Buongiorno a tutti! Two big items to share today.

   1st: The Farm Store is back open and it is beautiful!  Just last week the store was a bare bones shed with literally nothing in it.  Then, I lost sight of my wife for four full days and nights and all of a sudden, it’s the most charming cozy nook I’ve ever seen!  I don’t know how she does it, but it’s just so damned captivating in there.  Every square inch has something unique and charming and is beautifully arranged on tables, in shelves, or dangling in space.  I just don’t have the vision to bring something like that together.  I get more and more aware of the depth of forethought and creativity that it requires as each season passes and find greater and greater fascination with Mandy’s vision.  She's good.

   The butterfly garden out front with its wispy grasses, whimsical vines and archways, and fragrant colorful array of flowers beckons you into a fairy tale realm for you to sate your curiosity and delight the senses.  Tony’s new hand turned candle sticks and charcuterie boards are truly beautiful and Linda’s new vases are just off the charts stunning with their brilliantly colorful paintings and etchings.  I married into a talented family.

   The 2nd piece of news is that for one night only, we are hosting a dinner in our dahlia fields as a fundraiser for our friends Mike and Shyretha of The Plate Sale.  The cause is a great one and the food and drinks they make are always delicious.  We’ll be doing a pre-dinner private farm tour, right after cocktails are served.  Then we’ll be seated out in the fields amongst the dahlias for dinner.  Afterwards, guests are welcome to cut their own dahlias to take home, so go ahead and bring a bucket and cut away!  100% of the proceeds go directly to their fundraiser.  Check out the link and join us for an evening of drinks, dinner, discussions, and dahlias on October 14th.

   Dahlia subscriptions start this coming week, so if you subscribed, don’t forget to check your email for shipping confirmation and your tracking numbers so that when Fedex comes by, you’ll be ready to swaddle those adorable little babies and get them safely inside where you can bask in their other worldly beauty.

   Cooler weather begins today over here and I can’t tell you how grateful we are to have the week ahead promising to be one where we aren’t sweating and depleted by 8:30a.m.

I’m so creaky right now, I feel like the tin man devoid of an oil can.

   Meanwhile, we plug away, raising dahlias that live in tiny little baggies like a million miniature bridal veils and then sending them off to their new homes. The next big phase is preparing the farm and ourselves for the rapidly approaching tunnel work, required to plant and grow all of spring’s bounty.    

   If you are coming to the store, don’t forget to check out all the other things to do in Comer, and if you’re coming to dinner….cheers, we look forward to it!  

   p.s.  If dinner in the dahlias sounds dreamy to you, I should add that we will remove all dahlia coverings for that evening.  No field of tiny ghosts that night.  Just a sea of beautiful flowers for you to enjoy.
-Steve