It was mid summer when I started thinking about fluffy cows. I started following a few Maryland farms on Instagram and casually bounced the idea off Jeff one day, “let’s get a fluffy cow!” I showed him a few photos then I saw a post on the Maryland Farmer’s Exchange Facebook group for a recently…
Category: Blog Post
A Baby Donkey is Born
When Margie (formerly known as Margurita) arrived on our farm in June 2023 she was hiding a secret. Margy was part of a mobile petting zoo and was more than done with that life. We took her in for a peaceful retirement on the farm. She looked a little chonky but didn’t think anything of…
Lavender shoots!
Warmer temps and sunny days have provided the boost to the lavender we have been waiting for! These tiny shoots will develop into the purple blooming haze of lavender in late June.
Some Lessons Learned
When I’m not researching and curating content for my day job as a Global Health Security Analyst for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, I’m a flower farmer! Farming was never in the plans, it just sort of happened, and my husband and I couldn’t be more thrilled. We have 65 acres of a former…
First Lavender Harvest!
We planted over 1,000 lavender plants last year, and they were all in bloom this past June, and into July. It was a spectacular! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dixon Family Farm (@dixon_family_farm)
Our First Farm Product is… Maple Syrup?
It wasn’t even on our ever-growing list of things to do, but it sounded like a great idea—so we went for it. Our friend at Tobacco Barn Distillery, retired two-star Admiral Scott Sanders, asked if we’d be interested in partnering with the distillery to make bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. Naturally, we said yes. We…
First Year Flower Farming Lessons Learned
That’s a wrap on the summer flowers of 2021! I cut thousands of stems over the season—despite making so many mistakes along the way. My 2021 flower season actually began back in January, when I seeded my first lisianthus. I waited nearly a month for them to germinate, then eventually gave up, convinced I had…
Extreme Farming
We tend to jump into the deep end when starting new adventures, and farming has been no exception. When we moved back to the States after living overseas, I was literally Googling “how to be a farmer” on the flight to Maryland. We had a vineyard in mind from the beginning, but along the way…
A Vineyard as Envisioned by Tom Miller
Tom and Carol Miller—Jeff’s parents—shared a deep love of wine. Tom loved it so much that in retirement he became a wine sommelier and started a business leading tours to Europe, visiting wineries and shipping cases of what he cleverly labeled as “fruit preserves” (wine) back home to Maryland. I never had the chance to…
The Greenhouse
The big greenhouse we ordered finally arrived at Zimmerman’s and the crew arrived on the farm to put it together in mid-March. Just when we need a hand, our friends Kim and Kevin make to Maryland for some hard manual labor. Thanks Friends!