week one of our crew members is going to post a photo and introduce themselves! until then, here are Erin, Morgan, Casey and Jules in a patch of bluebells!

05/11/2021

When you’re out in the field seeding after a long day with the kids and feeding them dinner, it’s so nice to have a cold @wheatlandspring beer in hand!
#familyfarm #loveloudoun #loudounfarms #farmlikeamother

05/07/2021

Mowing down a thick crimson clover & wheat cover crop for winter squash planting. Gotta love #thickcover #covercrops #photosynthesis #carbonfarming #organicfarming

05/01/2021

Week 48: The Fog Has Lifted

https://www.moutouxorchard.com/post/week-48-the-fog-has-lifted

The quarantine fog has lifted and open access to the farm table is back! We are so excited to get to see your (masked) faces and be social at the CSA pickups once again! Spring is in full swing with several things happening at the farm. With the last of the Spring crops in the ground, roots are on t...

04/07/2021

Grass is sunlight caught, and it feeds the rumen, the soil life, and humanity. Willa is learning early. Here she feeds some hand-picked fresh spring grass to Maddie. #GrassTheGreatHealer #farmkids #dairykids #loudoungrown #loveloudoun

03/04/2021

Must be spring on a busy farm with two littles during a global pandemic! 2/3 playground, 1/3 farm. What are we going to do when we have to move the trampoline out!!! #makingitwork #farmingthroughcovid

02/27/2021

Week 39: Think Spring

https://www.moutouxorchard.com/post/week-39-think-spring

While we transition from a frozen ground to being able to plant seedlings in fields, we are at the slowest point of the year at the farm. The seedlings will soon move from the trays they have started in, to their new home in the ground. This is a great time to Think Spring which is just over 20 days...

02/18/2021

My winter storm reading gave me allllll the feels this week. You all should read this book! Being a farm mama is hard- thanks for validating that @kristinxkimball and wishing @essexfarmcsa a productive and sunny season- with the perfect amount of rain, of course. #farmlikeamother #loudounfarms #farmmama #fulldietcsa