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Afternoon walk around SAFF on Sunday

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We started our walk down Red Hawk Rd and made a new trail from the bottom at the roundabout to down to Fern Trail.

The drive over to SAFF was beautiful with fall color. We travel from the Shenandoah Valley over Afton Mountain through Rockfish Gap and Howardsville to Buckingham. We oohed and ahhhed the whole way. Here’s a quick video of Howardsville Rd.

31 seconds of trees putting on a colorful show. Sound on for beautiful jazz as well.

We unloaded the lumber we found at the Restore and checked out the pawpaw and fig trees planted up top. They have yellow leaves and are losing most of them. Then we headed down Red Hawk Road to get down to Fern Trail. We checked out the Rappahanock cultivar and the seedlings planted as well as the cluster of natives. Most have gone fully dormant for the winter, especially the native SAFF trees. A few of the cultivars and seedlings look great; fully leafed and deep green still. Gleaming. It’s more typical for them with the temperature and season to be dormant. We have not yet had a hard freeze in Buckingham, or in Staunton in the Valley—which usually frosts first. Once dormant, their watering needs will drop. Phew! 😅

Leucobryum albidum, white moss or white pincushion moss, is common here in the eastern US. It creates a habitat for amphibians, reptiles and insects, stabilizes the soil, retains water, cycles nutrients and contributes to carbon sequestration.

Along our walk we found white moss and strawberry euonymus (Euonymus americanus). We also went down to the waterway to check on this oak snag in the picture below. SAFF had high winds for several days and the last time we saw it, there was a bend and crack starting.

White moss beginning to grow.

SAFF old oak snag we check on regularly. It looks as though it will fall to the west towards the Pawpaw Peninsula.

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Halloween at St Andrews Forest Farm

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Over an inch of rainfall last Wednesday and Thursday at St Andrews Forest Farm.

We were so pleased to see the farm on Halloween Friday after the rain last week. It has been dry with an elevated fire risk so the moisture was more than welcome. Oftentimes the storms will bounce right over the mountains and miss the farm so we were lucky it hit us. The Asimina triloba (pawpaws) we planted this year need an inch of water a week so the rainfall also meant we did not have to carry water to them. We would like more rain to come consistently and we’re grateful for any rain we get.

Angiospermae found in the Pawpaw Orchard.
The single leafed plant in center is our third wild orchid we’ve found at SAFF. It’s called Aplectrum hyemale, Putty root or Adam and Eve orchid. We have only observed two so it is precious to us. Putty root comes from the sticky substance found in the root traditionally used to mend broken pottery. We hope to see it blooming this next year in May and June down at the bottom of North Trail.
We found this old faded red Russula at the farm along with several puffballs on Friday. It’s just not the year for mushrooms at SAFF. We look forward to finding more next year.
Pinus virginiana, Virginia pine, found all over SAFF.
Quercus falcata, southern red oak, found along Three Pine Gully.
The acorns of the red oak take two years to mature. The cap is the cup like structure at the base of the nut. Squirrels, deer and birds rely on them as a key food source.
The lean-to with the roof on!
Yay!!! Thank you so much for your interest. We passed 5 thousand views. 🤗
farming

Fall at SAFF

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Maples adding color to the forest.

We will head out to the farm this afternoon and cannot wait to see if we finally had enough rain to encourage mushrooms to grow. It’s been so dry and crispy here throughout the summer and fall. We will check the rain gauge to see the level of precipitation but from Accuweather, it looks like it might be around an inch from the big storm that passed through Virginia this past week. We have been diligently carrying water to all of the recently planted pawpaws (Asimina triloba). We also got the roof on the lean-to finished before the weather arrived. It looks great and will protect the tractor this winter.

Sceptridium dissector, Cutleaf grape fern, found at SAFF.
Hydnoporia olivacea, brown-toothed crust fungus, feeding on a dead tree at SAFF.
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Friday at SAFF collecting shagbark hickory

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Shagbark hickory, Carya ovata, found along the south setback line.

We looked for shagbark hickories to harvest some bark to make shagbark hickory syrup.

Shaggy bark pealing off the tree in the older specimen.
Carya ovata found along the southern set back line.

The bark, with exceptionally strong, hard and shock resistant wood can be used for furniture, handles and sporting goods as well as smoking meats. The nuts can be eaten raw or cooked. We watched members of the Cherokee tribe make a traditional kenuchi with Shagbark hickory nuts. The nuts can also be used as a replacement for pecans in recipes as well as made into a milk or syrup. They are nutrient dense with protein, healthy fats (omega 3’s) and carbohydrates.

Shagbark hickory bark we collected.
Shagbark hickory nuts
Honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos, found at the culvert on the old farm road. Historically, those large thorns have been used as nails in construction. These trees are nitrogen fixers that help to replenish soil making them beneficial for agroforestry and land reclamation. The sweet fleshy pulp from the pods can be eaten by people and animals. We were delighted to find this tree and hope to find more.
American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, with fruit hanging on up high in the canopy.

We’ve gone out to water the newly planted pawpaws, Asimina triloba. They continue to do well. Chris has worked on the lean to and it’s just about ready for the roof.

The lean-to connected to the shed will ultimately protect our tractor from the rain and snow.
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Tuesday afternoon at SAFF

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Asimina triloba: New leaf growth observed on a recently planted Rockfish River native pawpaw in the orchard at bottom of North Trail. This was beautiful to see. Hopefully it will be able to harden off before the first frost which typically occurs between October 21st to 31st in Buckingham.

We went over to St Andrews Forest Farm to water the pawpaws and take a walk.

Common puffball. Lycoperdon perlatum.

We watered each recently planted pawpaw and made sure they were looking good. We came around the waterway and approached the orchard from south.

We heard a blue jay calling and following us around the forest. We found this feather. We thought it looked more like an Eastern Blue bird feather than a Blue Jay.
Lactarius indigo is a milk cap with blue milky latex that oozes from the tissue when it is cut or broken. It’s edible and tasty. We find it near pines usually. This one is old and bug eaten.
Royal Crown bottle found along Three Pine Gully on the north side. Looks to be from the 1930s.
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Early October at St Andrews Forest Farm

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We got out to the farm Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We received the Al Horn White pawpaw cultivar from Perry Pawpaws in Michigan on Friday afternoon and took it out to plant that evening in the orchard at the bottom of North Trail.

Asimina triloba: Al Horn cultivar with white fleshed fruit described as having coconut/ pineapple notes.

Then, we stopped by Edible Landscaping in Nelson County on the way to the farm Saturday and saw they had $35 cultivars in stock finally. They are small two year grafted trees. We were able to add Kentucky State University (KSU) Benson as well as KSU Atwood to our existing KSU Chappell. They are planted in a triangle and we hope they make beautiful fruit together. KSU has the only full time pawpaw research program in the world. They have done much to better understand pawpaw growth, genetics and orchard management practices. Each of these cultivars are known for resistance to disease, delicious tastes of creamy mango banana flavor as well as being fast growing with high yields. They are each welcome additions to the orchard.

We also added the Potomac, Tallahatchie and Wabash to our Neal Peterson Pawpaw collection. The only one we still need to find is Susquehanna. He has released seven superior cultivars well known and valued for taste and growth. He is known as Mahatma Pawpaw and is worth looking into if you’re interested.

Wabash cultivar just planted in the orchard. Dr Pomper at KSU urged Neal Peterson to release this as Wabash since the shape is similar to a cannonball.

We also added NC 1 and Sunflower to our orchard this weekend. We are delighted. So far this year we planted 100 Asimina triloba trees at the farm and 8 at the house. We also ordered 50 more bare root seedlings from the Virginia Department of Forestry which we will get in February. We will place them in deep 12 inch tree pots to grow until spring when we will plant them at SAFF in the orchard. We are on our way to a Pawpaw paradise for sure.

One Indigo Milkcap (Lactarius indigo) up top along the driveway yesterday.
Fields of giant cosmos witnessed along Plank Rd at Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyard at sunset last night as we drove home from SAFF.
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Pawpaws Planted at SAFF

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Asimina triloba: Chris placing a yellow flag on our native Rockfish River pawpaw seedling just planted on the south gully in Dan’s Folly alongside one small patch of St Andrews Forest Farm pawpaw natives which are below Chris in the gully with the yellowing leaves. They are some of the first trees to go dormant for winter. We think these may be clones. It’s a group of 6 with some good sun but no flowers or fruiting yet. We hope the new dna within these just planted seedlings will help wake them up.

We finished planting the seedling pawpaws with a full 100 in the ground so far this year! It was a big project. Besides our seedlings that we harvested from both our foraged fruit along our drive to the farm at Rockfish River and from Edible Landscaping’s cultivated pawpaws, we also planted a few of our own cultivars. We added Allegheny, Kentucky State University Chappell, Rappahanock and Mango to our existing Shenandoah that we planted last fall. We are waiting for our first white fleshed pawpaw seedling to arrive from Perry Pawpaws in Michigan. They said they’ll ship in October. It’s an Al Horn cultivar (taste has notes of pineapple and coconut) and we will place it in the Pawpaw Orchard at the bottom of North Trail. They also said it should be about 2 feet tall which is pretty big for pawpaws to not be in the ground yet. The tap root on the pawpaws like to go deep quickly. I can’t wait to save it from its pot and get it planted.

These brown seeds are the pawpaw seeds that you see sprouting the tiny green leaves. The white you see is the root. By the time you see anything on top, that root has shot 8 or so inches down. They like a lot of room.
We put our seedlings in 12 inch deep tree pots to accommodate this long taproot. Some of our seedlings had roots growing from the bottom of the pot when we planted them at St Andrews Forest Farm after just a few months since the seed sprouted in June and planted in September—so just 3 months!
Asimina triloba: Rappahanock pawpaw cultivar planted yesterday at Fern Trail near the south gully. We have been on the lookout for more of Neal Peterson’s pawpaw cultivars named after Native American Rivers. This Rappahanock is described as sweet, refreshing with a clear simple flavor and creamy banana custard consistency with notes of mango or melon. It joins the Shenandoah and Allegheny in the SAFF pawpaw orchard. We hope to add Tallahatchie and Susquehanna to them within the next few years. As well as Potomac and Wabash cultivars when we find them. Besides adding new dna, these cultivars will be useful once we have the seedlings producing pawpaws and see which ones aren’t delicious. We will make cuttings from the cultivars and graft them to the native seedlings and have productive harvests with a proven known variety. We will wait 7 years for the seedlings to produce. The cultivars usually produce within 4 years.
Asimina triloba: Allegheny cultivar happily planted on the Pawpaw Peninsula just across from the large St Andrews Forest Farm native wild patch with hundreds of pawpaws. It could be as many as 400 small trees down there and they may all be clones. We’ve been giving them light and feeding them with minimal flowering and zero fruit.
We got some more rain last week which was much needed and appreciated! The pawpaws are thirsty trees, albeit usually drought resistant with their long taproot. We hope the increased rain will bring on the mushrooms.
Calestoma ravenelii, stalked puffballs, found all over SAFF. We observed it growing out of moss yesterday. It has a mycorrhizal relationship with oaks and other hardwood trees. It grows in rich moist but well drained deciduous forests. It can grow alone but we see it mainly in groups.
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79 Pawpaws in the Ground

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Just 21 more to plant after going out every day and planting 9 or so at a time. The orchard has really turned out nicely at the bottom of North Trail. The earth is red silty loam which is pawpaws (Asimina triloba) preferred soil.

Our wheel barrow full of the supplies we used to clear spaces and plant our pawpaw seedlings.
Red silty loam near the wet weather gully at the bottom of North Trail.
Tasty persimmon to snack on finally.
A branch of Oxydendrum arboreum, Sourwood tree.
Micrathena mitrata, White micrathena, is a species of orb weaver. They build their webs across the trails.
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Rain and more Pawpaw planting at SAFF

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Finally got a good soaking rain at the farm. The ground has softened making planting much easier.

So far, we have planted 42 pawpaw trees. Yesterday we planted two more seedlings from Rockfish River natives in the main orchard and seven from select Edible Landscaping fruit. We are a bit less than halfway done but we are happy to get more in the ground later today while the earth is still soft from the recent rain. We checked on all of the previously planted seedlings —and a couple had been dug up a bit but the roots appeared intact so we replaced the dirt and watered them back in and hope for the best.

Nine seedlings we planted yesterday in the orchard at the bottom of North Trail.
Persimmons getting closer to ripeness at the top near the driveway.
Taken from the Pawpaw Peninsula looking towards the main Pawpaw patch of SAFF wild native trees. They are going dormant for the winter.
One of our seedlings. They look so pleased to be in the ground finally. Because of the draught, we were going to wait until spring to plant them but are glad we opted to get them in the ground now. They look awesome.
Argiope aurantia, Yellow garden spider, found up top next to shed.
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St Andrews Forest Farm A Bear Runs Through It

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A third year female black bear runs up to the clearing from North Trail on May 20, 2025.

We had seen bear scat multiple times all around the farm and last May it was confirmed when she ran in front of our farm cam.

We had just moved the camera to a new position and were able to capture a three year female black bear on video as she ran pretty fast through the main clearing up top.

We continue to see evidence of bear activity and we imagine it is she. This past month we began noticing old tree stumps destroyed and large pieces of quartz turned over. We immediately suspected our bear was looking for insects to eat. The first we noted was in the spring along the back line on Chanterelle Hill Trail. A huge ant hill was dug up and excavated. Then about a month and a half ago, we saw all along the north property line she had dug up old stumps. At one we saw yellow jackets looking disturbed.

Vespula maculifrons, Eastern yellow jackets. This creature is not to be messed with. I wonder if this was what our bear was running from through the top clearing.
A stump disturbed by a young bear looking for termites or ants to eat along Amanita Way.
Stump excavation along Northmost Trail. It was a hungry bear who worked hard to find everything she could to eat this summer in the forest.
Just last week we found these honey mushrooms along Armillaria Way. Either the bear, deer or one of our Eastern box turtles, Terrapene carolina carolina, came along and ate it before we got back to collect them.
Caught in the act! Our Eastern box turtle eating some mushrooms along the bottom creek on a stump that the bear had ransacked looking for bugs to eat.