It’s the last wonderful post, of the year!

We’re wrapping up our projects here at the farm, ensuring each gift has been sent and all roads lead to a fresh start this coming New Year.

Winter is quite the different experience on a farm. Where bright green and orange and red fruits had been sprouting before, there is now a dormant shrub or tree busy gathering all the requirements for the next season’s crops.

Where we had installed drip lines, and carefully planted tiny seed after tiny seed there is now just tilled dirt, full of last season’s leftover nutrients. Winter is nature’s natural recovery period. We take care of our soil in winter for a more fruitful bounty in spring and summer.

From all of us at Hurley Farms, we wish you a safe and happy New Year filled with love, laughter and plenty of fresh veggies!!

Last Minute Christmas Gift Panic!

Talk a stroll down For Instance Lane with me.

You’ve been invited to a holiday party, where the hosts are throwing a gorgeous party. You’ve minded your Ps and Qs, by offering to bring a dish. Your gracious host has declined, but Etiquetteer would severely frown on you for showing up with nothing. Your hosts also happen to be wine aficionados so the dusty bottle of whatever no big deal label you have isn’t going to cut it.

You type in to your search bar, “Hostess Gifts” and nothing is really doing it for you. Flowers aren’t personal, and chocolates during the holidays?! No way.

You scroll a bit and find our humble farm website, http://www.hurleyfarms.com.

You see we have many different offerings in the way of boutique jam, mustard, oils, and vinegars. You’re mind starts to wander…Yum, jam. And then you realize, we have gift baskets!

Our jam is so uniquely delicious, your hosts will be delighted to think of you whenever they spread our thick and rich jam across their morning breakfast bread. We can customize your basket, or you may choose one of our premade gifts. Each basket is hand packed and available for pick up or shipping.

In order to save you from the mundane and time consuming task of searching for your perfect holiday hostess gifts, order a few to have on hand along with an extra because it would be far too sad to give away all the delectable jam we lovingly make from scratch. A frequent customer of ours keeps several jars of our jam on hand as last minute thank you gifts for those who may have brought a gift without prior warning! She says our jams make the perfect spontaneous gift!

You may browse our gift selections here:

http://www.hurleyfarms.com/gifts.html

From our farm to you! Thank you for reading today!

 

Chilly & Gray In The Napa Valley

We’re trying to keep warm this morning, and the valley is providing excellent views while we work!

Peaches

We take pride in our peaches! We grow Red Haven and Hale Haven peaches, just outside our vineyard. Our tall trees lining the vineyard are a picture of ubiquitous Napa Valley.

Why Red Haven and Hale Haven breeds you ask?

These specific breeds are cold hearty, meaning they can take a freeze or two with a greater load of fruit than other varietals. They are also self-pollinating, and have much less fuzz than your average cling peach.

These trees love our full sun and cool nights!

We love peaches, and put them practically everywhere! In our pies, homemade ice cream, breakfast cereal, with salads, cobblers and the like. Peaches have so many applications; you’d be hard pressed to find a “gone bad” peach around these parts! One favorite “recipe” is to cut the peach in half, sprinkle a bit of sugar on the cut side, and place cut side down on a piping hot barbeque grill. Let it sit for a few minutes, until the flesh is soft and just under charred. The heat and flame really brings out the sweetness in the fruit and will accompany any chicken or pork dish very nicely!
For our jam, we simmer the incredibly ripe peaches with a bit of sugar and pectin until the pot is bubbling with softened fruit. After a while, the jam takes on a pinkish tint and we know it’s ready when the scent of warm peaches has filled the air.

Please stop by our website to purchase jam, or come by the farm and pick up some peaches! We have tons, and definitely want to share the wealth!
Farm hours are Monday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm!

Spring is for Strawberries

We’re ramping up our kitchen for the arrival of farm fresh strawberries!

Hurley Farms strawberry jam is made from fruit grown just down the street from our agricultural commercial kitchen and if I had better aim or perhaps a better arm I could call it a stone’s throw away!

Strawberries are a finicky crop, needing hot days and cool nights to produce sweet juicy fruit making California’s coast the perfect place to grow lots of delicious produce. In fact, California grows over 80% of the strawberries consumed by Americans.

This year has been an exceptional year, as the strawberries are sweet, plump, juicy gems which happen to be the perfect shade of crimson thanks to our beautifully consistent Napa Valley sunshine. Hand hulled and washed, these strawberries are given the star treatment around here!

While a strawberry may seem merely a child’s peanut butter accessory, here at Hurley Farms we view it as the portal to a simpler time, when jams were fresh and came from your grandmother’s kitchen…where you were lucky to get a sample right from the stove! We really enjoy Strawberry Jam day, as the aroma fills the kitchen and lingers around for hours after, reminding us to take time and savor the simple pleasures life has to offer.

With one spoonful, our jam will instantly taste sweet and tart, with a defined sun kissed strawberry flavor as if you’d bitten into a berry you’d picked yourself just moments before.

Click here to view our store, where you will find our Strawberry Jam, along with an assortment of other treats we have available for shipping!

Strawberry Fun Fact: Each seed on the outside of the strawberry is capable of growing into a plant, and there are about 200 seeds on every strawberry!

Strawberry Jam is our featured product for spring.  http://www.hurleyfarms.com