Summer at the Farm

Happy Buck/Harvest/Raspberry New Moon!

This July lunar reset arrives with an abundance that feels like a joyful miracle. Despite weeks of heat and little rain, the gardens continue to remind us that nature often gives more than we expect when we work with it.

Each morning we pick kale, spinach, lettuces, carrots, snow peas, ripe raspberries, fragrant herbs and medicinal flowers to be dried for our 2026 Farm Tea. Every harvest carries the light of the season, gathered just hours before it reaches our tables which feels special and sustains our momentum each year. Our chicks are growing quickly and the hens are laying eggs.

Beyond the barnyard, our cousins are cutting the hay they grow on our property. The cut is carefully timed to avoid rain so that the fresh cut hay can cure fully beneath the hot sun, then once dry it is gathered into golden bales to feed grass-fed beef cattle in the winter months. It's a beautiful reminder that this season’s abundance prepares us for the next.

As the produce grows, so does our excitement to share it with community at the Summer Dinner Series. Each Friday night dinner is a celebration of the land, our guests and the joy of gathering in community around the farm table to nourish ourselves in nature. Together, we are excited to share this abundance with our broader community through The Sharing Place Orillia, who ensure that fresh, local food reaches those who need it most with dignity.

We would be honoured to welcome you to one of our upcoming Farm Table Dinners on August 7 or August 14, where only a handful of seats remain for each evening.

Looking ahead to Harvestfest on September 11 when we invite community for the celebration of the season. Local chefs will collaborate to create nourishing soups, hearty stews, fresh sourdough, and other harvest-inspired dishes with all proceeds going to The Sharing Place Orillia.

Come experience the peak flavours of summer, connect with friends on the land and celebrate the abundance that grows when a community gathers around a shared meal.

We can't wait to welcome you to the farm!

Hello! I hope this newsletter finds you well, as I write this, we had the hottest day so far yesterday on the new moon and today there's an orange alert and hue outside as wildfires are spreading in northwestern Ontario. What a helpful reminder about how interconnected we are to each other and the land.

We kicked off July with our first Friday dinner at the farm, and it truly was a dream come true, mine and, I think, ours collectively, to experience Lisa Tong (@TheChineseSoupLady) and her mastery of TCM, Chinese soups, teas, and dumplings, woven together with chives and herbs from Anahita's farm. Her mom and daughters joined too, adding a wholesome, intergenerational layer as we learned to make dumplings alongside her family, food made and served with love. Fresh, healthy, delicious, and everyone left with extra dumplings in hand. There's something priceless about learning to make healing teas for your own constitution, having a Chinese mom teach you her dipping sauce, and getting to touch, smell, and learn about food and Chinese medicine firsthand.

It's an experience I'll never forget, easily top 3 culinary experiences of my life, beyond anything I imagined. So grateful to Lisa, Anahita, and everyone who said yes to co-creating this with us. It felt like the stars aligned for all of us to meet at that table. All this to say: dinners are selling out fast (July 24 with Chef Ty is already full), and if you needed a sign to come make core memories with us, this is it.

Next up is a dream collab between me and my friend, spoken word artist Huong Vo, on Friday, August 7th: Between Two Homelands/Hai Quê Hương. It's a Vietnamese farm-to-table dinner featuring family recipes spanning the South, Central, and North regions of Vietnam, with fresh herbs grown from seeds I brought back from Lunar New Year earlier this year. Between courses, spoken word and reflection will turn us toward the inheritance we all carry: the stories our ancestors handed down, the ones that shaped us, the ones that limited us, and the ones ready to be rewritten for our collective liberation.

This one feels like another layer of wholeness, parts of me coming together at a table in a way I've never done before. Grateful to co-create it with Huong, Anahita, Chef Dennis, and my mom. We tend to create what we need most, and building a community centered on Ecological Belonging is exactly what I need right now. Thanks for being part of this community.

Co-hosted by Thu Nguyen and Huong Vo, this is a special evening of celebration and creative expression. A Vietnamese farm to table dinner to honour our ancestors and the courage that carried them here, the golden lineage that led all of us to meet at this table, this land, this meal grown with love.

Through a three-course family-style farm to table dinner prepared by Chef Dennis with a menu curated by our co-hosts to represent traditional and modern Vietnamese cuisine from the South, Central and Northern regions, including secret recipes from our mothers.

Between courses, spoken word and storytelling turn us toward the inheritance we all carry: the stories our parents and grandparents handed down, the ones that shaped us, the ones that limited us, and the ones ready to be updated for our collective liberation.

Another exciting update: we've set up a glamping tent at the farm, so you don't just have to drop in for dinner, you can stay the night and make the drive worthwhile. Come for the food, stay for the stars, and wake up in nature.

Thu has also recently renovated her schoolhouse and has a room available for short term stays in Kawartha Lakes. Her place is 10 min away from Bethany where Wu Tai Shan Buddhist Garden, the largest Buddhist Temple outside of China is located.

If you're looking to get out of the city and slow down in nature, surrounded by farms and trees now you have options.

Following the magic of our Embodiment Circle retreat in April, we are hosting a weekend retreat on Fri Aug 21-Sun Aug 23 which will be an opportunity to slow down, practice meditation, movement, and embodiment. Please get in touch if you'd like to share your offerings as well.