03/05/2026
Hello internet world! It’s been awhile since I’ve popped on here and it seems we are well overdue for a farm update.
This past year was quite the transition year for Freyenhagen Farm. There were many ups and downs. We had a successful first season on our new evaporator with great weather which allowed us to make more syrup than we have the past few years! But as most folks know that great weather was then met with many weekends of rain making those early farmers markets very grim. By midsummer we were experiencing extreme drought conditions and with no irrigation systems yet in place we lost the majority of our crops. Through all of this I kept Jim’s wise words in my mind-he always said farming was the only gambling he’d ever do-sometimes you have a good year and sometimes you don’t, all we can do is be as ready as we can.
So as we enter into our second sugaring season without him, we find ourselves going through another big transition. We are expecting our very first baby in early April, during our busiest time of the year!
As I find myself “benched” and having to trust my small team to get things fixed, tapped, and ready to go this season I am now realizing how hard the past few years must have been for Jim. To have to sit on the sidelines and watch others do the thing you love is quite hard. But now having been on both sides I am leaning into that trust more, rather than calling Devin multiple times a day to check in on his progress in the woods and around the farm. I hope to hang onto that trust as the season continues and to start saying yes when our friends ask us if we need any help. Here’s to hoping for another plentiful sugaring season!
