I'm always happy to share photos of my pets - so many of you ask about them. They're all doing excellently, including my growing group of lovable cats.
Here at my farm, I have six felines. Three of them reside in my Winter House - my silver shaded Persian Magnolia, my dilute calico Persian Dahlia, and my brown Persian longhair Lilium. Down at my stable are my two young barn cats, Cinco and Mayo. And, in the greenhouse is Blackie, the only male.
Here are some of the latest photos, enjoy.
Magnolia has been with me since January of this year. She has beautiful golden-copper eyes and a friendly disposition.
She’s about three years old and so curious – roaming from room to room, upstairs and downstairs, keeping an eye on everything that goes on.
Here she is looking out the kitchen door. Perhaps she’s wondering where all the dogs went. Cats have a wider field of vision than humans, but need to be closer to see things in the same detail. Felines have much better night vision than humans too.
This beauty is Dahlia. She has captured everyone’s heart here at the farm.
Dahlia loves company and attention. She’s the youngest of the Persians at about one year old.
Dahlia plays hard and sleeps hard. Kittens six months and older, and adult cats, sleep about 16 to 18 hours a day on average. And, kittens have a similar routine to adult cats, napping throughout the day. They are usually most active at dawn and dusk.
The newest to join my Winter House clowder is Lilium. Lilium is about three years old with beautiful facial expressions and markings.
Lilium traveled all the way from Doha, the capital city of Qatar in the Middle East. I adopted Lilium and Magnolia through Rock ‘N Rescue, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Bedford Hills, New York, not far from my farm.
She fits in so nicely with her new “sisters.” She’s independent, confident, and very friendly.
All my cats use PrettyLitter, a special odor controlling, health monitoring gel crystal formula that’s available in clumping and non clumping varieties.
Silica gel crystals absorb moisture through millions of micropores, locking in any odors. The crystals are 100-percent natural, mineral-based and safe for cats. In fact, it’s virtually dust-free, which makes it safe for those with respiratory sensitivities. And, it changes color when a cat has a potential health issue.
This is Cinco, the Calico. Here she is climbing the stone walls outside my stable.
Here’s Mayo, or as she is affectionately called, “May-May.” She will always roll over hoping for a belly rub.
Both Cinco and Mayo, stay around the stable complex under the watchful eye of my stable manager, Helen Peparo, and her crew.
Calico cats have tricolor coats. The calico cat is commonly 25 to 75-percent white with large orange and black patches. And, calicos are almost exclusively female.
Cinco and Mayo were born on March 15, 2024 and arrived here on Cinco de Mayo of the same year. Now at almost a year and a half old, these feline sisters are thriving.
Look closely, tabby cats have a distinctive coat pattern and an “M”-shaped marking on the forehead. The pattern can include stripes, dots, lines, flecks, bands, or swirls on the cat’s body, and the cat may also have stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, back, legs, and tail.
These two are never far apart. At the end of the day, or when it is too cold outside, one can find them here in the feed room where they have many toys and beds.
And here’s Blackie, my greenhouse cat. Every day he makes his rounds, saying hi to everyone he sees. Blackie loves people and is always ready for a good scratch behind the ears.
At night he’s back indoors guarding the greenhouse from any and all small furred intruders.
Here he is taking a nap after a long, busy day on the prowl. I’m so glad all my cats are happy and healthy. I hope yours are doing well this summer too.
Here at my farm we're picking lots of wonderful and nutritious produce from the garden.
Earlier this week, my head gardener Ryan McCallister harvested a bounty of vegetables - beans, artichokes, peppers, eggplants, carrots, onions, and more. And, we also picked nearly a bushel of peaches - that's almost 50-pounds of delicious, sweet fruits. A lot goes in to growing all these foods, including selecting the right plants, preparing the soil, watering, weeding, and staking if needed. Ryan and I check the beds every day. It's so rewarding to then see all that comes out of a well-tended garden - and there's still more to come.
Enjoy these photos.
After any harvest, the freshly picked fruits and vegetables are loaded up and brought to my flower room, where they can be washed if needed, then bagged and stored in the refrigerator. It makes me so happy to be able to share all of this produce with friends and family every summer.
Here’s the season’s first big bounty of cucumbers. Cucumbers, Cucumis sativus, are great for pickling – I try to find time for pickling every year. I like them best when they are about six to eight inches in length. These will be so sweet and juicy.
There are also a lot of beans. Beans grow best in full sun and moist soil. Bush beans are among the top most popular vegetables in home gardens. Bush beans are eaten when the seeds are small. They are also called string beans because of a fibrous string running the length of the pod.
Ryan picks a few handfuls of beans, but there are still so many growing on the vines. They can continually produce throughout the season with the proper care. In general, bush beans are ready in about 45 to 50 days if the weather is right.
There are two types of green beans. Pole beans grow on climbing vines and require trellising. Bush beans like these grow on bushes up to two feet and do not need support. Bean pods can be green, yellow, purple, or even speckled with red!
Next, Ryan checks the bell pepper bed. Peppers hold up great in the heat, and we’ve had a lot of warm days, so there should be some good, flavorful peppers.
Peppers always do well in my garden. Here’s one of many just picked.
Sweet bell peppers are popular in the garden – all grassy in flavor and crunchy in texture. I love making stuffed peppers – so easy and so delicious.
My crew loves hot peppers, and I grow many of them to share. Jalapeño peppers thrive in full sun and are ready to pick when they are firm, green, and about three inches long. This one looks ready.
The globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus, is actually a flower bud, which is eaten when tender. Buds are generally harvested once they reach full size, just before the bracts begin to spread open.
When harvesting artichokes, cut off the bud along with about three inches of stem.
Artichoke harvest starts in late July or early August and continues well until frost.
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.
I planted a lot of white, yellow and red onions. Ryan picked these, but there will be a bigger onion harvest soon.
Here are some of this year’s red onions.
We have such beautiful carrots this season. Most are familiar with the orange carrots, but they also come in red, yellow, white, and purple. I like to grow an assortment.
So many tomatoes are developing on the vines, but they’re not ready just yet. Most tomato plant varieties need between 50 and 90 days to mature. Planting can also be staggered to produce early, mid and late season tomato harvests.
And then it was a walk to the orchard. My orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. Most of the fruits are not yet ready to pick, but many of the peaches are ripe and sweet. And all the peach trees are filled with bright pink fruits.
If the peach is firm to the touch, it’s not ready. It’s ripe when there is some “give” as it is gently squeezed.
It’s always so much fun to harvest the “fruits of our labor.” I hope all your gardens are just as productive as mine.
After days of hot, humid weather with temperatures in the high 80s and 90s, we're finally getting a brief respite here at the farm - a noticeably cooler day in the 70s with a little less humidity.
My crew is always busy. Once a week, I create very detailed lists of all that needs to be done. Right now, the focus is on pruning the trees and boxwood shrubs, grooming the roses, weeding the garden beds, harvesting peaches and vegetables, mulching, and most importantly, watering.
Enjoy these photos.
It takes a lot of close monitoring to stay on top of our watering tasks this time of year. We’ve had sporadic showers and thunderstorms, but sometimes they’re just not enough to keep all the gardens well irrigated.
One of my favorite sources for watering is Gilmour, a Madison, Wisconsin-based company. I use several of their products at my New York farm and at Skylands, my home in Maine. Mornings are the best times to water – when water pressure is high, evaporation is low, and the soil can absorb the water before the sun heats up the ground.
I keep the sprinklers near the hoses, so they’re always readily available. And when not in use, they are neatly rolled up near the hose bib.
Among the many summer chores is mulching. Here is Chhiring mulching the tree pits under my majestic pin oak trees. The pin oak allée is the first allée guests see when entering my farm. These trees are tall and impressive.
And do you follow me on Instagram @MarthaStewart48? I’ve had such an excellent peach season – lately, I’ve been picking peaches every day. Here’s Enma picking more.
In no time – Enma and Andres pick trays and trays of sweet, delicious fruits.
Behind my greenhouse, I have a 68-foot by 30-foot rose bed that includes floribunda, hybrid tea, and shrub roses – all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance. Matthew is pruning and grooming each bush. This time of year, I like to prune them lightly and selectively to shape the bushes and control any unwanted growth.
Not far, Phurba gets all his needed gear to prune the boxwood allée shrubs. It’s a huge task to prune all the boxwood. Phurba is my resident boxwood pruning expert. He has been with me for many years.
Here he is cutting and shaping one of the shrubs. One can see the newest growth. Phurba keeps the shears close to him with his hands midway down the handles. This allows the best control.
And occasionally he stops to sharpen the blades – it’s important to keep tools in their best condition to get the best results.
In the vegetable garden, Cesar helps to secure the growing tomato vines to the bamboo supports using jute twine.
Meanwhile, Ryan harvests some beans – it’s also a very good bush bean season.
There’s more pruning down behind my chicken coops. Pasang is working on the row of hawthorns. I planted these in 2020 and they’ve done very well here. Hawthorns, Crataegus, commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae.
But beware, this tree is also known as cockspur thorn because it sports numerous long, sharp thorns along its trunk and horizontal branches. A grouping of these trees makes an excellent protective barrier or living fence.
Here’s Chhiring spreading compost around the Little Darling® Lilacs recently planted from the wholesale nursery Monrovia.
I am fortunate to be able to make such excellent compost here at my farm – weed free and so nutrient-rich.
It’s also important that the animals are well hydrated in this warm weather. Here’s Truman “TJ” Junior taking a refreshing drink under the shade of the giant pines.
Here’s Jimmy walking my Friesian, Geert, back to the stable for grooming and a meal.
Clive is waiting patiently for his dinner. Don’t worry, Clive, it’s coming soon.
Around the farm, much of the detritus from the gardens is hauled away using the dump trucks or these Polaris off-road vehicles, always so handy and durable. it’s never a dull moment here at my farm, but my hardworking crew is getting it all done!
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