Exciting News!

We are so excited to share with you that we will be opening our doors on Saturdays and Sundays for fresh, fabulous, down home yummy food!

Starting August 6th May Farms will be serving breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturdays, and brunch and light afternoon fare on Sundays! We will be offering a varied menu of signature May Farms dishes that specializes in garden fresh vegetables, fresh from our own fields, and seriously good homemade main dishes. Not to mention our signature lavender shortbread- a tasty treat!

This is so exciting for us to be able to serve the best, hearty fresh meals offering a new choice in fine dining along the I-70 corridor! Give us a try, you will NOT be disappointed! Here at May Farms we pride ourselves on serving the best food and providing the best service and hospitality you can find anywhere. We look forward to having a great meal with you soon! Come graze at May's!

Fridays: Lunch 11:30a- 1:30p
Dinner 5p-7p
Saturdays: Breakfast 7am – 9am
Lunch: 11:30a – 1:30p
Dinner: 5p – 7p
Sunday: 11:30a – 6:00p

Feel free to give us a call for more information.

Wheat harvest is well underway and things are looking pretty good! The countryside is filled with large equipment and Byers is a hub of activity. Summer is in full swing, indeed. I love this time of year, watching the crops that were planted in spring filling the fields with row after row of rich green plants, while knowing that the wheat planted in the winter is being harvested at this moment. I can nearly smell the bread baking from here! There are so many good things that come from this time of year. Right now we've got spinach, radishes, swiss chard and some okra (more to come very soon) for sale.

The weather has been cooperative lately, which is a nice change from June when it was too cold or wet to do much planting. We're a little behind with the garden for that reason, but it's catching up fast! Our new underground water system helps immensely, as we can control how much water everything gets. It makes caring for that big garden of ours pretty simple, we can water with the simple push of a button. We typically have had to flood irrigate the pumpkins and corn maze, but out new water system makes that practice obsolete. Despite heavy rains earlier this month, we haven't had much rain this last week, which means we can get back out in the fields for weeding and other daily tasks. We've been lucky to not have hail or terribly damaging winds this season, either. We're hoping this trend continues!

Great news! We are adding a gift shop to the farm, and it is really taking shape, we will have to post some pictures when it's done. There are going to be some really great items in there, and we will keep you posted with Grand Opening details. There's lots of other changes going on around here, too. This is such an exciting time around here! More details to follow soon, stay tuned!

How does your garden grow?

The garden continues to make progress, growing and changing nearly every day. Weeds are an ongoing challenge in any garden, but a garden that is around 6 acres is a day to day battle for control! We are getting a grip on them now that the fields have dried up after a very wet couple of weeks. It's all hands on deck right now for weed control and the many other jobs that a farm requires, but we are loving every minute of it. Seeing the progress when it comes to the garden makes all that hard work worth it!

Next time you're looking for something fun to do, visit our website at www.mayfarms.com to see our calendar of events! Hope to see you soon... down on the farm.

Wheat Harvest has begun!

Wheat harvest has finally begun in our area, albeit two weeks later than normal. Heavy rains over the last couple of weeks have kept equipment out of the fields due to mud. The garden plants are loving this natural water source, and have accelerated their growing rates, too. It's always such an exciting time when the wheat harvest begins around here, because we realize that our garden will be soon following suit with a bountiful harvest of it's own.
The cantaloupe and watermelon have new fist sized fruit on them, and are vining like crazy! Tiny baby yellow and zucchini squash are beginning to make an appearance as well. Even though the okra plants are still pretty tiny, they have okra pods on them as we speak, although we have had to harvest a few of these in order to let the plants grow some more (darn, that just breaks my heart!) Fried okra, now that's some seriously good food.
Speaking of good food....if you're looking for something to do this weekend, join us at May Farms for the Beer, Brat and Sweet Corn Festival from noon to 6pm on Saturday, July 23rd. Be prepared to eat hearty and have a great time! You can take a firsthand look at the lavender and the vegetable garden, too! The more the merrier! Hope to see you there!

From the garden...

Herbs, Radishes, Swiss Chard and Lettuce are ready! Cantaloupe, Watermelom and Pumpkins are starting to vine, when they do that they really start to grow super fast. All the plants are doing really well. Join us on facebook and get daily updates from the farm!

Sugar Cookies

Baking always seems to put me in the Christmas Spirit. When I was a kid you knew Christmas was near when the decorative tins showed up at your house filled with an amazing amount of sugary treats from hard candy to homemade fudge. Something that always goes quickly in our house (usually before we can get them frosted) are sugar cookies! If you have the cookie cut outs shaped like Christmas Trees, Angels or Santa it makes it even more fun but if you have a hard time justifying all that work for such quick consumption a simple cookie shape does the same job.

For frosting I always cheat and get it at the store but you can make an easy frosting by mixing confectioners sugar and milk to the thickness you want. (Thicker: add more sugar. Thinner: more milk!) Of course you must decorate them with sprinkles and add food coloring to make them extra festive! (You can skip frosting all together and just do sprinkles and sugar!)


Try this recipe below!

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 5 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Hot Cocoa Mix

At May Farms we're always looking for ways to make people feel at home. What feels more like "home" than a hot cup of cocoa while sitting by a warm fire?

This recipe is not only simple but it makes an excellent Christmas gift for teachers, a party host or just to keep in your cupboard for a snowy day!

You can package the ingredients however you'd like but we like putting it in a jar and using some Christmas themed fabric to decorate the lid and secure it with a rubber band and ribbon. Use cinnamon sticks or candy canes to add additional decoration.

It's really easy... Here's the recipe!

Ingredients
2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup powdered nondairy creamer
1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions
Measure all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk them until they are evenly blended. Store the mix in a tightly covered container at room temperature until you're ready to package it. Makes about 4 cups of mix.