en route to DC from richmond, we took a sizable but manageable detour to washington, VA to visit sunnyside farms and orchard.

in all this harvest tour planning and emailing and calling, it was refreshing to finally get ourselves on site, meet some people and check some spots out. we arrived shortly after lunch time. they had BLT’s waiting for us with bacon made from local pork and lettuce and heirlooms from the garden.

the owner and a bunch of his crew were all there… they have rows and rows of hoop houses, which makes for a year-round growing season.  the large garden provides for a 75 member CSA and two trips to the dupont circle farmer’s market in D.C. per week.

additionally, they grow apples, asian pears, peaches and cherries on what’re apparently some of the oldest orchards in the state of virginia. they then proceeded to tell us that their biggest pests are not strains of plant disease or creepy crawlies but deer and - get this - bears.

BEARS.

bears come up, shake the tree, eat all the fruit in minutes and there ain’t nuthin’ no one can do about it.

crazy.

apparently this trend is recent (in the last 20 years or so). we asked them what they thought what would suddenly inspire a bunch of bears to start hanging around orchards that had been around since the late 1700s. of course, they responded that warmer summers or rapidly developing communities probably had SOMETHING to do with the deer and bears taking over. the operations manager suggested that it was probably a giant conspiracy of bears and deers (sic).

regardless, the bears are leavin’ something over for their human neighbors because they gave us a few apples for the road and, lordy, they were sweet and perfect.

emily took us on a tour of the grounds, pointing out this and that and scoping out spots for our performance there. way up on the hill is a giant barn with exposed sides… creating a kind of a tent vibe.

emily takes us on a tour

the big barn

nice place for a party, eh?

s’perfect.