Here at my Bedford, New York farm, whenever a member of my team returns from vacation, I always encourage them to share some of their photos.
My operations manager, Matt Krack, recently returned from a summer trip with his sons to Tulum, a town on the Caribbean coastline of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. There, he and his family walked along Tulum's beautiful white sandy beaches, snorkeled in underground limestone caves, learned about well-preserved ancient Mayan ruins, toured historical buildings, and enjoyed the area's local foods - every day was filled with activity, learning, and fun.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
In under five hours by plane, one can be on the gorgeous beaches of Mexico’s east coast enjoying the clear Caribbean waters.
Matt and his sons, Alex and Charlie, chose Tulum for their vacation because of its history, its culture, its natural beauty, and of course its delicious food.
Matt loves all the colorful, handmade signs around Tulum. This one is on a building housing a bike repair shop.
This sign is on the back of a motorcycle – a traveling shoe repairman.
And along the roads, handmade stop signs warning drivers of bumps. Matt took photos of many signs – he called it street art made out of necessity.
Touring the city of Valladolid, Matt and his sons saw this truck filled with fresh watermelons. Watermelon is very popular in all of Mexico. It is often served in wedges, in fruit cups, or mixed with fresh water, agua fresca.
Here’s another sign directing drivers to the Nicte Ha Cenote. There are a lot of cenotes in Tulum. A cenote is an underground sinkhole that forms when limestone bedrock collapses and reveals crystal clear water.
Matt, Alex, and Charlie snorkeled at Cenotes Dos Ojos. Sunlight seeping in from the crater above shows the impressive rock formations.
They also visited the former Convento San Bernardino de Siena. Constructed between 1552 and 1560 by Franciscan monks, the Convento San Bernardino was part religious center and part fortress.
The facade has long corridors of arches with walls more than 20 inches thick. The entire complex consists of the church, chapel, convent, atrium, and a garden – all occupying more than 150,000 square feet.
These are some of the vestments worn by the Franciscan monks at the convent.
Next, was a stop at Negro Huitlacoxe, a restaurant in Tulum. This is a refreshing glass of horchata made with rice milk, corn milk, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla.
These are fried corn ribs made by slicing, seasoning, and cooking strips of corn and serving with a creamy, spicy sauce.
This dish is chilaquiles, or fried tortilla chips, with corn ash, pickled radish, and cilantro. Chilaquiles is a traditional Mexican dish.
This was a favorite on the trip – tomato tamal with steamed ricotta cheese cooked in tomato sauce and served on a banana leaf.
For dessert, churro with cinnamon, chocolate, sugar, salt, chocolate ice cream, and candied pecans.
On another day, the three visited the ancient Coba Pyramid Ruins in the state of Quintana Roo first settled by an agricultural population between 50 BC and 100 AD. The large pyramids were mainly used for religious ceremonies and sacrifices, and as tombs for rulers and their spouses. They were built to resemble mountains, which were sacred to the Mayan people.
This pyramid is 138 feet tall and was the heart of the city, which at its peak included more than 50,000 inhabitants. The Mayans used local building materials like sandstone and limestone, and even created a form of cement using burnt limestone.
Mayan inscriptions are found on stelae or standing stone slabs. This one shows a figure and part of the Mayan counting system.
This is a Mayan ball court where the the ancient game of Pok-A-Tok was played. The court features a long trench area with vertical sloping walls on each side and two stone rings where “goals” were scored. Two teams of seven athletes would compete in this vicious yet ritualistic sacred game, kicking a ball with their hips, elbows, knees, and forearms so as to keep it from falling. Only the best warriors of the community could participate.
And this is AZULIK Uh May near Francisco Uh May, just 35 minutes outside the center of Tulum. It is a “City of the Arts” cultural complex and a holistic center where nature is mixed with art. It was designed by its founder, Eduardo Neira, also known as Roth, a self-taught architect.
The AZULIK complex includes a museum, residences, and a restaurant all nestled within the Mayan jungle. Its purpose is to reconnect people with their origins, stimulate creativity, and promote art.
Matt, Alex, and Charlie took this selfie from atop AZULIK.
And on the way home, shortly before landing, the three looked out of their plane and saw a double rainbow. A nice ending to a memorable journey to Mexico.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, there are still so many fresh, organic vegetables to pick and enjoy.
Many of you often ask what I do with all the many vegetables I grow. Most of them are shared with my daughter, Alexis, and her children, Jude and Truman – they love all vegetables. I also share them with friends and use them in dishes for my own gatherings. Some are put aside for various media shoots or for testing recipes here at my farm. Nothing is ever wasted – whatever isn’t used goes to my beloved chickens, geese, and peafowl. This week, I also picked some delicious fruits.
Enjoy these photos.
My vegetable garden continues to provide bounties of fresh, nutritious vegetables. And, since we practice succession gardening, we are always able to pick something.
Beets are usually ready to harvest 50 to 70 days after planting, when they are about the size of a golf ball.
The edamame is also growing abundantly. If you’re not familiar, edamame is the same soybean that makes tofu. Eaten as beans, they taste a bit like peas and are buttery with a hint of sweetness and nuttiness.
I love okra, but for some, okra is too slimy when cooked. Okra is very healthy, however – it’s high in fiber, vitamin-C and full of antioxidants, so give it try! Okra or Okro, Abelmoschus esculentus, known in many English-speaking countries as ladies’ fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family.
I grow both green and red okra, but there is not much different between the two except for color.
Harvest okra when they are still small, about three-inches long. A common mistake is harvesting the pods when they are six to eight inches long, when most will have a woody taste.
Cucumbers require a long growing season, and most are ready for harvest in 50 to 70 days from planting. The fruits ripen at different times on the vine, but it is important to pick them when they are ready. If they are left on the vine too long, they tend to taste bitter. I prefer small to medium sized cucumbers.
I also got a big bag of hot peppers, but be sure to keep them separated from the sweet peppers, so there is no confusion in the kitchen.
The most common sweet pepper is the bell – usually seen in green, red, and yellow, but they can also be purple, brown, and orange. It’s a great pepper season – I’ve picked a lot this year.
This is some of the best celery I’ve ever grown – so bold in color. Celery is ready to harvest when the lower stalks are at least six inches long and the upper stalks are at least 18 inches long. And the stalks should still be close together, forming a compact bunch or cone at the bottom.
The celery leaves are also edible and have a strong celery taste.
Swiss chard always stands out in the garden, with its rich red, orange, and yellow stalks. These are not ready just yet.
We picked a lot of egg plants last week, but there will be more to harvest again soon. It is good to pick eggplants when they are young and tender. Try to pick a little early, which will encourage the plant to grow more, and will help to extend the growing season.
These are pimenta Biquinho peppers – round and little with a distinctive, tapered point or tail that resembles a birds beak. They can be either scarlet-red or sunshine-yellow. They have a mild heat. I try to pickle some every year.
Look at my onions. These will be picked later and then cured in a warm, dry, well-ventilated location for two to three weeks until the onion tops and necks are thoroughly dry and the outer bulb scales begin to rustle. Onions are ready when the long leaves start to flop over and brown. This signals the plants have stopped growing and are beginning to prepare for storage.
And the pumpkins are growing! What a difference a few days make.
I hope we have an abundance of big, beautiful pumpkins this year. Many will be ready in just a few weeks.
This time of year, I also check the orchard trees often to see if any fruits are ripe for picking. We harvested several trays of peaches not too long ago, but there are a few more that are ready.
I planted several types of Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, which is native to East Asia. My trees include Hosui, Niitaka, Shinko, and Shinseiko. Asian pears have a high water content and a crisp, grainy texture, which is very different from the European varieties. They are most commonly served raw and peeled. Some of these are ready for picking.
The other pears in this orchard are ‘Bartlett’, ‘Columbia’, ‘D’Amalis’, ‘Ginnybrook’, ‘McLaughlin’, ‘Nova’, ‘Patten’, ‘Seckel’, ‘Stacyville’, and ‘Washington State’. The pear trees, and all the other fruit trees in this orchard are planted in full sun, with good air circulation and well-drained soil.
It’s great to have fresh, organic, juicy, sweet fruits and nutritious vegetables growing in the garden. What are you harvesting this week?
Summer weather here at my farm is expected to be sunny and mild today - only reaching 75-degrees Fahrenheit. Hard to believe the season is almost over.
It always amazes me how quickly plants and trees grow from day-to-day. Many flowers have already finished blooming for the season, but the trees, most of which I've planted through the years, are still so beautiful and lush with foliage.
Enjoy these images.
Every single day I am home, I tour the farm to see how all the trees and plants are doing. Every specimen is special. These trees line the main carriage road to and from my woodland.
I’ve planted thousands and thousands of trees here on my 153-acre farm – in and around the gardens, along the carriage roads, and throughout the woods. I love how they look in the landscape and how they change through the seasons. Most importantly, we need trees for the environment – they help combat climate change, provide habitat and food for birds and other animals, and release oxygen for us to live. This is one side of my allée of pin oaks, Quercus palustris, which I planted soon after moving to my farm. At that time, they were just about six feet tall.
From this side of my long and winding pergola, one can see the towering bald cypress, Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. Though it’s native to swampy areas, the bald cypress is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10. I also planted these when I took over my farm.
Nearby is this beautiful weeping copper beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground. I have several of these trees on the property.
And across the soccer field is this row of weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. The branches of these rare trees gracefully weep to create an umbrella of foliage that reaches the ground.
I am very proud of my orchard. There are more than 200-fruit trees planted here – apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear, medlar, apricot, and quince trees.
From a distance, everyone notices the weeping willows. This one is in a grove at the edge of my pinetum.
This is my “Christmas Tree Field” – a large space where I grow more than 600 evergreen trees – rows of Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, Blue Spruce, and others.
This is the newer of two linden allées here at Cantitoe. This one is planted between the paddocks and runs from the pergola to the Boxwood Allée and then all the way down to the chicken coops. It, too, has grown so beautifully over the years, in part because I pay so much attention to the soil and keep it rich and filled with nutrients for all the plantings.
Do you see them? My handsome Friesians, Hylke and Geert, are under the stand of great white pine trees. These trees are visible from almost every location on this end of the farm. Pinus Strobus is a large pine native to eastern North America and commonly known as the eastern white pine, white pine, northern white pine, Weymouth pine, and soft pine. The fencing was bought in Canada. Although the uprights are mostly new cedar posts, the horizontal pieces are antique white spruce that’s still as beautiful now as it was when I purchased it.
Down beyond the chicken coops is a grove of dawn redwoods. Dawn redwoods, Metasequoia, grow faster than most trees and need an area under full sun that is large enough to accommodate the mature trees which can grow to more than 160-feet tall.
I’ve planted many Japanese maples just in this woodland near my chickens. I always look forward to their gorgeous displays of color, especially in autumn.
London plane trees and about 100 royal purple smoke bushes, Cotinus coggygria make up another allé in my middle field. I planted it in 2019 and it has grown exceptionally well since. These trees are so lush and the bold colors of the specimens look amazing together.
I also have London planes in one section of my living maze. These large trees are sought after for the large three-lobed, toothed, dark green leaves that turn yellow, orange, and red with the fall season.
Also in this maze are several Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’ trees, American sweetgums. As these trees mature, they will maintain their erect, columnar form, growing up to 50 feet tall and only about four-feet wide.
Acer saccharum, the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the primary source of maple syrup and for its brightly colored fall foliage. Sugar maples covered with climbing hydrangeas shade my tree peony garden.
Here’s a look down one row of espaliered apple trees just behind my long carport and flower room. Father Legendre of Hannonsville, France is credited with pioneering the espalier growing method in 1684. Because sunlight reaches every piece of fruit that these trees bear, espalier pruning continues to be a standard procedure at commercial orchards in France.
Across from the dwarf apple espalier orchard is the Malus ‘Gravenstein’. This antique variety is well known for cooking, sauce, cider, and eating out of hand. The fruit is large, with crisp white flesh and a distinct, juicy flavor.
Outside my Winter House is this weeping katsura, one of my favorite trees. Cercidiphyllum japonicum f. pendulum has pendulous branches that fan out from the crown and sweep the ground. Caramel-scented foliage emerges bronze or purple-red, turns blue-green, then fades to gold or apricot in autumn.
And off the terrace is this beautiful Nyssa sylvatica, or black tupelo – a medium-sized deciduous tree native to eastern North America from the coastal Northeastern United States and southern Ontario south to central Florida and eastern Texas, as well as Mexico. Its summer leaves are a bold dark green.
But look closely and see the changing color. This Nyssa tree is showing a few of its autumn leaves – shades of yellow, orange, bright red, and scarlet, which can all appear on the same branch. It’s a sign that autumn is on its way. In fact, the autumnal equinox is exactly one month from today, on September 22nd.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
