Downingtown Vegetable Garden: August 20, 2011

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but being the map guy for an Emergency Management Agency where an earthquake and a hurricane strike within a week kept me busier than normal. Better late than never!

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We visited our friends at the Crooked Farmhouse the weekend of August 20th and this time we finally got a chance to visit the famous Lands at Hillside Farms. Hillside Farms is a 19th Century dairy farm billed as a "412 acre classroom without walls'. It was a fine place to go for a walk on such a nice day!

This old greenhouse had just finished being renovated. It was mostly empty but there was one room filled with cherry tomatoes and japanese eggplant. I can't wait to see what they have in it next year.

It had an interesting mix of 19th century mechanical wheels to open the vents and CFL bulbs to light the place.

The pictures don't do the grounds justice. There are patches of flowers and vegetables everywhere.

The 5 pound jar of honey on the right shelf looked about the size I wanted. It would of made some good mead.

They grow amazing looking produce which is for sale in their Dairy Store along with their own cheese, honey, milk, ice cream, bread, chicken, beef, and eggs. The store was pretty no frills but it's focus was clear: fresh ingredients. I don't know if I've ever seen milk sold in glass jars like that. I love the idea and everyone swears by the milk here.

The ice cream shop: where the magic happens. I watched them take their fresh chocolate milk and mix it with their home made chocolate ice cream for the most epic chocolate milk shake I'd ever seen. To bad I already ordered...

I had a strawberry cheesecake ice cream - it looked and tasted even better than it sounds!

It's hard to tell without context, but these were some of the most massive sunflowers I'd ever seen. Most impressive.

Here's a couple of the chickens that roam the grounds. I couldn't get a good shot of the one with the fluffy mohawk. If I get chickens I want one of them.