Happy Fall Y'all

It’s officially here, as of today. The most magical, vibrant, fruitful season: AUTUMN.

We love to celebrate Autumn’s arrival here at the Vivian house, because it’s not only one of our favorite times of year, but September 22 is also my birthday! As I welcome my 38th year, I have a lot of thoughts about life and parenting and farming and marriage and business and careers and oh, so many thoughts! I’ll spare you the chaos in my mind, except that I hope you know how grateful I am. Grateful for my home an our farm, grateful for my three children and a chance to feel the overflowing emotions of motherhood, grateful for a career I enjoy and a hobby and business I genuinely passionate about, alongside my husband. And really, really grateful for Jesse: the man who stays strong and steady and holds us all together when sometimes things feel too heavy and messy. And I’m grateful for all of you who read my weekly ramblings and stay with us as we try new things and quit old things and do this farm life together! And always grateful for a God who knows and loves me no matter what. Phew, I had a feeling that might go on. But it’s all true, and so thank you. Really, thank you.

As we start working through our fall bucket list (think: apple picking! Friday night lights! Hayrides! Pumpkin carving! Cider pressing!), I had to introduce the maybe least “fall” flavored gelato yet, but also the one that feels like fall. It’s rich and chocolatey, with swirls of peanut butter and crunchy pretzels: a sweet and rich and savory gelato perfect for movie night cuddled under a blanket. I can already envision myself watching Nanny McPhee or Hocus Pocus with this gelato pint in hand. So without further adieu, we bring you DARK CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PREZEL GELATO. Pints stocked in our farm shoppe this Saturday, 10am -1pm.

I should also mention that, as Autumn is officially here and our fall bucket list includes apples and cider: WE HAVE BOTH! Freshly pressed apple cider fills our fridge at the farm shoppe alongside freshly picked honeycrisp and Autumn crisp apples from a local NY orchard. There really is nothing like a preservative free, fresh picked apple. And if you have yet to try a real fresh, unpasteurized apple cider: you’re in for a treat!

We can’t wait to welcome Autumn with you in our farm shoppe this Saturday, 10am -1pm.

Now, for my favorite links + finds from the week:

• While not announced officially, I’m so proud to bring you our first in a series of Farmer Education products: A Complete Guide to Once-a-Day (OAD) Milking! We have had so many questions through the years about how we transitioned and troubleshoot our herd with OAD milking. It’s a tricky subject and we’ve learned a lot this past two years. So we’re really excited to bring you all we know and have learned in our first ever guide. I have so much more to come in the Farmer Education Series, so stay tuned. If you’re a farmer or homesteader, too, make sure you sign up for our Farm Education Series HERE. While not yet fully developed, you’ll be the first to know when our newest products go live!

• One of our favorite fall apple farms, Rocky Ridge Orchards in Kane. They have fresh apples, fresh cider and even offer you-pick at certain times during the season!

• I recently shared about my newest supplement which has brought me so much real, clean energy: beef organ supplements. Yes, I get the initial quease, but stay with me: our ancestors did not have multivitamins, but knew the most nutrient dense food was the organ meat. This was (and still is, in many cultures throughout the world) a prized meal, especially preserved for immunocompromised or ill persons or pregnant women. In our modern culture, we’ve stopped eating organ meat (ugh, the taste), and turned instead to synthetic vitamins and minerals. But doesn’t it make sense that this God-given, nutrient dense meat be a part of our hunter/gather diet?! I vote yes. And I replaced my daily multivitamin with these supplementswith the best result yet: ENERGY. They’re completely tasteless and I highly recommend them. Read more about the health benefits of organ meats here.

• For a good laugh. I watched this too many times.

• Comfort food season, I’m ready! And just in time, I found these 3 ingredient Nutella brownies.

• It’s not too late to grab a last-minute ticket for our Dinner in the Meadow event at Meadow and Twilight Farm: this Saturday 9/23/23 at 5pm.

• It’s Oktoberfest at Mechanistic Brewing in Clarion this weekend!

I hope we see you at our farm shoppe this Saturday morning 10am -1pm for fresh apples and cider and pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING!

Happy Fall, y’all!