SnowFire Hollow Orchard

03/09/2026

This art work is from artists picked by Hudson Valley Seed Company. It came with the seed packets of flowers we received. Pretty cool. In about 3 weeks some of the seeds will be started indoors. Most will be directly sown outdoors Memorial Day to the 1st of June.

Spring must be near!!!

These flowers were chosen because they are certified organic, their beauty, growing well here in southern Maine, bringing in pollinators, and critters/deer finding them to be repugnant and unpalatable.

03/07/2026

SnowFire Hollow’s superfruit spiced tea is very small-batched, has 100% certified organic ingredients, and hand-harvested here in our Maine orchard and gardens.

The tea blend features ingredients like aronia berries, elderberries, seaberries, and a traditional proprietatary spice and herb blend. It provides a natural, immune-boosting, and flavorful experience that can be enjoyed both hot and iced.

All of our product ingredients are grown, hand harvested, dehydrated, assembled and packaged on-site without a hint of pesticides, or anything that shouldn't be on, or in them.

12/28/2025

These photos were taken taken a year and 10 days ago.

This photo taken this morning is a collection of herbs that are grown in our Maine gardens, harvested, and dehydrated with help from the sun, rain, wind, bees, lady bugs, other beneficial insects, healthy organic and beyond soil....and a couple of dehydrators. They're soon-to-be infused with jojoba, h**p, and olive oils, and small batched into our products. Marshmallow root is infused in distilled water as part of our Mallow Tallow lotion.
Also....Lots of lavender buds, not pictured here, are used in a healthy, tasty tea blend, as well as sachets.

Certified organic by MOFGA and The Real Organic Project, the fruit grown here are harvested similar to the herbs, and promptly put in freezers. They're part of our SnowFire Hollow Superfruit Spiced Honey immunity boosting Elixir and tea. Our products contain zero pesticides, ingredients are fresh, hand grown and harvested/ without the use of any machinery, and aren't hanging out in a large warehouse somewhere for extended periods of time. Natural. Holistic. Organic.

12/21/2025

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from our family to yours

11/03/2025

Available to purchase on our website, Causeway Commons, Vernon Family Farm, One Earth Natural Food Store, and The Center for Maine Craft at West Gardiner Toll Plaza.

11/03/2025

Let the "bletting" begin. Medlar fruit was harvested this morning after the 2nd consecutive overnight freeze her in southern Maine. You can see the frost on pic #2.

Now to set it aside for a couple - 3 weeks to soften-up and turn tasty.

As you might be able to ascertain from pic # 1, the deer got a jump on the medlar harvest season by "picking" out the bottom of the tree. First time that's happened. They prefer eating new growth in the spring. Same thing happened to our other medlar tree.

Still got all the fruit we needed and the deer got to enjoy a late night organic medlar feast.
Pretty sure they decided to forego the bletting process before eating them. It's all good.

10/16/2025

You won't find your local peddler selling this once popular fruit named Medlar.

3,000+ years of cultivation: The medlar tree is native to the region around the Black Sea, encompassing modern-day Iran, Turkey, and southeastern Europe.
Introduced by Romans: Though its botanical name is Mespilus germanica (German medlar), the Romans are credited with spreading the fruit across Europe. Medlar seeds have been found in archaeological sites from Roman Britain and mosaics in Pompeii.
Roman and medieval importance: The medlar was a valuable winter fruit in Roman and medieval times. It was included on a list of plants that Charlemagne decreed should be grown on imperial estates in the 9th century.

Common orchard fruit: During the Middle Ages and into the 17th and 18th centuries, the medlar was a common fruit in gardens and markets across Europe. It was a particularly valued source of vitamin C during the winter.
Distinctive ripening: Medlars are known for a unique ripening process called "bletting," where they are allowed to soften off the tree until their flesh becomes sweet and edible. This unusual process and the fruit's appearance led to its prominent role in literature.
Foul-mouthed literature: The fruit's unusual shape earned it b***y nicknames like "open-arse," which was used for humor and symbolism in the works of authors such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. The fruit often served as a metaphor for decay, destitution, or prostitution.

10/16/2025

Another week, or 2 left before harvesting this Medlar tree

10/16/2025

“I don’t understand why industrial agriculture is called 'conventional'. Surely conventional is the small-scale family farming. That’s convention over thousands of years, but now we call it conventional to grow our food with chemical poisons and I see nothing conventional about that."⁠
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“If we grow organic and we all start demanding organic food, that will mean a reduction of all those chemicals used in conventional agriculture. That means that, once again, we will be providing environments that are okay for insects and birds, and we shall start to see a recurrence of biodiversity.⁠
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“At the same time, it will mean much less illness and sickness for people, including children. It doesn’t make sense to eat food grown with poison. It’s not surprising there are all these childhood illnesses that nobody really understands and certainly, if you have been eating any of this poison that the food is grown with, you’re going to be more susceptible to the sicknesses that go around.⁠
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"The organic movement is really helping the environment but it’s also helping human health.”⁠ —Jane Goodall⁠
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Catch Linley's full newsletter reflecting on Jane Goodall's passing, and the call Jane instills in us to action. Here are a few words from Linley:⁠
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"Today, as so many of us are still grieving the loss of our guiding light, Jane, I am sharing a few email exchanges in the hope that these stories will inspire us all in our commitment to work for a future where all of earth's species can thrive."⁠
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https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?u=c0ddb1889312e0d1daf2b273c&id=8c4648845b🌻

10/07/2025

Joel Salatin

10/05/2025