It is with great sadness that I share with you the passing of Laura Acuna.
Laura retired as my housekeeper in 2018 after 32-years. If you follow this blog regularly, I am sure many of you remember her. In whatever role she took on she stood apart as someone special. Over the years, Laura created many of the gorgeous holiday settings in my homes - every one of them different and every one of them beautiful. She set amazing tables for my parties and dinners - carefully selecting each plate and folding each napkin. During warmer months, when I welcomed select groups for tours of my gardens, Laura prepared the most delicious pomegranate tea - and lots of it because guests always came back for more. Laura picked flowers and made the most delightful arrangements. She picked many of the fruits and harvested buckets of vegetables. And she loved my pets - she was often seen walking my dogs, grooming my cats, and talking sweetly to my canaries. Her presence is felt everywhere here at my farm. We will miss her zest for life, her talents and skills, her humor, and her contagious smile. Laura was a genuinely warm individual, a loving wife, a caring mother and grandmother, and our great friend. Our thoughts are with her husband Victor, her children Laura and Daniel, her sister Maria, her grandchildren, and all those who loved her so dearly.
Here are just some of the photos I've gathered of Laura, enjoy.
This photo was taken in 2019 after she retired. We had just enjoyed a delicious lunch with her family in Westport, Connecticut.
Here I am with Laura, her husband, Victor, and her grandsons.
This is a photo of my Bedford staff on the steps to my Winter House kitchen. We gathered together to celebrate Laura’s retirement after more than three decades working with me.
Sanu, Laura, and I worked on many projects in my kitchen. Here we are preparing the tomatoes from the garden for making sauce.
Laura and I had so much fun over the years. We laughed quite a bit.
A friendly kiss on her last day working at the farm.
This photo was taken in the summer of 2017 when Laura and I visited my former Turkey Hill home in Westport, Connecticut.
On this day, Laura was busy picking blueberries in the blueberry patch. This photo was taken by my late sister, Laura Plimpton. It was one of Laura Acuna’s favorite pictures.
And here is Laura with Snoop!
Laura often helped with my blogs – here she is posing with my French Bulldog Sharkey while she polished the silver.
Here’s an early photo from 2010. Laura cleans the freshly laid eggs with a damp cloth.
She would often be seen walking the dogs around the farm – Laura was very active.
Laura was a big help with magazine shoots. Here she is in 2011 getting Bartok’s attention for the camera.
During garden tours, I often provide refreshments on my terrace parterre. Laura was always ready to serve them with her big smile.
Here she is taking care of a canary’s nails. After catching each bird, Laura clipped its nails, one by one. She was an excellent bird wrangler.
Laura and my driver, Carlos Villamil, were close friends.
Here is Laura with Pete, and Chhewang at one of our many staff parties at the farm.
Alex, who worked at my East Hampton home, posed with Laura for this photo in 2011. My beloved French Bulldog, Francesca, is in Laura’s lap.
Laura loved my dogs. Here she is with Francesca and Sharkey. She groomed them, walked them, and kept them out of trouble.
As many of you know, Laura did most of the holiday decorating. She had such a knack and keen eye.
Laura loved to help with everything around the farm. Here, she is covering one of horse carriages after cleaning it with Sanu.
Sanu and Laura prepare coffee in the stable for a big tour of the farm in 2013.
This photo was just before a bath – for the dog, of course.
Laura always made the most refreshing pomegranate punches. Here she is ladling it for one of our guests.
Laura “teaches” Francesca all about red currants.
Laura was involved with every holiday – her decorating touch was magical. She learned a lot by watching our magazine editors and stylists. She always made every party at my home beautiful.
Laura Acuna was so lovingly attentive with all of my animals. Here she is with Vivaldi in 2014.
Laura was very strong. Here she is holding a peck of apples.
In this photo, Laura places tinsel on an ornamental tree. She decorated hundreds of Christmas trees over the years – many of them were photographed for my magazine.
Laura organized my basement full of plates, dishes, glasses and other tableware, cooking tools, and baking essentials.
One Easter, Laura and I are seen in my kitchen – both very focused on our tasks.
Here is Laura before one of the big dinner parties at my home. She is standing with Moises and my housekeeper, Sanu. On the counter are two bisteeya dishes.
Laura always included flowers at every table. Her creativity and talent for setting the most delightful table scapes was unmatched.
Cecilia Butris, who worked at our New York City offices, sits with Laura during an employee luncheon at the farm.
Another great photo of some of my farm staff in 2015 – Ang, Chhewang, Laura, Pete, Chhiring, Phurba, and Wilmer.
Fernando, Laura, and my driver, Andres, pose for this snapshot.
Sanu and Laura picked many almonds on this day. It was a process to pick them by hand into a bucket and remove the outer husks one by one.
Here is Laura serving homemade applesauce, eggs, apples, and warm apple cider.
In my basement, Laura prepares the children’s Easter baskets just before my annual Easter egg hunt and luncheon.
This photo was taken in 2016. Laura is ready to pick the first strawberries of the season.
Every photo of Laura has her smiling. It was infectious. Guests loved greeting her and learning how long she had been working with me. Here she is with another large bowl of her well-loved pomegranate iced-tea.
Laura was always the first to get the blueberries when they were sweet and ready for picking.
Every summer, Laura helped harvest vegetables from the garden. Here she is cleaning one of the beautiful leeks.
And here she is after picking gourds and pumpkins.
Laura also got her hands dirty picking potatoes – she loved to do so many things.
Another staff photo – this one from 2016. Laura loved everyone on our farm crew.
And here is Laura with her grandson, Lucas. Lucas and Laura were extremely close. She was so very proud of his accomplishments.
Whenever you caught her, Laura was always smiling.
Here she is picking currants in front of my greenhouse.
And here she is at the raspberry bushes.
Laura knew where every bowl and napkin was stored – her memory was impeccable.
Here’s another Christmas tree lovingly decorated by Laura.
Lucas and Laura took this photo during the holidays. Never did Laura decorate a room the same way twice – every one was always different.
You would often catch Laura in my Winter House kitchen. Her presence is still felt there.
Here she is with my friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin. They worked on many dinners together.
A wave and a smile from my Winter House door during the porch renovation.
Here she is with Patrick Tierney, a member of my security team.
Back in the basement – this time, organizing my wine cellar.
Our lovely Laura greeting guests during another tour of the gardens.
She always had such a gentle touch. Her grandson, Lucas, captured this photo as Laura held one of the many chicks hatched in my kitchen.
Here she is with my head gardener, Ryan McCallister after a big harvest of squash.
A fall photo with the pumpkins.Laura decorated indoors and out.
And here is Laura at the servery sink, polishing a silver tray.
Laura and Carlos stop for this sweet photo during her retirement party in December 2018.
And here’s another with Enma Sandoval.
And one with Carlos “Dos”. The entire team on my farm is very close.
We all love you, Laura, and will miss you very much. Laura B. Acuna – July 10, 1939 – March 19, 2022.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, we're all very busy preparing for the tub grinder.
During the year, my outdoor grounds crew accumulates a lot of organic debris - logs, stumps, bark, and brush. This year, we also took down many ash trees affected by the Emerald ash borer disease. It's all gathered and either repurposed as milled lumber, wood chips, or left to decay and made into garden dressings, such as mulch and compost. To help with the process, I like to call in a tub grinder once a year or once every two years depending on how much material we need to reduce and recycle. The tub grinder is scheduled to arrive early next week, so it's a race to get everything piled up and ready.
Enjoy these photos.
Here is a view of my compost area – a vital part of my working farm. It’s actually very organized. Piles are divided into types of debris – wood, leaf mold, clippings, and organic matter made up of manure and biodegradable materials. Most of these piles are combined and put through the tub grinder.
The compost area is located in a field behind my “Christmas tree garden,” where I planted 640 Christmas trees 13-years ago – White Pine, Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce. They have all grown so much over the years.
Nearby, behind my storage building is an area used to store our supply of wood, pallets, pots, and other outdoor materials. Domi is cleaning the area and gathering old stakes to the dump truck. Tub grinders are expensive to rent, so it is important to maximize the time it is here.
Whenever trees are taken down, we store them in neat piles, so they are easily accessible for reuse. These old, wet stumps will now be moved to the pile for the tub grinder.
Here is one showing the damage done by the Emerald Ash Borer, also known by the acronym EAB – a green beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds under the bark of ash trees eventually girdling and killing them. The ash borer is responsible for the destruction of tens of millions of ash trees in 30 US states since it was first identified in this country in 2002.
The crew fills the dump truck with stumps and takes them to the tub grinder pile.
Here’s another truck load of unusable wooden stakes on its way.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency good firewood should have a moisture content of below 20-percent in order to burn efficiently on a fire. This wood is too wet, so it will also go to the tub grinding pile.
These logs will NOT go into the tub grinder, but instead be saved for use as fence posts.
Here’s a smaller pile also saved for supporting the fences around the farm.
These straight, long, large logs will be put through a portable sawmill and made into usable lumber boards. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to various sizes. If I cannot save a tree, it is comforting to know I can reuse the wood left behind.
A couple of years ago, I had all different species of wood milled into dimensional lumber. These milled boards are stacked neatly for building projects with small wooden spacers in between each board to help prevent any mildew from developing.
It’s always nice to get everything organized and in its proper place. Plywood boards are saved in another area for future projects.
We also save wooden pallets. These are good for keeping things off the ground when storing. They are also good for transporting items and carrying them with our fork lift.
Another item NOT for the tub grinder – these bricks. These are from my former East Hampton property. When we brought them back to the farm, we transported them to this storage area in my Multi-Purpose Reusable Heavy Duty Tote Bags – they really do hold more than 900-pounds each.
Phurba takes another load of tree stumps to the pile.
According to my outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring, this is the biggest pile we’ve ever had here at the farm. I think he’s right. And it will grow even bigger before the tub grinder arrives.
In another area, we pile up unused rocks from around the farm.
The pile of composting chicken and horse manure, which is filled with nutrients, is smoking – look closely. Healthy organisms in the compost will be active and produce steam even on cold, damp days.
This pile is leaf mold, which is compost produced by the decomposition of shaded deciduous shrub and tree leaves, primarily by fungal breakdown in a slower cooler manner.
And, at one end of the composting area, Phurba pulls a Gore-Tex tarp off one of the compost piles now ready to use in the gardens. These tarps keep the rain away, and allow excess moisture to evaporate and breathe.
These tarps are laid out to dry before they are folded and stored.
And here is what’s underneath the tarps – compost filled with nutrients. My gardens are so successful, in part, because of the excellent soil, amended with compost made right here. I am so pleased we can use our organic debris in so many different ways. I will share lots of great photos of the tub grinder at work in an upcoming blog – be sure to stay tuned.
If you grow fruit trees, the best time to prune them is now - in very early spring, or winter, before any new growth begins.
Pruning not only helps to develop proper shape and form, but it also encourages new growth, promotes high fruit yield, and maintains good tree health. At the farm, I have hundreds of fruit trees. In fact, five years ago I planted an entire orchard surrounding my pool - one with a variety of apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, apricot, pear, medlar, and quince trees. This week, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew pruned and groomed the peach and plum trees. I can't wait until summer, when they are filled with delicious fruits.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
This is the paddock just before I planted my giant orchard of 220-fruit trees in 2017. We planned exactly where all the trees would be planted using twine.
This orchard surrounds three sides of my pool and a purple columnar beech tree hedge. I wanted the trees to be at least 15-feet apart. I am very fortunate to have such an expansive paddock space to grow all these trees.
This photo was taken the following summer. Look at how much they grew. A lot of the success of all my trees here at the farm is due to the nutrient-rich soil.
And here are some of the peach trees last year. These trees have performed wonderfully and are so prolific – we had so many delicious peaches to enjoy last summer.
Some of the peach varieties in this orchard include ‘Garnet Beauty’, ‘Lars Anderson’, ‘Polly’, ‘Red Haven’, and ‘Reliance’. Peach trees thrive in an area where they can soak up the sunshine throughout the day. Peach trees prefer deep sandy well-drained soil that ranges from loam to clay loam.
I take excellent care of all my trees and make sure they are pruned and groomed regularly. This week, Pasang and Brian tackled the rows of peaches and plums – one shaping the trees and the other removing the important “Ds” of pruning – dead, diseased, and damaged branches. On peach trees, fruit grows on one-year-old wood, so a mature tree can be pruned rather extensively – around 40 percent of the tree each year.
I always prefer hand tools that will give my trees a more natural appearance and shape. Smaller twigs are snipped off with regular secateurs. Each member of my outdoor grounds crew has a pair. It’s also very important to use sterilized pruning shears whenever trimming trees, so any diseases cannot be transferred from one specimen to another.
Pasang is an excellent pruner and does a lot of the smaller tree pruning projects at the farm. Here he is shaping the tree and pruning higher branches to help let in light and promote good air circulation.
Pasang uses this STIHL Extended Reach Pruner – one of his favorite pruning tools because it allows him to cut branches with the squeeze of a handle. It is lightweight and has a working reach of seven-feet.
Here is a closer look at the cutting end of the pruner. It has a hard, chrome-plated blade that cuts branches up to .75 inches in diameter.
Another favorite tool is the STIHL lopper. Its aluminum handle measures a full 32-inches and the specially designed cutting head has a cutting capacity of two-inches. Brian likes to use this tool when pruning.
These are the flower buds of the peach. A peach flower bud produces a single flower that can set one fruit. There are many, many flower buds on these peach trees.
This is a dead branch – notice the dark brown wood. Dead branches, or those without any signs of new growth, are cut, so the energy is directed to the branches with fruiting buds.
Branches that are rubbing or crisscrossing are also cut. Basically, the goal is to create a tree with well spaced lateral branches. Any branches which interfere with the tree’s shape or create a dense framework should be removed.
Down below – all the cut branches. There is a lot of pruning to do on these trees – they are healthy and have produced a lot of growth in the last year.
Here, one can see what has already been cut, and what Brian still has left to trim – he’s almost done.
Here are the flower buds of the plum trees. All varieties of plums bloom in late winter to early spring and fruit generally ripens in May through September, depending on the species, cultivar and climate.
Many of the trees are staked and supported with arbor ties. Notice the figure-eight formation. I always teach every member of the crew to twist the twine or tie into a figure eight before knotting, so the tree or vine or cane is not crushed or strangled.
Plum trees are best pruned in a vase format to get a short trunk with several major branches to come off of the trunk at a 45-degree angle. This allows plenty of light and air into the tree.
All the trimmed branches are placed on a tarp for easy and quick clean-up. These branches will be placed in our pile for chipping.
These fruit trees are bare now, but in several weeks, they’ll all be leafed out and flowering again. And come mid to late summer, we’ll have bounties of delicious, organic and sweet fruits to enjoy! I can almost taste them now.
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