You may have heard that I am taking time off to work on my writing. Which raises the question: writing what? 

While our restaurant has been put to bed until St. Patrick’s Day, we are enjoying some family time, and projects are being planned, new visions are being refined, and we are looking forward to a great 2026 and beyond.

Planting beans is one of the easier things that we do. We weed them a couple of times, give them trellises, and then for the most part leave them alone. Most of the work comes later. After picking them and allowing them to dry in their pods for several weeks, the beans need to be shucked, in other words, separated from their pods. This way they can be stored long term.

Each fall, a group of us from the kitchen take the short trip to the bog and spend a couple of hours picking, by hand without the aid of flooding, all of the berries we will need for the upcoming festivities. It has become an Orchard Kitchen tradition.

Introducing our fall comfort tote! Together with our farmers we've put together a bag of what's fresh on the farm. Each tote will include, 3 garlic heads, 2lb of mixed potatoes, 1lb dry scarlett runner beans, 2 delicata squash and three seasonal harvest items hand selected by our farmers. Visit Whidbeyislandgrown.com to purchase yours! 

Thanks to all of you who have shopped our Farm Stand this year. We really appreciate all the support and the grace with which you follow the honor system we have in place. Our Farm Stand is closing for the season.